| WASHINGTON
- January 28 - As the Senate trial of President Clinton continues, here are
the perspectives of some analysts -- available for interviews -- outside the crossfire of Republicans and White House allies.
TED GLICK, (973) 338-5398, indpol@igc.org,
http://www.zmag.org/krummglick.htm
The national coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, Glick said: "We hear a lot about polls and what
people think of Clinton and the Republicans, but how many people feel that neither party truly offers a genuine choice worth
voting for? This country desperately needs an independent, grassroots movement of the people, those who don't vote (over
half the population) and those who do while holding their noses. If the impeachment morass helps to generate a political
development of this type, it will have been well worth the trauma of the last 12 months."
BARBARA REYNOLDS, (301) 899-1341
"Thinking about the moral dimension, this has put the country in a lose-lose situation," said Reynolds, a minister and
longtime journalist. She added: "We will pay for this devaluation of the presidency and our sacred institutions, like marriage.
People will excuse their own behavior by saying the president does it. But the other side has shown no mercy. Both sides are
fighting for their advantage, but neither is fighting for the common good."
ELLEN MILLER, (202) 293-0222, emiller@publicampaign.org,
www.publicampaign.org
"Today's Congress is yet another reflection of the power of an electoral system driven by too much special interest money,"
said Ellen Miller, executive director of Public Campaign, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working on behalf of
comprehensive campaign finance reform. "Nearly 95 percent of House and Senate races were won by the candidate with the biggest
war chest, and nearly all of them were incumbents. As with past elections, the biggest source of this campaign cash was a tiny
elite mostly representing business interests, including Wall Street, bankers, tobacco, insurance and real estate companies."
BILL GROVER, (802) 654-2463, (802) 879-1474, wgrover@smcvt.edu
Chair of the political science department at St. Michael's College and author of the book "The President as Prisoner" and
co-editor of "Voices of Dissent: Critical Readings in American Politics," Grover said: "There are dozens of reasons why Clinton
is a moral midget, but a fling with Monica Lewinsky is among the more trivial. To convict him for this is to compound tragedy with
farce. Some argue that the trial has `taken away from the important work of the country' -- as if the Senate and House were
poised to pass legislation that was going to help ordinary Americans. Given what Clinton and the Republicans have in store
for the nation in terms of public policy, we may well be better off with them tied up in knots."
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