European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday tuesday july 4/5,1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 21defense fund awkward but Clinton s Best bet Mike Feinsilber hat in hand comes the president. He is turning to the Public for help with his lawyer Bills and that puts Bill Clinton in a league with such other supplicants Srichard Nixon Oliver North Bob pack Wood Dan Rostenkowski and Alfunse do Amato. _ they too depended on the kindness of strangers to help them Cope with Legal expenses after coming under ethical investigation. The president is in a Pickle. He needs the Money but it is awkward for him to have to ask for it. A it s unfortunate a says Harvard ethics professor. Pennis f. Thompson. A unseemly and undignified a says Charles Lewis who runs the Center for Public integrity in Washington. A it makes him seem something less than we think of As the president a says Politi cat scientist Charles o. Jones of the Brookings institution. But they also say setting up a Legal defense fund a As the White House announced that Clinton will do r is the Best solution to a bad situation. Turning to a few fat cats to pay the presidents Legal expenses would be worse says Lewis. And deferring payment until Clinton leaves the White House and earns a few million dollars Selling his memoirs i another idea considered and rejected a would have put the chief executive in debt to a Law firm that might have dealings with his administration. Asking his lawyers to give him a Cut rate would have raised fresh ethical and tax questions. The problem arises because the Clinton whose income last year was under $300,000, could face Legal Bills estimated around $2 million More than their net Worth. Clinton has been sued by Paula Corbin Jones for alleged sexual harassment. She says that As governor of Arkansas and thus her Boss he tried to entice her into a sexual Liaison in a hotel room in 1991. Robert Bennett Clinton a Washington lawyer argued in Federal court in Little Rock ark., that a president should not be subject to a civil suit while in office because a lawsuit a would impermissible distract a president from his Public duties to the nations detriment. The Maneu Werings could keep Jones Case from being tried for years. Meantime the lawyers meters will be ticking. Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton also need lawyers to Deal with the investigations springing from their Arkansas investments. But the government will defray some of those costs it is not unusual for a top drawer lawyer in Washington d.c., to charge $450 an hour. In two weeks he can earn More than the average family makes in a year. _ to allay the appearance that contributors to a Clinton defense fund expect something in return the White House said gifts will be limited to $1,000 and the names of donors will be made Public. The president still comes off looking like a supplicant. And the creation of a fund puts him in company with ethical defendants past and present he would probably prefer hot to be associated with. A fan rabbi Baruch Korff raised hundreds of thousands of dollars after Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974 to Deal with citizen lawsuits and with Nixon a Battle to Block Public Access to his tapes and papers. A Legal defense funds have similarly helped lots of Washington figures including North who fought perjury charges in the Iran Contra affair sen. Packwood r-ore., battling the sexual misconduct charges under investigation by the Senate ethics committee and sen. Do Amato r-n.y., combating corruption charges. One was recently set up to assist rep. Rostenkowski d-ill., under indictment for financial Misbehaviour. Still everyone is entitled to a lawyer. If Clinton needs a powerful lawyer says Thompson it May be because the stakes Are High his future and the nations will be affected. Given the situation arid Given Clinton s limited Means Thompson says the Best outcome would be if lots of Ordinary people who support Clinton give him Small amounts la. A i Hope that Ordinary people will understand that he is in this problem because he a More like us than some other presidents have been a he said. C the associated press Ion in two Hundred years ago this Independence Day Western Pennsylvania was acting altogether too Independent. It was up in arms and jeopardizing what had been accomplished in Eastern Pennsylvania at the constitutional convention seven years earlier. This Independence Day let us remember the whiskey rebellion with its interesting echoes. In Exchange for Alexander Hamiltons agreement to a National capital where Washington now is Thomas jct Ferson and James Madison agreed to Federal Assumption of state debts. An excise tax on whiskey was considered the least objectionable Means of financing Assumption. The initial grievances of people near the coast were palliate by reductions of the tax but the West across the Allegheny mountains was a assuaged. Out there folks did no to Cotton to tax collectors. And As to the theory that the Cost of the tax could be bumped along to Consumers Well the tax was collected at the still and owners of stills often were Consumers there being few other amusements at hand. Furthermore currency was scarce so whiskey sometimes served As currency. And because canals were few and roads were problematic it was difficult getting Grain to Market in bulk so Grain was turned into something More transportable whiskey. Taxing this Staple proved that taxation with representation was not much More tolerable than taxation without. It was unfair for several reasons said these Early populists. Some Large distillers who could pay the tax More easily than their Small rivals rather liked it. Today some Large corporations accept government burdens that will cripple their smaller competitors and the westerners Felt they were being taxed to fatten the purses of Eastern speculators who had bought at a discount the state debts the Federal government was paying off with the whiskey tax. And what were the westerners getting for their taxes the Federal government had neither removed the Indian menace nor pried Spain a grip off the Mississippi. Westerners like most americans most of the time Ever since wanted government to do More and Cost less. Law abiding westerners trembled. James Flexner George Washington a biographer writes a the inhabitants of the Little Metropolis of Pittsburgh a 200 houses 150 built of logs a were in terror that their town would be sacked by the wild men of the  with reason. A wealthy Friend of the presidents John Neville who first opposed the tax and then agreed to help collect it had his nouse burned. Soldiers arrived a Man was killed and the soldiers were routed. Soon stills whose owners paid the tax were being perforated with bullets and government agents were being tarred and feathered and even seared with hot Irons which was somewhat severe even for tax collectors. But rough Justice was in character for the insurgents who were stiff necked scotch Irish presbyterians. America would see their likes again in Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson. Excise men had been familiar afflictions Back in Scot George f. Will land and Ulster. Stanley Elkins and trip Mckitrick in their magisterial the age of federalism write with Nice delicacy that a excise men not of very High character anyway had come to serve As acceptable objects for social  a scotch Irish congressman James Jackson who understood the ravenous Ness of government warned the House of representatives a the time will come when a shirt shall not be washed without an  excise taxes frequently Are fixed upon the enjoyments of the portion of the people least nimble at Fina gling exemptions. The tax on whiskey spared the effete Eastern upper crust that went on sipping untaxed wines. It is Ever thus today cigarettes Are not Only anathema sized by government they May soon be burdened by a whopping excise tax increase evidence that the Middle and upper classes have decided smoking is de class and that smoking is increasingly a habit of the lower orders. In 1794, one rattled resident of Pittsburgh a where the Gazette was reporting the nastiness of the French revolution and some rebels were banding the word. A a Guillotine a warned that the rebels would become a devouring torrent. Back then when gun control meant Felling a wild Turkey at 200 Yards militias embodied popular sovereignty. The militias that pacified Western Pennsylvania put a Stop for a while to Loose talk about the local nullification of National Laws and to murmurings about secession. Pennsylvania would not know such excitement until the first week of july 69 years later when armed men again revisited the issues of Federal sovereignty at Gettysburg c Washington Post