CLINTON CRITICS PLAN COUNTERLIBRARY TO MOCK HIS LEGACY
| Sunday, July 27, 2003 NEWS 08A By David Hammer |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A few blocks from the site of former President Clinton's planned presidential library, a couple of Clinton haters hope to open a museum devoted to mocking him.
"As long as he's talking, we'll have to be here trying to keep him somewhat honest and stop him from rewriting history,'' said John LeBoutillier, a one-term Republican congressman from New York who rode Ronald Reagan's coattails to victory in 1980.
LeBoutillier and his partner, Richard Erickson, plan to call it the Counter-Clinton Library. They said the museum here and one planned for Washington will look at such topics as Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, last-minute pardons, even damaged White House furniture.
"We already hear he's going to bring a bunch of egghead economists to his library to say how great the economy was when he was president,'' LeBoutillier said. "And we'll find our own who can say it had nothing to do with him.''
The two partners hope to open their place the same day that Clinton's opens in November 2004. They said they will need $5 million. LeBoutillier said thousands of donations have come in, averaging $72. He would not say how much has been raised so far.
Dick Morris, a Clinton strategist who resigned in a sex scandal, has pledged insider documents, as has Gary Aldrich, a former FBI agent who wrote a best seller about Clinton's scandals.
"We think people will want to come out of the Clinton Library and head immediately down the street to us to get the rest of the story,'' LeBoutillier said.
Clinton has said that his presidency is being obscured and that his library will set the record straight.
The designer of the Clinton museum, Ralph Appelbaum, said the place will deal with Clinton's impeachment, but also will focus on how Clinton policies smoothed the political and technological transition into the 21st century and fostered economic growth.
LeBoutillier said Clinton's library needs rebuttal in a way that other ex-presidents' libraries don't.
"Reagan, Nixon, that's the past,'' he said.
"The problem is Clinton's still young, he's the most powerful force in Democratic politics and he would like nothing more than to erase the past so he can return to the White House with Hillary.''
Skip Rutherford, president of the foundation paying for Clinton's library, said he had hoped for a political cease-fire.
"The haters don't have to like or agree with Clinton, but they need to acknowledge that only 43 men have done this -- reached the pinnacle,'' he said.
"I think they need to move on with their lives.''