Barr sees possibility of House managers' sweep

Human Events, Oct 6, 2000

Georgia Republican Would Probe Chinese Influence, Says Clinton Wagged Dog in Iraq

Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.) believes it is now possible that all 11 House impeachment managers seeking reelection to the House this year will be victorious in November. But such a sweep will be achieved only if he and Rep. Jim Rogan (R.-Calif.), who have become the prime targets of state and national Democratic organizations, can hold off extraordinarily well-funded Democratic challengers.

As David Worley, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party recently told a reporter, Barr "is the one most Democrats would like to see gone first."

A clean sweep by the impeachment managers would repudiate the notion-repeated ad nauseam by network talking heads during the impeachment crisis-that the heroic action of the House Republican majority in enforcing the Constitution against the Clinton White House would result in an electoral disaster for the GOP.

In their obsession to defeat Barr, Georgia Democrats went so far as to import a millionaire across state lines. Candidate Roger Kahn, who moved from Florida only two years ago, is, according to the New York Times, "spending his own money freely" in the crusade to oust the most well-known Republican proponent of impeachment.

A former liquor distributor and chairman of PGA Golf Radio, Kahn recently bought a mansion in Buckhead, a wealthy neighborhood on the north side of Atlantawhich is not in Barr's 7th District-and a cattle ranch in rural Bartow County, which is.

Because of the conservative nature of Georgia's 7th District, Kahn has pursued an unusual strategy for a Democrat running against one of the most solidly conservative members of Congress. He has declared himself a conservative, too-and professes to admire Barr's initiative in impeaching Clinton.

"What the President did was loathsome and damaging to the children of our country," Kahn told the Associated Press. "I don't take anything away from Bob Barr's efforts to impeach the President. My concern was that he should have been working on Social Security, education, traffic congestion and urban sprawl."

Barr goodnaturedly scoffs at such rhetoric, amused at the notion that the Democrats would try to make him into a "Gerald Ford" type character who can't chew gum and impeach a President at the same time.

"The Democrats at the state level, from the governor on down, as well as the folks down at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, clearly would love to see me out of there and are targeting the 7th District," Barr said in a September 19 interview with the editors of HuMAN EvENTs. "Now they're doing it in a smart way from a financial standpoint. Rather than put up their own money, they sought out and found a candidate with substantial resources of his own and a willingness to put them in the race so they don't have to."

Barr said he thinks the Republicans can eke out a narrow national victory in November to maintain control of Congress, which will put the party in good position to make solid gains in the 2002 midterm elections.

"I think it'll be very, very tight," Barr said when asked if Republicans would maintain their House majority. "Some of the races won't be decided until the next day, but I think we will. I think it'll continue to be very close, but a two-seat margin is still a two-seat majority. If we can just get through this election-and I think we will, and we'll be essentially where we are now-I think we stand to make significant gains in two years."

Here is what Barr had to say about other issues:

His constituents' concerns with the GOP's national campaign.

"Very similar to, not quite as bad, but very similar to the last couple of election cycles. They don't see a strong commitment to principles. They don't see a strong agenda. They don't see a clear vision. They see the party just sort of wandering around. And that worries them."

Washington Post report that Senate Majority Leader Trent Loft (R.-Miss.) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.) formed "a tacit alliance against House managers with a single goal: mutual survival:' ."It wasn't just tacit. It was an express alliance to set up a mechanism that guaranteed the defeat of the impeachment trial effort in the Senate."

David Schippers' book, Sellout-The Inside Story of the Clinton Impeachment.

"Very accurate."

Is cleaning up the Justice Department a good campaign issue?

"I think so. I think it appeals to a lot of independents. A lot of independents may not agree with us completely on the substantive agenda of the Republican Party-presuming for the moment there is one-but they would agree with us that there is something deeply wrong, they have a tremendous sense of unease, about what has -happened to the Department of Justice.

"The average citizen knows that if you corrupt the Department of Justice, you have corrupted the core of the entire fabric of the government, and they're very concerned about that, and we ought to make it an issue."

Can Gore name an honest attorney general given that FBI Director Louis Freeh wants him criminally investigated?