Clinton addresses mation's newest problems

Clinton addresses nation's newest problems
Troy Hooper - Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Fri 07/07/2006 10:01PM MST
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20060707/AE/60707005

Back in Aspen, former President Bill Clinton sounded off on a multitude of problems confronting the nation Friday that included disease, destruction and Karl Rove.

As for Rove, who is scheduled to speak at the Aspen Institute on Sunday, Clinton didn't hold back when Atlantic Monthly national correspondent James Fallows asked him what one question he would ask President Bush's highly controversial political operative.

Always the overachiever, Clinton didn't invent just one question he would ask Rove, he came up with three. The 42nd president said he most wanted to know what Rove would do had Clinton's senior advisor blown the cover of a CIA agent who happened to be married to the man who refused to falsify findings about nuclear transactions taking place between Niger and Iraq (see Valerie Plame). And he openly wondered whether Rove would instruct Republican congressmen to call a White House official who would do such a thing a traitor. Lastly, Clinton wanted to know why it is that, if the Bush administration is as concerned with national security as it claims, why it would spend 20 times the amount of money it would take to shore up gaps in port security to repeal the estate tax for the nation's elite, which consists of less than one percent of the population.

Speaking to the first question he'd ask Rove, Clinton said; "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he'd say that's exactly what I'd ask (Congress) to do, and I don't know why they didn't. I mean this guy is good. You don't understand this strip of the Republican party that controls everything basically," Clinton said. "These people are all white Protestant males. They don't do anything that surprises me. I've seen this my whole life."

Clinton, who routinely makes trips to Aspen for a blend of business and pleasure, also offered up ideas on the potential threats posed by North Korea and Iran. The former, he described as "a perplexing country because they can't make rice but they can make missiles and bombs and things. When they do these things, they want someone to notice them. They don't get noticed unless they disobey (authority like children)," he said. "I don't want to minimize this. It's a bad thing they have reached this level of technology. But I don't think we should reward their misconduct. I think we ought to not overreact to this. I don't think we need to freak out." Iran is harder. "If they develop nuclear capacity and whether or not by accident or by design some of the material is given to terrorists groups, (they could make) smaller explosives that could kill lots and lots of people. There is no option but to negotiate."

He added: "This whole thing that there are some people we shouldn't talk to because they're bad is nuts. I don't think Americans should put too many preconditions on talks with the Iranians. We shouldn't try to cook it too much in advance. I also think it would be a matter of serious consequence to think we can attack them militarily."

Clinton also said there should be no set date on when to withdraw troops from Iraq, and he cautioned Democrats from fighting with each other over the topic. "We ought to be whipped if we allow our differences over what to do now over Iraq divide us," he said, saying that the Republicans, via Rove's advice, are trying to win offices with stale but emotionally driven issues such as flag burning and gay marriage.

The former president also said that the problems of AIDS and global warming have, in his view, changed since he left office. He credited the Bush administration for financing efforts to stomp out AIDS, saying his nonprofit organization, the Clinton Foundation, has worked hand-in-hand with some of the president's program.

Clinton also saw his former Vice President Al Gore's new film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," and "thought it was terrific. I loved it. But I don't think it would be nearly as compelling if we didn't have $70 (barrels) of oil, do you?" He went on to say that global warming is "a lot worse than I thought it was when I was in office" and that there are many opportunities, which Britain has embraced, to use environmental sustainability to drive up wages, lower unemployment and increase the nation's quality of life.

"They (Britain) took climate change seriously and because of that they created hundreds of thousands of jobs by creating new clean energy in the future. This decade's new jobs are in clean energy and we haven't seized them," he said.

hoop@aspendailynews.com

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Justices share thoughts at Ideas Festival
Rocky Mountain News, CO - Jul 6, 2006
... Breyer and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took part in a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Breyer explained ...
O'Connor, Breyer preside over GrassRoots TV studio session Aspen Times
Justices discuss Guantanamo, independence and skirts Aspen Daily News

Results 1 - 10 of about 173 for Aspen Ideas Festival.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and current Justice Stephen Breyer tossed aside the gavels and robes Thursday to talk current affairs in the GrassRoots TV studio.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20060707/NEWS/107070055

PBS talk show host Aaron Harber was in town for the Aspen Ideas Festival, grabbing as many people he could for interviews on his self-titled talk show. They talked in the small studio about what issues the Supreme Court and the judicial branch face today.

Harber asked to use the studio, and GrassRoots granted his request so long as the station could air the shows recorded in Aspen. GrassRoots TV executive director John Masters was thrilled and said Aspen is one of the few communities that has opportunities such as this.

"This does not happen at any other community TV station in the country," Masters said. "It's so unpretentious. It's kind of funky. It's very different than going into a big television studio."

The justices talked about life behind the bench - not just for them, but for the entire judicial system.

"It isn't fair for a judge to be influenced by politics" or corrupted, O'Connor said. The job of judges isn't to pander to opinions - even popular ones - but "to decide the case according to the Constitution of the United States."

But Breyer cautioned people not to judge their adjudicators in haste, as they are made of the same flesh under those robes.

"Judges, too, are capable of errors," Breyer said.

Breyer and O'Connor also talked about some of the system's flaws, especially with civil suits. Frivolous lawsuits and outrageous damage awards are common, but it's not necessarily something judges can fix. Instead, laws need to curtail those problems.

"These are legislative decisions to be made, not judicial ones," O'Connor said.

Breyer strongly advocated balance to maintain justice. Judges shouldn't have too much power in a courtroom, but neither should a plaintiff.

"I don't believe it should be all power to the lawyers, I don't believe it should be all power to the judge," Breyer said.

Breyer and O'Connor are speaking at various ideas festival forums, and Masters said they won't be the only festival figures on the station's programming. GrassRoots is also taping many of the sessions to air throughout the summer.

The point of airing the forums and interviews is to expand people's access to information - essential to the First Amendment, Masters said. GrassRoots aired 55 forums from last year's festival, he said.

"There's a lot of folks in the valley that aren't going to be able to see these people at the Ideas Festival," Masters said. "People should be able to see these long-form interviews."

Plus, the unimposing studio and laid-back atmosphere in Aspen can make for more candid interviews.

"We get to see them as human beings," Masters said.

Greg Schreier's e-mail address is gschreier@aspentimes.com

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