Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408290012
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Now heading up some obscure but doubtless well-financed think tank, Roberts has taken a break from weaving rationales for why supply-side theory was not, in fact, discredited, to toy with political fantasy no less pernicious than the economic fantasy he indulged in during the Reagan years.
In an opinion piece published on today's Commentary page, he joins the ranks of the right-wing conspiracy theorists, a malevolent bunch intent on bringing down the Clinton administration by accusing it of nothing less than murder, without letting details such as evidence or minimum standards of fair discourse get in the way.
Indeed, a former congressman in California is circulating a letter suggesting that Clinton may be involved in a number of murder conspiracies. "Since President Clinton had a direct or indirect contact with these people who have died, it raises the very serious question of whether he is involved, directly or indirectly, in their deaths," he wrote, without a smidgen of evidence. An obscene videotape sold by the Rev. Jerry Falwell insinuates much the same.
The problem with the thesis that White House aide Vincent Foster was murdered is that it is contradicted by the investigation of his death by law-enforcement authorities. This problem for the Clinton-haters was compounded when Whitewater special prosecutor Robert Fiske came to the same conclusion: that a depressed Foster had committed suicide.
No matter. To those who won't take suicide for an answer, Fiske must have been part of the cover-up.
Never mind that the experienced Republican prosecutor's integrity has never been questioned before.
Never mind that, prompted by rumormongering, Fiske had reasonably reopened the investigation into Foster's death, interviewing scores of witnesses and hiring his own pathologists, who thoroughly re-examined all the evidence and conducted extensive laboratory work and forensic analysis.
Roberts would rather rely on the recollections of a certain CW, recounted on, of all places, Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy's radio talk show! Talk about a conspiracy expert.
If we are to believe Roberts' considered speculation, CW discovered Foster's body sans gun 45 minutes before police found a gun in his dead hand.
OK. Work with us here. The conspirators killed Foster, left his body, then later slapped their foreheads upon realizing they'd forgotten to leave the gun in his hand. Right?
So they returned, planted the gun, then left for the White House to hatch further plots - only to be foiled later by the Hercule Poirot-like tenacious gray cells of America's forces of justice, including Rush Limbaugh and Paul Craig Roberts.
We can imagine one person who might stage an operation of the sort alleged. But Liddy's no longer in government.
by CNB