ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The maker of the notorious Willie Horton ad that rocked the 1988 presidential race asked a federal judge Monday to release President Clinton's videotaped Whitewater testimony, prompting an angry White House response.
``Tell him to go back and crawl back under the rock that he came from,'' White House spokesman Mike McCurry said when asked about Floyd Brown's request for the videotape. ``He is personally responsible for some of the sleaziest politics that this nation has ever seen.''
A transcript of Clinton's testimony at the Arkansas trial of his former Whitewater partners was released last week when jurors heard it. But presidential aides want the videotape kept under wraps to prevent Republicans from using it in television ads this election year.
Brown, chairman of a conservative group called Citizens United, held a news conference to announce he was seeking public release of the videotape.
``Bill Clinton's attempt to keep his testimony in the Whitewater trial from being publicly aired shows that he is absolutely paranoid about his testimony,'' Brown said in a press release. ``If ... he and Hillary did absolutely nothing wrong in regards to Whitewater, why can't the American people watch him say so under oath?''
In 1988, Brown produced the controversial ad about Horton, a convicted murderer who escaped while on furlough from a Massachusetts prison and raped a woman. The ad blamed then-Gov. Michael Dukakis for Horton's release, damaging Dukakis campaign against then-Vice President George Bush and setting a new benchmark for negative political campaigning.
Brown has dogged Clinton about alleged ethical violations in his past.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB