AL KRULICK
FOR CONGRESS

As much as I've tried to run this campaign on the issues that directly impact the voters of this district and nation, there has been a distinct lack of interest and coverage by the various media on the core issues of this race, whether it be my platform, or indeed that of my opponent. What legislation Bill McCollum has proposed, sponsored, or voted on is as little covered as my usually diametrically-opposed views. No, what has been covered is Monica, Monica, Monica. Indeed, if only 5% of the media attention given to Monicagate had been given to the candidates and their stand on the issues, the people would have had a rare opportunity to make their election decisions based on facts, voting records, and political philosophies.

Until recently, I have chosen to leave my opinions on the President's personal behavior, and the Congressional response to it, out of the race. This is not what the people have been asking me about, nor has it taken my focus off the real, day-to-day, pocketbook concerns that have impelled me into this race. However, two facets of this Washington soap-opera are being driven home by the media and its incessant polling: the vast majority of the American people, about two-thirds, have consistently been against the resignation or impeachment of President Clinton, and an equal percentage give him a positive job approval rating. Most people (including myself) disapprove of the President's personal behavior, but feel that his actions do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses. Most people (including myself) feel: censure the President... and move on. Despite this, the Republican-majority Congress has obsessed on Monicagate and has missed no opportunity to embarrass the President or maximize potential political damage. However, the people have seen through this, as attested to by the polls.

Some have suggested that this election will be a referendum on the Clinton presidency. Would that it were so direct. Ralph Nadar has stated that it is not too late to reprint all ballots to give the voters an actual referendum vote on this matter: should Clinton resign, should he be impeached, censured, or forgiven. And why not have a real nationwide referendum? The sole rationale for Bill McCollum and the Republicans releasing, without having read, tons of salacious and irrelevant material was the "public's right to know." And why would the public need to know all this much detail, unless they were expected to make their opinions felt. After all, Congress abrogated its own responsibility to review and judiciously consider the accuracy, relevance, and appropriateness of the testimony, allegations, and recommendations reported by the Independent Counsel before dumping it's one-sided case in the public's lap. Maybe we should dispense with Congress altogether and let the Government Printing Office and the Internet make available all relevant information on every possible issue--health care, education, social security, etc.--and let the people vote directly by mail, phone, or computer. Perhaps then, polls will actually mean something.

But, then, again, the founding fathers were hesitant to enable direct democracy. That's why we have a representative democracy. Or what SHOULD be a representative democracy. The founders assumed that an involved electorate, informed by a vigorous, free press, would keep the elected and appointed officials' feet to the fire. Unfortunately, the citizen voters, convinced that their representatives are not listening to them but, rather, to the wealthy special interests who line their campaign coffers, have become disengaged from the process. As Yogi Berra would say, they are staying away from the voting booths in droves. This lets highly-motivated minority segments of society--NRA members, evangelicals, right-to-lifers--have disproportionate sway in elections, and hence in the resulting legislatures.

And the media, rather than informing the people on the issues and the public actions of their representatives, titillate and pander to the basest emotions. After all, gossip sells, and civic issues are boring. While every pompous, self-righteous pronouncement of the Judiciary Committee leadership was being played and replayed, scant if any attention was being given to dangerous and inimical legislation being rushed through Congress without adequate debate or public awareness. Indeed, riders and amendments have been added to bills so stealthily, even most of the representatives themselves, mired down as they are with these sideshow diversions, are not aware of the hidden timebombs they are passing. In midnight sessions, with rules waived, they legislate away more and more of our precious rights, freedoms, and protections. We are distracting ourselves to death, while we go on watching pundits and spinmeisters engage in oral sex... or what today's TV-bred children are assuming oral sex must be... that is, talking about sex!

In this country, in this election, we will not be surprised if one-third of those qualified to vote do so. In this country, in this election, we are not surprised that dozens of Congressional races are going uncontested. Nor are we surprised that in contested races incumbents have 30 to 50 times the available campaign monies of their challengers. And we are not surprised when incumbents win 95% of those races. We are not surprised when House races cost millions of dollars, and Senate races cost tens of millions of dollars. Where does this money come from? Where does it go? Between January 1997 and June of this year, Bill McCollum disbursed about one-third of a million dollars of his campaign warchest. Does anyone know what it was spent on? Surely, it couldn't have been to defeat little ol' me! I am realistic enough to know that my chances of winning are as slim as any other challenger, about 5%. That I received even 33% of the vote in the last election without any of the advantages of the incumbent should be seen as no small feat. Take away the institutionalized inequalities of PAC money access, media exposure, and gerrymandered districts that favor incumbents, and maybe this race would be fair. But it's not fair, and we will probably see Bill McCollum and 95% of the incumbents being returned to Washington.

And that means returning a Republican Congress that will continue to ignore the will of the majority of Americans who want their representatives to work for THEIR best welfare, not to grant the wishes of the special interests who have paid the piper, nor further the agenda of the highly-partisan leaders such as Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey and Trent Lott who have decided they must bring down a Democrat president, no matter what the financial or social cost.

If one thing is certain about returning Bill McCollum to Congress, it is that he will obey Newt and vote to impeach President Clinton. He has as much as said so. He has said "If the President lied under oath, that deserves impeachment." And he has said he believes that the President has lied under oath. Therefore, a vote for Bill McCollum is a guaranteed vote for impeachment.

My position is more in line with the vast majority of the American people: based on what we all now know, and not even taking into account the right of the President to confront his accusers and present his own side of the case, unless some new, unreported and indisputable crime is revealed that truly rises to the level of "bribery, treason or other high crimes and misdemeanors," I would, as the Representative from Florida's 8th District, vote to censure Bill Clinton for behavior that has demeaned the office of the President... and then move on. Move on to tackle the important issues that people want addressed.

In effect, since it is unlikely that the voters will be able to directly vote on this matter, and since the media will not let this election be about the important issues that truly distinguish the candidates, I challenge the voters in this district to use this race as the referendum the media says it is. If the polls are to be believed, if everyone voted for me who feels that Bill Clinton should not be impeached, that he is doing a good job as President, and that the Republicans have gone to far, I would receive 67% or so of the vote, or what Bill McCollum received in the last election. I would also demand a recount... I'd still take my seat in Washington... but I'd demand a recount!

Since I am a realist, I doubt that such a reversal would occur. But, let me suggest this... if enough Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are sick of the current situation would be willing to cast a vote for me, knowing that Bill McCollum will probably win anyway, a high-enough number of votes against McCollum will give him, and indeed, the Republican Congress, pause before they act further in this reckless pursuit. They will be put on notice that the people have had enough and that they expect Congress to put this matter in perspective, giving it no more of their time and money than it is due. They can wrap it all up by New Year's, and the 106th Congress can come in and go about the people's business at once.

I am not asking for a vote defending Bill Clinton's personal behavior. I am not asking for a vote to ignore or overlook "mis-statements," misleading statements, or cleverly-worded legal parsing of statements. I am not asking for a vote to give Bill Clinton a pass. If you will not vote for me solely on my platform and against Bill McCollum's platform, then I am asking for a vote to apply the brakes on a runaway train heading towards a precipice. The victory sought by Gingrich, Armey, and Lott will be at the expense of every American and will cost the entire world. Their sweet, partisan revenge will be ashes in our mouths.

For the first time in a generation, America has balanced it's budget and could, if it applied itself, solve many of its social and fiscal shortcomings. That could be undone by a Congress with no conscience or constraints. For the first time in a generation, in generations, peace and economic opportunity has been tasted by countries used to bloodshed and economic slavery. That could all unravel if America's leadership is crippled for petty partisan gain.

Bill McCollum believes he is right, and he will do what Newt tells him to. McCollum's defeat would certainly send a message to Congress, but even an unimpressive victory for him would send that message. If half of the people who were planning not to vote in this district in this election were to cast an active NO-VOTE against Bill McCollum, the message would be unmistakable.

Twice, the electorate voted to elect Bill Clinton president. Who knows how he'd fare if he were running this November. But the will of the voters must not be subverted by partisans with a mean agenda. Impeachment was designed by the framers of our Constitution as a last and fearsome remedy against misuse of office or betrayal of public trust on a par with treason. Not for immature nor immodest behavior, nor even for an attempt to try to keep such personal behavior from becoming grist for the media's mill. The public knows this, and has known this, certainly since January, and even since 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President, and then re-elected despite rumors and allegations about his personal life. The public knows that the same government that can pry open every secret detail of the President's life, including airing supposedly secret testimony, could pry into the lives of each of us, and it is rightfully alarmed. And if Bill Clinton is an adulterer, surely Ken Starr and Bill McCollum have become pornographers, making us all afraid to let our children near the TV or newspaper, much less the Internet.

Therefore, let a vote for Al Krulick, or a vote against Bill McCollum, in this election, be seen as a plea for perspective and proportionality amid overheated partisanship, as a call to focus on what's salutary rather than on what's salacious, and as an appeal to all parties to stop and think what harm they are doing to this country, it's people, and the future of our democracy.

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