Section A·Page 7
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 14, 2000
Nation
Bush meets with gay Republicans
Candidate reaffirms position on marriage
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — Emerging from a meeting with gay Republicans, George W. Bush yesterday declared he was "a better person" for hearing their stories although he said they still disagreed on such subjects as gay marriage.
"I welcome gay Americans into my campaign," Bush said. Though reaffirming that he opposes gay marriage, a position important to his conservative Republican base, Bush preferred to focus on the simple fact that he had met with the gays.
"It's important for the next president to listen to people's real-life stories," Bush said.
Members of the group that met with Bush said they were pleased by their hour-long session.
"The goal was not to change his mind." said Steve Dugundson, a dancer.
gay former Republican congressman from Wisconsin. "It was to start a conversation."
Before the meeting with the gay Republicans, social conservatives had said they would reserve judgment, partly because Bush's campaign had assured them he would stay true to his core conservative beliefs.
The Log C ab i n Republicans,
an organization for gays,
has pressured him to take a
stand on such issues as gay
marriage. Bush has
shunned the group and was
criticized for it during the
presidential primaries.
Bush: Says he is "a better patient" after meeting with gay Republicans
Since then, the Texas governor has been trying to moderate his political image after his appeals
to religious conservatives helped him win South Carolina's primary in February.
That shift to the center is raising a new concern: that Bush might alienate those same conservatives with any concession to homosexuals, who tend to support Democrats. Exit polling in the 1998 congressional elections found that voters who said they were gay identified themselves as Democrats much more often than as Republicans.
Invitations went to a carefully chosen group of gay activists and public officeholders.
GOP moderates who supported Arizona Sen. John McCain for president rather than Bush said the meeting could help reconcile the party's conservative and moderate wings.
Clinton is not interested in seeking pardon
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton heatedly said yesterday "I'm not ashamed" about being impeached and "I'm not interested" in being pardoned for any
alleged crimes in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Whitewater investigation. But Clinton did not say whether he would accept a pardon if it were offered by his successor.
"The answer is I have no interest in it," the pres'dent
Clinton: Says he is not ashamed about being impeached
told the cc.ivation of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "I
wouldn't ask for it. I don't think it would be necessary. I am prepared to stand before any bar of justice I have to stand before."
Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson seized on Clinton's pardon answer, noting the president merely said he would not ask for nor want a pardon. "Perhaps the question of the year is whether or not he will accept a pardon," he said. "Once again, Clintonian speak rears its ugly head."
Clinton's appearance brought forth his most emotional outpouring yet about the impact of the sex-and-lies Lewinsky case.
"I've paid quite a lot," he said. "I struggled very hard to save my relationship with my wife and my daughter. I made a terrible mistake of which I am deeply regretful. But I think that the average, ordinary person reviewing the wreckage left in that would say that I paid for that."
CLINTON'S REMARKS
An extended version of Bill Clinton's remarks to the A.S.N.E. can be found on the Net: http://www.whitehouse.gov/library/PressReleases.cgi
that the pardon and impeachment issues arose in a question-andanswer session after he spoke to editors about the Republicans' $1.83 trillion budget. He boasted at the nation's booming economy and criticized the GOP budget as being loaded with exploding tax breaks and untenable cuts in critical investment.
After his address, the first question was whether Clinton would request or accept a pardon. It was a subject Clinton has never directly addressed, although his former lawyer Charles F.C. Ruff, told the House impeachment hearings in 1988 that the president would not pardon himself nor accept a pardon.
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