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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release April 19, 1996

STATEMENT OF JACK QUINN, COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT

There is nothing new in Senator Dole's speech. It is the same tired, old, worn-out rhetoric we've already heard. The Republicans are continuing a completely baseless attack on President Clinton's judicial appointees because they're embarrassed about their sorry record on crime. There are plenty of decisions by Reagan-Bush-Dole judges that cut hard against law enforcement, but let's look at the basic facts.

First, every objective observer who has looked at the record agrees: President Clinton has appointed moderate, mainstream judges. They're a group to be proud of, and the President is proud of them. Second, the President, not the Dole-Gingrich Congress, has been on the side of law enforcement and tough on law breakers. Under President Clinton, violent criminals are being sent to jail for longer sentences thanks to the hard work of his U.S. Attorneys. It was President Clinton who accomplished passage of the toughest anti-crime package in many years. The Republican leadership didn't lift a finger to help him put 100,000 new cops on the beat, to help him enact the Brady handgun law or the assault weapon ban. It was Senator Dole's supporters in the House who tried to gut the President's anti-terrorism bill. The truth is that every time the NRA has faced off with the Congress, the Republicans have crumbled.

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