No Lack of Passion From Public on Clinton

The opinion-page column ``Clinton's Hard Work Earns Needed Respect,'' May 3, states that, in the case of President Clinton's unspecified questionable Whitewater-related dealings, there just isn't enough ``passionate drive'' behind the press's scrutiny of the Clintons' business dealings and associations.

I'm not certain why the press lets the Clintons off the hook on this one. What kind of ``passionate drive'' does the press need to accurately report the facts? When our country is in the hands of a president who does not come clean when asked direct questions, it is the press's responsibility to uncover the truth and to ask the hard-hitting questions that Mr. Clinton has been spared so far.

Hard work doesn't make up for missing morals, and there is never an excuse for shady underhandedness. Contrasting Nixon's and Clinton's foreign-policy accomplishments might have showed the true picture about Clinton much more clearly. Bill Protzmann, Laguna Beach, Calif.

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