The Best Of Ginsburg: His Most Memorable Quotes
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 2) -- Almost as soon as the Monica Lewinsky tempest hit, her attorney Bill Ginsburg became as well known as his client, ever present on news programs with a chatty style that sometimes seemed to reveal too much.
Ginsburg proved a continual source of amazement to a Washington establishment used to tight-lipped lawyers. And his often outrageous sound bites were too tempting for the news media to resist. They even became a mainstay of CNN's AllPolitics weekly e-mail newsletter.
Here's the best of Ginsburg's "quotes of the week." Thanks for the memories, Mr. Ginsburg.
June 1 [Date of newsletter]
"Congratulations, Mr. Starr! As a result of your callous disregard for cherished constitutional rights, you may have succeeded in unmasking a sexual relationship between two consenting adults ... As for my own client in this episode, I have told her that we are being confronted by an anticonstitutional monster. He goes by the generic name of independent counsel. It's time to rid ourselves of this dangerous creature." -- Ginsburg, in an open letter to Independent Counsel Ken Starr, in the June issue of "California Lawyer" magazine.
May 12
"I'm delighted that Miss Smith is on board. This will allow myself and Nate [Speights] to focus more extensively on the legal issues in the case." -- Ginsburg, praising the Lewinsky family's hiring of veteran media relations specialist Judy Smith.
May 5
"She was becoming very depressed by this torture that she is going through. I thought it would be a good idea. This young lady needs to feel good about herself ... The opportunity arose from the publication. We did not approach them. I don't want her to be commercialized, like Paula Jones. My young lady gets nothing." -- Ginsburg, on Lewinsky's Malibu, Calif., photo shoot for Vanity Fair.
April 13
"The intrigue involved in this case seems to never end. Now we have Dick Armey's past before us, we have Stuart Taylor suffering the problems of having made a mistake, we have Mr. Starr and his litany of mistakes, we have my mistakes and the various profile articles that dredge up my past. I don't know who is next. But it is a problem."
April 6
"How about the will of the American people, Mr. Starr? Have you no shame, sir? How about the will of the American people? Don't give me law, and don't give me facts. How about justice and the will of the American people?"
March 30
"This is an executive of the government out of control. Where does this stop? The government is reaching right into our minds. This is like 'Brave New World' [the 1932 Aldous Huxley novel about a nightmarish future]. It has got to be stopped." -- Ginsburg, on word of Starr's subpoena of Lewinsky's book purchases from a Washington, D.C. bookstore.
March 23
"I've learned a lot and I'm perfectly big enough to admit mistakes. I think I'm overexposed. I think I need to back off quite a bit now."
"I have begged the American public to stop believing the leaks. Stop acting as though this were an extension of 'Melrose Place' or '[Beverly Hills] 90210.' This is real life. This is not Heather Locklear going out for a picnic with her latest beau." -- Ginsburg, in the March 28 edition of TV Guide.
March 16
"I think it helps define the real target of Ken Starr's investigation, and the real target of Ken Starr's investigation is the president of the United States, not my client." -- Ginsburg, in an interview with CNN's Frank Sesno, on the impact of Kathleen Willey's allegations.
March 9
"She feels boxed in, she feels trapped, she feels frustrated. She would like to have normal human contact with her friends. She would like to shop. She would like to do all the things that you can imagine 24-year-old young ladies would like to do." -- Ginsburg on his client.
March 2
"Whether or not I am paid on this case I will remain involved to the very end. The constitutional issues, particularly the right to privacy and the right to be free from prosecutorial misconduct, are too important to my country for this to be a matter of money." -- Ginsburg, explaining his appeal for a legal defense fund for Monica Lewinsky was made on behalf of her father.
Feb. 24
"I was there at the beginning. I kissed that girl's inner thighs when she was six days old . I said, 'Look at those little polkas.' I truly am the avuncular Mr. Ginsburg." -- Ginsburg, illustrating his long-term relationship with Monica and the Lewinsky family.
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