07/02/2026 18:51

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As July was drawing to a close, we still hadn’t been able to agree on a detailed budget consistent with the earlier, more general agreement with the Republicans. hat our enemies thought America was vulnerable because we would be distracted by the controversy over my personal behavior. If that was true, I had to learn to handle it better. Moreover, our “future” investments in education, training, research, technology, and the environment were already at una

Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama, Slade Gorton of Washington, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Fred Thompson of Tennessee, and John Warner of Virginia voted no on the perjury count. If the recommendation was to strike on the twentieth, then that’s what we would do. I hoped that his bravery would get us past the posturing and on to the business of actually balancing the budget. We had one especially meaningful conversation.