Editorial: Speaking first, thinking second

Saturday, Aug. 22, 1998 | 5:14 a.m.

Instead of waiting to get all the facts, the Nevada Republican thought it was wise to immediately impugn the motives behind President Clinton's decision Thursday to order strikes against terrorists.

"My reaction today with military force raises some very serious questions as to whether or not this was based on some attempts to cloud (Clinton's) personal problems, or if it truly involved national security," Gibbons told the Sun's Washington correspondent, Mark D. Preston, on Thursday.

Gibbons has had a reputation as one of the brightest politicians in Nevada. What also makes this episode particularly surprising is that Gibbons has military experience, including stepping down as a member of the Nevada Assembly in 1991 to fly missions for the Nevada Air National Guard in the Gulf War. So Gibbons knows how important it is to support the president and the U.S. armed forces when military action is necessary to protect American lives.

Such was the case Thursday when the president ordered cruise missile strikes against a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan and a terrorist training complex in Afghanistan. Senior administration officials told the Associated Press that the terrorists believed responsible for the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania were suspected of being on the verge of launching attacks on other U.S. embassies. No one with credibility is suggesting the president ordered the attacks to divert attention from his admission of an affair with Monica Lewinsky last Monday.

It also is remarkable how extreme Gibbons' comments were compared to those of his colleagues. Some of Clinton's fiercest critics lent their support, including Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. Even Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who has made a cottage industry out of hurling wild accusations at the president, backed Clinton. "I take the action for what it was -- to stop the terrorists and to make them pay for what they did," Burton said. "And that was the right thing to do."

Hopefully Gibbons has learned a valuable lesson from this rookie mistake: Only speak after you have all the facts. Leave the antics to other members of the House who don't care about their reputations. Other states might let their members of Congress get away with foolishness, but Nevada expects maturity from its representatives in the nation's capital.