Letter: Members of Congress need a refresher course in history

Saturday, Sept. 26, 1998 | 3:01 a.m.

The White House, and its presidents, have had more going on than meets the eye since George Washington. Jefferson had an affair with Maria Cosway in France, she was already married. And then there was beautiful Angelica Van Buren, the White House hostess; that's not what I would call her.

Then there was Republican Aaron Burr, who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel because he didn't get the nomination for president of his party, and he schemed to separate at least part of the West from the United States. But still he died a free man in 1836.

Now there's this holier than thou Congress. It's no different now than it was in 1798 when federalist Roger Griswold insulted Republican Matthew Lyon in the House of Representatives, and Lyon spat in his face.

Two weeks later Griswold struck back with a cane; Republican Lyon picked up the fireplace tongs, and Congress' first good brawl was under way.

They use and pay for crooked special prosecutors like Kenneth Starr, or Republican judges, who will do whatever they say. This keeps their hands clean, they think.

They think the American people are stupid. That is the reason they wouldn't put any of President Clinton's nominees for judges into office, this way they had a free hand.

Jean Weaver