Letter: 1st president couldn't tell a lie -- boy, have times changed

The president said no, because it would be wrong. That is leadership by principle, not public opinion polls.

We now read that when he knew the Monica Lewinsky scandal was about to break President Clinton commissioned Dick Morris to conduct a poll to see how the public would react to the truth. The results of that poll have been obvious for the past several months. The president and his minions' lies are the proof in the pudding. What a guy!

Hillary Rodham, in addition to writing -- as a member of the Watergate congressional legal team -- that the president should not be represented by legal counsel, opined that a reason for removing the president from office is that he had lied to the American people. In 1974 candidate for congress Bill Clinton stated that the president's lying to the people was reason for his removal. What has changed?

Legend tells us that our first president could not tell a lie. History will show that we have come a long way in the past 200 years. Unfortunately, it seems we have gone in the wrong direction when well over 60 percent of those polled approve of the present man's job performance.

Lewis W. Shuman

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