R.E.M bass player MIKE MILLS has defended US President BILL CLINTON just days before his successor is to be elected.
In a letter to American magazine the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Monday, (31 October) reprinted through the band’s official website [url=]www.remhq.com, Mills wrote “I have read letters referring to the current administration as ‘the most corrupt administration in history’. A sense of historical perspective will show this to be a dubious claim at best.”
He continued: “Even if one chooses not to be aware of (Republican) Warren Harding and the Teapot Dome scandal, long considered the benchmark for political corruption in America, surely one remembers (Republican) Ronald Reagan‘s “ignorance” of the shadow government operating out of the White House basement, and the list of administration officials indicted and/or convicted of various offences. And, of course, surely we haven’t forgotten a (Republican) guy named Richard Nixon.”
The American Presidential election takes place next Tuesday (November 7). Opinion polls currently place the Republican candidate George W Bush in the lead.
R.E.M are currently working on their twelfth studio album, due for release early next year.