Today there are 115 prisoners in the federal penitentiaries serving sentences for the crime of perjury.

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Bennett: "My client's a liar": All attorneys understand that they are first and foremost officers of the court, with ethical obligations that precede and transcend their representation of this or that client. Transgress against those obligations, and the attorney can lose his license to practice.

President Clinton's attorney has officially informed a federal judge that evidence she relied on in dismissing the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit was false, and that his own assurances about its meaning aren't reliable.

Mr. Bennett sent the letter to U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright Sept. 30, fulfilling obligations lawyers accept to disclose perjury that may be put on the record. Independent counsel Ken Starr said in his report to Congress that Mr. Bennett didn't know the statements were lies when he vouched for them to Judge Wright.

This action by attorney Bennett may be understood as a cover-your-behind move to protect his license to practice law. Had Bennett left his client's perjury uncured, he might stand as naked to this judge as attorney Bill Clinton does today.

A key unresolved question: Will Judge Wright decide to cite President Clinton for criminal contempt of court for his countless perjuries before her? This is among the president's worst nightmares.

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Demos for impeachment: Two Missourians were among the 31 House Democrats voting with every Republican for the impeachment resolution that passed the House Thursday. They were Rep. Pat Danner of Northwest Missouri's 6th District, and Ike Skelton of West-Central Missouri's 4th District. The respected, strong-on-defense Skelton has long been regarded as the last true Harry Truman Democrat in the Missouri delegation.

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Tobacco lawsuit update: This past week saw oral arguments in the case I filed in August seeking to set aside Attorney General Jay Nixon's contract to hire his friends to pursue Missouri's tobacco litigation. After arguments on the other side's motion to dismiss our suit, Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown took the matter under advisement. This means we await the judge's decision as he reads the relevant cases and briefs.

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Fierce battles on Demo turf: The most underreported stories of the year are the fierce battles being waged for control of the Missouri General Assembly, both House and Senate. With only six House seats needed for a GOP takeover, much of the tale in the House will be told right here in Southeast Missouri, where an unprecedented three House seats are in play south of the Benton hill. Never before have Republicans seriously contended for these House seats, historically overwhelmingly Democratic -- much less all three at once. In play are the following seats: In Mississippi-New Madrid County, former Rep. and First Lady Betty Hearnes faces Republican Lanie Black of Charleston; in Scott County, Rep. Joe Heckemeyer faces Republican Peter Myers of Sikeston; and in the vacant Dunklin County seat, 27-year-old Dunklin County attorney Phil Britt faces GOPer Judy Wallace of Malden.

A GOP win in any one would be historic. This unfolds amid new polling from the Republican State Committee that shows a stunning result: A Republican lead in voter identification statewide, never before recorded in my lifetime. GOP statewide polling shows 39 percent Republican, 31 percent Democrat.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.