Interest in Clinton's Fate is Generating Unprecedented Traffic

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of Americans concerned over
the impending Presidential impeachment vote in Congress are communicating
their point of view through the leading message delivery service on Capitol
Hill -- the Western Union Opiniongram(SM).  Since debate resumed in earnest in
the House of Representatives over President Clinton's future last week,
Western Union's Consumer Messaging Division has registered well over four
times its normal volume of orders for Personal Opinion Messages (POMs),
whereby constituents or organizations send a message via Opiniongram(SM) to
their elected officials or to the President.
    Opiniongrams are printed at the Western Union office in the Cannon House
Office Building on Capitol Hill (up to 20 words for $9.95) and hand-delivered
to legislative offices and to the White House three times daily.  In addition
to their timeliness and visibility, Opiniongrams are held in high regard by
Congressional staffers and have near or equal impact to the personal letter as
a means of communication on major national issues.
    "We have every reason to believe that these high volumes will persist at
least through Thursday at noontime, until the House votes on whether it will
impeach the President or resolve to censure him instead," observed Michael
Yerington, president, Western Union Commercial Services.
    "This kind of volume has not been seen in our Capitol Hill office since
the Clarence Thomas hearings back in 1991; we are processing Opiniongrams as
fast as our printers will allow to let constituents get the message out to
their elected officials and to the President," Mr. Yerington added.
    In addition to the high number of Opiniongrams being sent by constituents
to their individual elected officials, since Thursday, December 10, Western
Union has registered more than ten "books" of Opiniongrams, which are sets of
messages sent to every member of Congress by an organization.
    Western Union has been in the personal message delivery business since the
1850s.  More recently, constituents and interest groups have used Opiniongrams
to express themselves on such major national political issues as the Nixon
"Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973.  "We welcome this opportunity to once again
be the medium of record for thousands of Americans in an historic national
debate," Mr. Yerington asserted.
    As the nation's leading provider of high value, high quality message
services, Western Union Commercial Services offers a wide array of power
message solutions.  In addition to Opiniongrams(SM), Western Union offers
voice, letter and fax message solutions such as RapidVoice(SM), High-Impact
Mail including its Mailgram(R), Priority Letter(SM) and Custom Letter(SM), and
its Priority Fax(SM) including broadcast fax and fax on demand services.
Based in Paramus, N.J., Western Union Commercial Services, a unit of First
Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC), is a technologically innovative, client
responsive, full- service provider of reliable urgent messaging and rapid
payment solutions.
    To send an Opiniongram(SM) on the impeachment debate, call 1-800-325-6000,
and hit prompts #2 & #3.

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