by J. Jennings Moss
Originally published January 17, 1994 in The Washington Times.
Partisan tensions are mounting over President Clinton’s role in the Whitewater-Madison controversy, with Republicans charging that Democrats are loath to investigate and Democrats saying the GOP is posturing for the 1996 election.
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole yesterday blasted Democrats for not going along with his call for a select congressional committee. Democrats – especially Vice President Al Gore when he was a senator – had been eager to probe possible mistakes by Republican presidents, Mr. Dole said.
“I think the bottom line is going to be that there’s something to hide or there wouldn’t be so much effort by the White House damage control team to continually make up excuses, to tell falsehoods, to say that papers have been released, all these things,” Mr. Dole said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Sen. David Pryor, Arkansas Democrat and a close political and personal friend of Mr. Clinton’s, disagreed.
“What we are looking at here is not an issue of national security like Watergate or Iran-Contra. This is an issue of pure politics. Senator Dole and his Republican colleagues want to keep this issue alive until 1996 and beyond so that it can be a campaign issue,” Mr. Pryor said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Public attention to President and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s investment in the Whitewater Development Corp. when Mr. Clinton was governor of Arkansas did not materialize until after Congress left Washington for its two-month winter recess in November.
With lawmakers set to return to town next week, the rhetorical fight likely will get meaner, especially since the GOP intends to push hard for congressional hearings.
Republicans are demanding to know what are the connections between Whitewater and the Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan, which failed in 1987 at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $50 million. Federal investigators are looking at the ties between the Clintons and their chief partner in Whitewater, James B. McDougal, who also was president of Madison.
Mr. Dole said the White House decision last week to support naming a special counsel to investigate the matter did not remove Congress’ oversight responsibility. Attorney General Janet Reno could name the independent investigator this week.
Holding up a copy of a report by the Congressional Research Service, Mr. Dole said: “I think the bottom line here is the Democrats will investigate Republicans, as they did 18 times in 12 years – at least 18 times – but Democrats in Congress aren’t going to investigate Democratic administrations.”
Mr. Dole particularly called attention to a probe Mr. Gore called for when he was a senator from Tennessee.
Mr. Gore was a leader in the move to investigate the “October Surprise” theory that the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign sought to delay the release of U.S. hostages in Iran until after the election.
Mr. Dole also noted that Mr. Gore had demanded during the 1992 presidential campaign that President Bush release all documents regarding U.S. loans to Iraq.
Mr. Gore, appearing after Mr. Dole on the same program, said the Republican leader was attempting to change the rules midway through the game. He did not answer the question of whether Democrats in Congress were avoiding probing the actions of a Democratic president.
“I did notice a statement from Senator Dole just last week saying that if a special counsel is appointed, there will be no second-guessing from Republicans in Congress,” Mr. Gore said. “The fact is a special counsel is now being appointed. Let’s let the special counsel do his or her job.”
Mr. Pryor said Mr. Dole was running for president in 1996. “And that’s what this is all about.”
He contrasted the GOP’s call for congressional hearings in Whitewater-Madison with what happened in 1992 when President Bush’s son Neil paid a $50,000 penalty because he was on the board of the failed Silverado Savings and Loan.
“You did not see this zeal and this great fervor to have a congressional investigation of President Bush’s son. It wasn’t there. This is politics, and that’s what it’s about,” Mr. Pryor said.
But while congressional Democrats may not have demanded hearings into Silverado, the Democratic National Committee hired investigators to probe the issue.
“This is one of the biggest scandals in the history of our country, the S&L scandal,” then-DNC Chairman Ronald H. Brown said in an interview on CNN. “Frankly, it’s just what we should have done to try to get some answers. What was the president’s role? What is his administration doing? Are the American taxpayers being served properly?”
Questions asked by Mr. Brown, who is now commerce secretary, in 1992 are similar to those being asked now by Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, the senior Republican on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee.
“The reason that hearings may well be appropriate is that what we’re dealing with here are issues, really, of public trust more than criminality, and special counsels are a little bit more in one direction. Public trust is more the realm of Congress,” Mr. Leach said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”