Washington Section News - Page B3a
CLINTON WHITE HOUSE HONESTY CHALLENGED
by Staff Journalists, The Daily Republican OnLine Newspaper
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WASHINGTON DESK - The Clinton White House has been explaining its conduct in what appears to be a 'never-ending-story' of incompetence, negligence, and failed memory.
President William Jefferson Clinton is now saying that he kept the raw FBI files on 338 Republican appointees in the White House for two years because of "an honest bureaucratic snafu."
This admission comes after the Clinton White House had already admitted the "mistake" of obtaining the FBI files on Billy Dale, seven months after the director of the White House Travel Office was fired.
Then, on Friday, the lawyer hired by the head of the White House personnel security office announced that the Dale incident was simply one part of the larger FBI file-collection effort. Mark Fabiani said it was a "... completely innocent explanation."
Over the last three years the Clinton White House has failed to provide a credible explanation for the Travel Office mass firings. It has now has floated a number of implausible 'stories' ranging from 'incomplete internal reviews' to citing 'executive privilege' to avoid turning over relevant documents. Congressman Clinger's House oversight committee wants the truth.
In May, following nearly two years of Clinton refusal to provide Travel Office documents , Congressman, Clinger pursued a criminal contempt charge against the White House.
Clinton's Press Secretary Mike McCurry added fuel to the fire when he said "Chairman Clinger has 40,000 pages worth of paper and he all but wants the rolls of toilet paper in the men's room here. That's what he's after. He's gotten a little ridiculous."
However, the next day, on the eve of a contempt vote by the House, the White House reluctantly released 1,000 of the 3,000 pages of documents sought by Rep. Clinger. The request for Billy Dale's FBI file was buried in those 1,000 pages.
Also contained in those pages was the 'story' that the Clinton White House has "lost" the notes that Associate White House Counsel Neil Eggleston took during interviews on the Travel Office scandal conducted with White House aides. This mistake, the White House announced, was no problem because other people at the meetings took notes, too.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Clinton White House's explanation for the Billy Dale fiasco has changed five times since last Wednesday, culminating in the shocking revelations about the 'mistaken' 338 FBI files.
Clinton aide, George Stephanopoulos told reporters recently "Anything that has anything to do with security or logistics - Craig's [Livingstone] going to take care of it. You don't have to tell him how to do it, when to do it. Just that it needs to be done, and he does it. And he knows how to cut through the bureaucracy and get things done."
The Wall Street Journal depicts the Clinton fiasco as three years of evasions, half-truths, refusals to cooperate and sudden document discoveries. But, the Clinton White House' withholding of documents may be a crime punishable by a fine and or imprisonment for those found to have been involved.
To clear-up the Clinton White House prevarications Congress should immediately cite for contempt, launch inquiries about the missing Eggleston notes and, as the Wall Street Journal recommends, call Mr. Livingstone to find out "... who programmed his tour through the Republicans' FBI files."