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March 8, 1997

WHITE HOUSE LIE-OFF!

by William Heartstone, Staff Political Writer

FRESNO - Offering an intense and strained defense for Democratic fund-raising that has haunted him since the Fall election, president Clinton said on Friday at his hastily called news conference that he is not to blame for White House wrongdoing. Clinton claimed that he was forced to chase , solicit, and receive money because the American political system that is 'out of whack.'

Since 1789, the legislative and executive branches of the national government have been in constant tension, producing great swings of power between the Congress and the White House that sometimes have lasted decades. In the last four years, however, power has swung between the two branches three times. It is clear that the 'pendulum of power' in American politics is accelerating a major change, once again.

Things started to change again on a warm September morning on the campaign trail in Fresno, California when a news reporter for National Public Radio asked at a briefing if president Clinton was carrying a sexually transmitted disease. Bill Clinton's power scale has been on the slide ever since that day several months ago.

On Friday, a White House spokesman was on the spot again, explaining why the president could legally solicit contributions in exchange for a private White House reception to six-figure political donors and private meetings with his aides and Cabinet secretaries to other big contributors, and more, more, more.

'It's buying access to the system, yes. That's what the political parties and the political operation is all about,' the spokesman explained.

Worse still, president Clinton allowed major campaign contributors to fly with him aboard Air Force One during the presidential campaign, White House and Democratic officials said Friday, revealing another perk in a portfolio of benefits for major donors. DNC Officials said generous Democratic Party contributors were permitted to fly with Clinton.

Leaders of the Democratic National Committee announced yesterday they would return $1.5 million in illegal or improper contributions and expressed serious concern about a memo that suggests party fund-raisers sought to reward donors with government positions, seats on Air Force One and other special privileges.

Vice President Gore said Monday he was proud he made 70 to 80 fund-raising calls from his government office, in direct violation of 18 U.S.C. 607 (a), which states: 'It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit or receive any contributions ... in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties.... Any person who violates this section shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.' He promised never to do it again.

During the past week, vice president Al Gore repeated seven times that he had been advised by 'my counsel' that 'no controlling legal authority' or case indicated to him that his fund-raising calls, described by those on the receiving end as 'intimidating' and a 'shakedown' were illegal. However, the vice president's office was unable to provide documentation of this legal advice, in all probability because none was ever written.

On Wednesday, the American people learned that Margaret Williams, Hillary Rodham Clinton's personal assistant, solicited and received a check for $50,000 from John Chung in the first lady's White House office in direct violation of the same law violated by the vice president. Chung is a target of the ongoing federal investigation into the fund-raising activities of the Clinton White House and the Democratic National Committee.

Any experienced political professional would have kept Chung at a safe distance from the center of things, if only for the president's protection. The Clinton White House is filled with experienced political professionals who embraced Chung and made him part of the inner circle. By way of explanation, a White House spokeswoman proclaimed Williams's acceptance of Chung's check 'legal and proper' and insisted she 'was following established procedures.'

Thursday, Attorney General Janet Reno gave the press corps a lecture on the subject of the appointment of independent counsel and illegal fund-raising. Reno said the legal definition of a contribution is the key element. To run afoul of the law, said Reno, contributions must be made with the intent 'of influencing any election for federal office' suggesting that this excluded so-called soft-money donations.

So it was that the attorney general of the United States found herself on television saying preposterous things that came close to eliciting open contempt from the news services.

On the same day Janet Reno made her stand, The New York Times reported that Webster Hubbell, President Clinton's self-described 'closest friend' and Reno's former deputy, received more than $400,000 in 'consulting fees' from about a dozen enterprises, 'including the organizers of a multibillion-dollar development in China that received the endorsement of the Clinton administration.'

This was remarkable for a number of reasons, not least because Hubbell at the time was on the fast track to federal prison for embezzling funds from his law partners and clients.

The suspicion lingers that the White House had an active role in Hubbell's great consulting windfall, in large measure because they denied for so long having any knowledge of it. It goes without saying that White House ignorance of Hubbell's activities turned out not to be true, as so many things do in the Clinton orbit.

The most depressing aspect of all this is the complete absence of shame exhibited by the principals. To the contrary, President Clinton has become increasingly self-righteous in his denials of malfeasance. 'That was one more false story we have had to endure,' said the president in response to newspaper reports that he had written, in his own hand, a note to his fund-raising chief that said, 'Yes, pursue all 3 and promptly - and get other names at 100,000 (dollars) or more, 50,000 or more. Ready to start overnights right away ...'

Next week will bring more revelations, as will the week after that. The Daily Republican, Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times newspapers are hard at work researching in-depth stories of illegal White House fund-raising activity with donors in South America and Asia.

The American people will read more about plane rides on Air Force One and Saturday nights at Camp David. And through it all, the Clinton spin doctor will grind away using his Arkansas grammar, a sort of down-home political primer in the future tense, with special attention given to the moral and ethical concept of: could-a, would-a, should-a!

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