June 26, 2000
Reno Stonewall: Third Time a Charm?
By ROBERT L. BARTLEY
The striking thing about the latest recommendation of an
independent investigation of Al Gore and his Buddhist Temple
hijinks is how quickly it leaked. Capitol Hill sources report
that the attorney general -- "visibly perturbed over the
premature disclosure," as the AP described her at her weekly
briefing Friday -- is ordering an internal investigation of the
leak.
So the indomitable Ms. Reno will strap a polygraph around Robert
J. Conrad Jr., who brought her the same bad news the third time
around as the latest head of her own campaign finance
investigation. The leak aside, Mr. Conrad's recommendation was
a show of courage, given the fate of the two previous messengers.
His predecessor, Charles La Bella, was pretty much hounded out of
the department. FBI Director Louis Freeh cannot be fired, but
has had to endure a lot of badmouthing and petty harassment.
Rather than pinpointing a culprit, Ms. Reno is likely to learn
that the final year of an administration is when the bureaucrats
you've been sitting on start to leak. I saw it first hand during
the Ford administration, when GOP national security officials
upset with d�tente blew up the Vladivostok summit agreement.
Some Ford administration insiders still blame my articles for
defeat, but out of it eventually came Ronald Reagan and a tougher
foreign policy.
Ms. Reno has manifestly been sitting on the Justice Department
to stop the campaign finance investigation, with the sole crutch
of Lee Radek of the Public Integrity Section. It turns out that
even Robert Litt, whom our sources had identified as a political
obstacle, came to agree with the Freeh-La Bella-Conrad
conclusion. We will start to learn whether Ms. Reno can
stonewall one more time when she appears before Sen. Arlen
Specter, who said he would summon her before his Judiciary
subcommittee tomorrow. So far she has been able to face down
congressional tormentors, relying on the immunity of femininity
and illness, at one point fainting in church.
Both she and Congress, too, were able to hide behind the
independent counsel law, which relieved them of responsibility
while setting up an investigator the president was free to attack
in the political arena. Editorially this newspaper opposed the
law, pointing out that many independent investigations -- Teapot
Dome, Watergate and even the initial Whitewater appointment of
Robert Fiske -- were chartered without it. Historically, the way
the system worked was that Congress, the press and the public
created enough of a political furor to force appointment of an
independent investigator. These investigators were harder to
attack politically, because the president and attorney general
did have the de jure power to fire them -- but at a political
price, as Richard Nixon discovered with the Saturday Night
Massacre.
We are now back at square one and will see whether Sen.
Specter, scarcely a GOP hatchetman, and the rest step up to their
responsibility of oversight. Their principal power is to make
sure the issue does not go away between now and November. Mr.
Gore affects Clintonesque chutzpah in complaining that the
twice-delayed investigation now comes up only four months before
an election. Ms. Reno laughably says she doesn't want "to
interfere with the democratic process."
That is to say, leaking the facts to voters is the bureaucracy's
ultimate defense of the rule of law. Mr. Gore has played a
"limited, modified hangout," releasing the transcripts of Mr.
Conrad's examination. The vice president repeatedly asserted
that at the Buddhist Temple he was the only person in the room
who didn't understand it was a fundraiser. He took a similar
position on presidential coffees. The Congress can make sure he
and surrogates such as Ms. Reno repeat this constantly for the
next four months. The voters can decide on its credibility.
More may also happen. Weigh the potential effect if, say, Mr.
Conrad and his team resigned in protest, � la Elliot Richardson
that Saturday night. It's entirely conceivable that Clinton &
Gore might decide that the path between here and November would
be smoother with an independent investigation than without.
If Ms. Reno faces down political options, Congress also has
legal ones. For starters, the Constitution provides for
impeachment not only for presidents but for "all civil Officers
of the United States." Society did not seem to enjoy its recent
education in this process, but second thoughts have started to
set in. Also, Congressman Dan Burton, rough and ready chairman
of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, made a point in
conjunction with his release of the Freeh and La Bella memos.
"After this election, assuming we get a new attorney general, I
think I will be sending criminal referrals."
Chairman Burton singled out the attorney general; in refusing to
appoint a counsel when the law demanded it, "she broke the law
and obstructed justice." The threat is scarcely unprecedented;
two attorneys general were convicted in the Watergate coverup.
John Mitchell was convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice,
and served 19 months in jail. Richard Kleindienst received a
suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge
of misleading Congress.
Rather than single out an ailing woman, Chairman Burton suggested
he would also refer President Clinton and Vice President Gore: "I
am confident and certain that they knew, especially the
president, that illegal campaign contributions were coming in
from foreign sources." These threats of course seem politically
farfetched, the law and the facts notwithstanding, but they do
add credence to Mr. Clinton's more immediate legal jeopardy.
Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr and retains jurisdiction
over matters referred to him, is studying whether to indict the
president for perjury in the Paula Jones case, an offense for
which he has already been cited for contempt by Judge Susan
Webber Wright and faces disbarment proceedings in the state of
Arkansas. Sentiment seems to be swinging in the direction of
asking Mr. Clinton to show some responsibility for what he has
put the nation through. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll
found that 64% of respondents disapproved of the president as a
person. Some 54% of respondents agreed he should be disbarred.
All of which is to say, Congress and the Republicans cannot claim
to be powerless before Ms. Reno's stonewalling. With the
independent counsel law gone, their responsibility is clear. If
justice continues to be corrupted, some of the blame will rest on
Sen. Specter and his colleagues.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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