Linda Chavez
townhall.com
June 27, 2000
Take care when investigating Gore
Republicans should be careful what they wish for when it comes to
appointing a special counsel to investigate Al Gore. Last week,
word leaked that yet another Justice Department official has
recommended that Attorney General Janet Reno appoint a special
counsel to investigate Gore's involvement in illegal and
questionable fund-raising activities.
Robert J. Conrad, a career prosecutor who currently heads the
Justice Department investigation of the 1996 Clinton-Gore
presidential campaign, is now the fourth high-ranking official to
do so. FBI Director Louis Freeh has also recommended that Reno
appoint an outside counsel, as did Charles G. LaBella, Conrad's
predecessor at Justice, and Robert S. Litt, a political
appointee at the department.
There is no question that Gore's activities in raising funds at a
Buddhist Temple in 1996 deserve more scrutiny -- after all,
longtime Gore associate Maria Hsia has already been convicted of
a felony for her role in the event. And it is certain that
Reno's highly politicized Justice Department is incapable of
conducting an impartial investigation of Gore's actions. But the
appointment of an outside counsel to head an investigation during
the height of the presidential campaign is problematic and could
end up hurting Republicans as much as Gore himself.
After nearly eight years of nonstop scandals and investigations
of the current administration, the public wants to be done with
it. The best way for this to happen is for the electorate to
sweep the place clean, sending Al Gore, Bill and Hillary Clinton,
and the whole rotten crew into early retirement. Polls suggest
that both Al Gore's and Hillary Clinton's electoral ambitions are
already being stymied by this widespread sentiment. So why not
let politics take its course? The one thing that could upset
Americans more than having to put up with these folks one day
past Jan. 21, 2001, is the prospect of a Republican-controlled
Congress pressing for endless investigations and hearings.
It would be one thing if these investigations were likely to
return indictments. They aren't. As the recently concluded
investigation into Hillary Clinton's role in the Travelgate
firings proves, evidence that someone lied to investigators isn't
enough to guarantee prosecution, even when the lies occurred
under oath. Independent counsel Robert W. Ray, who investigated
the first lady, says there is evidence Mrs. Clinton lied to
investigators and perhaps the grand jury when she denied any
involvement in the White House travel office firings in 1993.
But Ray has declined to prosecute her because he doesn't believe
he could win a conviction based on the evidence he has. The same
holds for the prosecution of the president, who, we all know,
lied under oath in the Paula Jones case and before the grand
jury. And the rule probably applies to Gore, as well.
While people may say that public officials should be held to a
higher standard, in fact the public is loathe to see a first
lady, a president or a vice president prosecuted unless there is
incontrovertible proof that they have committed serious crimes.
Gore may well have lied to investigators not only about the
Buddhist Temple fund-raiser but about the fund-raising phone
calls he made from his White House office in 1996 and about the
21 White House fund-raising "coffees" he hosted or several others
the president hosted and he attended. But there's no indication
the public wants to see the vice president indicted for these
transgressions and almost no chance that a Washington jury would
convict him if he were indicted.
But perhaps the most compelling case against the appointment of
an outside counsel to investigate these matters is that it would
likely remove the issue from public debate and judgment, which is
where it belongs. Once an outside counsel is appointed, Gore
could get away with stonewalling questioners by saying it would
be improper for him to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Evidence could only dribble out through leaks, which Gore would
try to turn to his advantage.
If Al Gore truly has nothing to hide, he'll press the Justice
Department to release all documents related to this investigation
-- including every internal memo calling for appointment of a
special counsel. Since this isn't likely to happen, the press
should play its traditional role in ferreting out and publishing
information. Voters must play their role, too. In the final
analysis, they are the jurors in this case, and Nov. 7 is
judgment day.
Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a
TownHall.com member organization.
�2000 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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