
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990                   TAG: 9007120451
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ETHICS CODE VIOLATED, PANEL TOLD

Former Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox says five senators appear to have violated ethics standards in their involvement with the savings and loan crisis, an accusation one lawmaker contends smacks of McCarthyism.

The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating whether the five broke Senate rules by meeting with regulators about Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., after accepting a combined $1.3 million in political contributions from the failed thrift's owner, Charles Keating.

The senators appear to have violated a provision in the Code of Ethics for Government Service, Cox said in a brief filed with the ethics panel Wednesday on behalf of the citizens' watchdog group Common Cause, which he chairs.

Congress has adopted the code for all government employees including officeholders, he said.

Cox acknowledged he did not have all the information before the ethics panel and was relying on published accounts of the senators' actions.

The senators are Alan Cranston, D-Calif.; John Glenn, D-Ohio; Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Donald Riegle, D-Mich.

Cox's argument "is simply saying people should be judged guilty by association. We tried to put an end to guilt by association when Joe McCarthy was denounced," McCain said in a statement. "McCarthyism has no place in the deliberations of the ethics committee or how members of the Senate are judged."

Glenn said he had not read the brief but added: "Common Cause, like every citizen, has the right to put forward its views. I have no way of knowing what, if any, influence this opinion will have with the ethics committee."

The Washington Times, meanwhile, citing "sources close to the Senate ethics committee," reported in today's editions that the committee's special counsel will recommend dropping further inquiries of Glenn and McCain.

Spokesmen for Cranston, DeConcini and Riegle said they would have no immediate comment on Common Cause's brief.

by CNB