Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 14, 1994 TAG: 9403160009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Subpoenas of White House officials. Special prosecutor. Shredding. Resignation of a top official. Grand-jury investigation. Allegations of cover-ups.
Last week, as several Clinton aides testified before a grand jury looking into possible White House meddling in the Whitewater investigation, the air of a fullblown political scandal descended on the administration like a malignant cloud unlikely to lift anytime soon.
"White House officials testify," declared Friday's top-of-the-front-page headline, above a photo featuring clean-cut Republicans carrying signs that said, "Stop Cover-up," "Tell the Truth," etc.
Another presidency, another scandal. The tension grows, Clinton's public-approval ratings slide. Republicans, smelling blood, are demanding hearings and hint, with only barely suppressed glee, of a truncated presidency.
They are calling Whitewater another Watergate.
Wait a minute. Stop right there.
Sure, something seems fishy, made fishier still by the incredible, blind bungling of White House aides, who met with treasury officials overseeing the Resolution Trust Corp.'s probe into a failed Arkansas savings and loan.
This is not to defend what the Clintons may have done either in Arkansas, when they joined the S&L's owner in the (also failed) Whitewater real-estate venture; or in the White House, since the affair began spinning out of control.
But another Watergate?
Get real.
The Whitewater business transpired a decade ago, in Arkansas. It involved real-estate investments.
Watergate and Iraqgate, the biggest presidential scandals of recent memory, occurred in the White House. They involved abuse of presidential power and evasion of constitutional constraints.
No formal or credible charge that Clinton violated any law has yet to surface. Last week, the president told his aides to "be very open" with the grand jury.
Special counsel Robert Fiske is moving forward with what appears to be a very thorough investigation. He said the Clinton administration has been "very responsive and cooperative."
Does this sound like a replay of Watergate?
Does Janet Reno come across as another John Mitchell? Mack McLarty as another H.R. Haldeman? Dee Dee Myers as Ron Ziegler revisited?
Then there's the not-at-all-trivial matter of the weakening effect on a president's ability to get his agenda enacted.
The more Whitewater is made to look like Watergate, obviously the less Clinton will be able to accomplish.
New York Times columnist William Safire has suggested that the Bush administration succeeded in covering up Iraqgate, a scandal that involved illegal U.S. aid to Iraqis before America went to war with them.
But what if Iraqgate had consumed Bush, preventing him from pushing forward his domestic agenda?
Anyone remember what that agenda contained?
Clinton's includes, among other things, welfare and health-care reform.
by CNB