Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994 TAG: 9404010013
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTOR KAMBER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Consider the following evidence:
Some politicians and pundits are comparing Whitewater with Watergate. That's like mentioning Jeffrey Dahmer and David Letterman (recipient of several speeding tickets from the Connecticut state police) in the same breath.
Watergate was a conspiracy by Richard Nixon and his key associates to misuse the levers of presidential power to destroy his so-called enemies and obstruct justice. It merited impeachment and any action short of that or his ultimate resignation would have ignited a constitutional crisis. Many of his aides were thrown in jail - and Nixon likely would have wound up behind bars, too, if not for Gerald Ford's pardon.
By contrast, Whitewater is a complicated series of financial transactions involving the governor of Arkansas and his wife in the 1980s. Republican Justice Departments did not see sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to take action. Now that ex-Gov. and Mrs. Clinton are in the White House, this deserves to be investigated. But let's remember if any inappropriate activities occurred - a questionable possibility at best - they would be the equivalent of a moving violation next to the Watergate serial killer, and would not involve presidential behavior.
With regard to the infamous meetings between White House staff and regulatory officials, by all accounts these represent efforts by press and political operatives to learn what was going on so they could better answer media inquiries - not to stop it. There is no evidence of any effort to thwart an investigation.
Still, the meetings should not have occurred, the White House has acknowledged it, and pledged never to allow anything like this to take place again. We're not talking about lying to Congress or investigators, cooking up national-security excuses, invoking executive privilege, creating 18-minute gaps on tapes, or the many other illicit activities of the Watergate cover-up.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, hailed until recently as Superwoman, is suddenly being vilified by the pack media. For example, U.S. News columnist Michael Barone wrote: "On issue after issue, she has shown startlingly bad judgment." New York Post writer Jack Newfield called her "an Ozark Leona Helmsley." ``The problem here is Hillary Clinton," said Evan Thomas of Newsweek on one of the weekend gabfest talk shows.
The maliciousness and spitefulness of the attacks on Hillary Clinton make crystal clear that many of her critics have been lying in wait, looking for the smallest vulnerability, to tear down an intelligent, forceful and powerful woman who threatens their masculinity.
The fact is that Mrs. Clinton is a trail blazer, single-handedly redefining the role of first lady. The fact is that she is a brilliant attorney, strategist and policy-maker who will deserve the lion's share of the credit when health-care reform becomes law, regardless of the plan's details. The fact is that she is a woman of unquestionable integrity. She is not perfect - after all, she's from planet Earth, not Krypton - but the degree to which she has suddenly become a villain tells us more about those doing the name-calling than it does about her.
Alfonse D'Amato, the most investigated senator in history, has suddenly become the Republicans' point man on ethics. More than anything, that speaks volumes about the GOP's notion of ethical behavior.
From his early days as a gofer for since-jailed Nassau County Republican Chairman Joseph Margiotta to the last 13 years as senator, D'Amato has treated public office as a business that sells favors in exchange for campaign contributions. As a result, he has been investigated by the Justice Department, the special counsel in the Housing and Urban Development scandal and the Senate Ethics Committee.
The committee found that D'Amato "conducted his office in an improper and inappropriate manner" by allowing his brother, Armand, to use the senator's office - including staffers, telephones and letterhead - to lobby on behalf of a major defense contractor, Unisys (which gave big bucks to the D'Amato campaign). Armand D'Amato was convicted of federal criminal charges for his Unisys influence-peddling work.
The senator systematically pressured HUD to give grants to developers who were large campaign contributors - even to projects outside New York state. This continued a long practice of milking the HUD cow to pay off friends, relatives and donors that started when he was a Long Island township supervisor.
The notion of this senator-for-sale being an ethical watchdog shows just how topsy-turvy things have become in the netherworld that exists inside the Beltway.
It's time for the American people to demand that Washington's politicians and news media do a reality check. Maybe then, the issues that really make a difference in people's lives - say, health-care reform - will get the banner headlines, while Whitewater is relegated to the much smaller story the evidence merits.
Victor Kamber, co-host of "The O'Leary/Kamber Report'' on NBC radio, is president of The Kamber Group, a Washington-based communications consulting and public relations firm.
by CNB