ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Cal Thomas
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
``BLOOD SPORT,'' the new book by journalist James B. Stewart, is a sobering and shocking disclosure of the cynicism, greed and hubris of Hillary and Bill Clinton when they were (and even on rare occasions when they weren't) governor and first lady of Arkansas.
While there may be no ``smoking gun'' in the most interesting narrative so far of the allied events of corruption collectively known as ``Whitewater,'' there is enough to persuade all but the most biased observer that the people of Arkansas deserved better. So do the people of the other 49 states, now that Bill Clinton is president.
After reading just the excerpt from this book in last week's Time magazine, one feels dirty and diminished - especially since the principles in this modern saga that is part Tobacco Road and part Huey Long are now supposed to represent America to its people and to the world. As John F. Kennedy said in another context, ``We can do better.'' Read it and weep for whom and what we have allowed to ascend to the highest office and highest honor of our land.
No wonder Senate Democrats are stonewalling an extension of the special Senate Whitewater committee. The last thing Democrats want is for some of those mentioned in Stewart's book to testify before television cameras and a committee controlled by Republicans and tell their stories of graft, greed and corruption in the former Clinton fiefdom known as Little Rock. Democrats say enough is enough, that the hearings have outlasted in length other scandals. Yes, but in none of those other scandals - from Watergate to Iran-Contra - has the resistance to turning over information been as great as it has been in Whitewater.
The Senate committee wants $600,000 to extend the hearings. Last Friday, Chairman Alfonse D'Amato released a list of 16 potential witnesses he wants to call to testify, including Arkansas bank officials who made questionable and, in some cases, highly irregular loans to the Clintons. D'Amato has threatened to bypass the Democrats' filibuster and use his Senate Banking Committee, which he also chairs, to continue the investigation.
There's a better way. D'Amato should make the Democrats feel the political heat by calling for a national private fund-raising campaign to continue the hearings. Senate Republicans should announce they are appealing to the public to help them learn the truth about what happened in a scandal that cost them tax money when a failed savings and loan was forced to close. An 800 number could be set up to phone in pledges, like they do on public television money drives - I recommend 1-800-I-N-D-I-C-T.
Republicans could claim they are holding down expenses by getting the public involved and reducing costs. The effort would engage people in the political life of their country as never before. The president has his own legal-defense fund to which a small number of people who presumably believe he's innocent contribute money, so why shouldn't those who believe the Clintons and their congressional allies are hiding something be given the opportunity to find out what it is?
What an embarrassment for Democrats! What a boon to Republicans! What a headache for Bill and Hillary Clinton! I can see it now. The newly reopened hearings begin with a deep-voiced announcer intoning, ``The following hearings are brought to you as a public service by your fellow Americans, who think you deserve to know the truth about the president and first lady of the United States, and whether they broke the law while in Arkansas and have engaged in cover-ups while in the White House, and whether they possess the moral character and personal integrity to deserve a second term. You be the judge.''
Democrats made hay on false charges that congressional Republicans shut down the government. Let's see how they like it when they're charged with shutting down a congressional hearing just when things are getting interesting. Raising private funds will keep the doors of justice open.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate|
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB