ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and The New York Times
REPUBLICANS announced they were launching another investigation into how a Florida couple taped a phone conversation between Gingrich and other House leaders on a police scanner.
Outside counsel James Cole's final report on the ethics investigation of House Speaker Newt Gingrich is due today, but as of late Wednesday there was no agreement on how and when to make it public.
Meanwhile, President Clinton broke weeks of silence Wednesday over the Gingrich investigation, saying that both he and the public have grown weary of the partisan bickering over the case and urging House members to put it behind them and ``get on with it.''
``I want it to be over, I want it to be over,'' Clinton said in response to a reporter's question about the political warfare on Capitol Hill. ``You know, the American people have given us larger responsibilities.
``I think in general, at least in my experience in my brief time here the last four years, way too much time and energy and effort is spent on all these things, leaving too little time and emotional energy for the work of the people.''
It was a statement that seemed as applicable to Clinton's own troubles as those of Gingrich.
Within hours of Clinton's appeal, Republicans were announcing that the fallout from Gingrich's case had prompted them to pursue yet another investigation.
Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House Commerce Committee, asked the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday to investigate how a Florida couple picked up a telephone conversation between Gingrich and other House leaders on a police scanner. The couple then made a recording of the conversation available to a Democratic member of the ethics committee.
At the urging of Republican leaders, the FBI announced Tuesday that it had undertaken, with the concurrence of the Justice Department, an investigation into the taping of the conversation, which Gingrich had with other House leaders about his case Dec.21.
That was the day he admitted bringing discredit to the House by giving the committee false information and failing to consult a lawyer about the financing of a college course he taught.
For weeks, the commotion over the ethics case against Gingrich has played out along with news coverage of such Clinton problems as the Supreme Court case in which the justices are to decide whether Paula Corbin Jones can proceed with her sexual harassment case against the president.
At Clinton's direct order, White House officials have refrained from commenting on the ethics investigation against Gingrich. And administration officials have started to worry that the infighting on Capitol Hill over the matter might permanently sour the bipartisan spirit that Clinton will need to get much of his agenda approved.
Clinton said Wednesday, ``The speaker should do whatever is appropriate and we should get on with it, put it behind us and go on with the business of the country.''
On Capitol Hill, a second member of the ethics committee, Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, announced Wednesday that he would not participate in any further actions relative to the case against Gingrich. He said he was stepping aside to meet the committee's rule of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on the panel. The ethics panel now has four Democrats and four Republicans.
The committee has yet to vote on a punishment of the speaker.
The senior Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jim McDermott of Wisconsin, stepped aside from the case this week because of his role in the controversy over the recorded Gingrich conversation. The Florida couple who picked it up on a police scanner gave a tape of the conversation to McDermott. Republicans have accused McDermott of providing the tape to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times, which published a partial transcript.
Bliley said in a letter to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt that either the couple ``illegally altered the device, or the wiretapping incident didn't happen as accidentally as they led us to believe,'' adding: ``Either way, it is incumbent upon the FCC to investigate.
``We have laws on the books to prohibit this kind of thing. They make it illegal to own, to possess, or to sell a police scanner that receives channels reserved for cellular telephone calls or to reconfigure a scanner to do so. I want to know why those laws are not being enforced, and what the FCC plans to do - or what Congress must do - to remedy this problem.''
Investigative subcommittee members spent the day reading through the completed sections of Cole's report while Chairwoman Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., returned to Washington for the first time since she abruptly canceled public hearings in the Gingrich case a week ago.
``We expect to complete [the report] on schedule. It takes a while then to print it, so you would not expect to see it tomorrow,'' Johnson said late Wednesday, when asked if the committee had a new schedule for public hearings and release of the Cole report.
Gingrich has admitted to providing false information to the ethics committee and bringing discredit on the House by failing to ensure his political projects were legal under tax law.
The House is scheduled to vote on sanctions for those admissions Tuesday.
Under the original schedule approved by the ethics committee, the public hearings would have lasted up to five days and Cole would have been allowed to present a full, oral report on the case.
Members also would have had the chance to make statements and ask questions, and Gingrich's attorney also would have been allowed to make a full presentation.
LENGTH: Long : 103 linesby CNB