ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and The Washington Post
President Clinton conceded Tuesday that ``mistakes were made'' in Democratic fund raising but assigned most of the blame to aides and to the escalating demand for campaign money.
Just hours before attending a small dinner for business leaders asked to donate at least $10,000 each to the Democratic National Committee, the president was peppered at a news conference with questions about fund-raising.
Following an admission late last week that the White House had held 103 political coffees organized by the Democratic National Committee, the president admitted the impropriety of a May 1996 gathering that brought together top bankers, party officials, and a senior bank regulator, Eugene Ludwig, comptroller of the currency.
``Regulators should not come to meetings ... that have any kind of political sponsorship,'' said Clinton, who also conceded that the White House had erred by failing to tell Ludwig that the event was political.
Even so, Clinton repeatedly argued that, despite appearances, the public should not be alarmed by the intimate social gatherings, where the president and top officials met with some of the nation's top business people, many of them top Democratic givers.
Clinton said the sessions, most of them held in the first-floor Map Room, were opportunities for him to listen to various viewpoints. ``I can tell you categorically that no decision ever came out of any of those coffees'' to assist any of the participants, he said.
In a computerized study of the federal election records of White House coffee participants, the Los Angeles Times reported that they contributed a total of $27 million toward the Democratic campaign effort in the fall election.
At the 55-minute East Room news conference, which was the first of his new term, the president offered a conditional defense of his aides, referring to the ``deluge'' of questions and information stemming from the fund-raising.
``I think some of these people made honest mistakes,'' he said, suggesting that some of the recent errors have been innocent.
However, he added, ``No one is blameless here. It costs so much money to pay for these campaigns that mistakes were made here by people who either did it deliberately or inadvertently.''
He added that ``it's up to others to decide'' what was the cause.
As he spoke, investigations into the campaign financing issue were gearing up. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., took to the Senate floor to outline, in dry lawyerly fashion, the scope of a Senate probe of fund raising in both parties' presidential campaigns. He warned that the focus would necessarily be largely on the White House.
And he pledged that hearings would be aimed at ``restoring the public trust'' in the political system.
Clinton pledged full White House cooperation with the Thompson investigation.
FBI Director Louis Freeh notified Congress, in a letter made public Tuesday, that he has ordered a task force to examine whether a top Democratic fund-raiser and Clinton friend, John Huang, was a threat to national security interests in his efforts to raise Asian donations for the party.
On other topics, Clinton said he is disappointed about the lack of improvement in China's human-rights record, but defended his overall strategy of engagement and cooperation with the Asian power. He said he was confident that ``in the end'' the Saudi Arabian government will provide full cooperation to U.S. officials in the investigation of last year's Khobar Towers bombing.
Clinton touted several proposals for increased education spending he said will be in the budget plan he releases next week. A proposed 25 percent increase in Pell grants for poor students will ``open the doors of college education wider than ever before,'' he said.
On the budget, Clinton said he was optimistic that even Republicans who are critical of specific portions of his spending plan will not dismiss it out of hand. He said he is willing to discuss GOP ideas for cutting capital-gains taxes, since it is such a high priority for them, and likewise added that he would consider higher premiums for wealthier Medicare beneficiaries. He pleaded with Republicans to show similar open-mindedness on his priorities, including restoring full welfare benefits for legal immigrants.
``I want to keep our powder dry and want them to keep their powder dry,'' Clinton said, adding: ``And then what we need to do is to meet each other in good faith. This and all other issues can best be resolved by an early attempt to work through to a balanced-budget agreement.''
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. President Clinton ponders a question during his newsby CNBconference in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. color.