ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997 TAG: 9703030135
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
FORMER HIGH-LEVEL CLINTON administration advisers say, sure, the vice president raised millions in campaign funds working in government buildings, but that his predecessor, Dan Quayle, did too.
A former top White House adviser said Sunday that the Democratic Party had phone lines installed in government buildings for Vice President Al Gore to directly solicit for millions of dollars for the 1996 campaign.
And former campaign adviser Dick Morris said he was ``tickled to death'' that Gore was so aggressive, and that without the vice president's efforts President Clinton would not have won re-election.
But a pair of Democrats called the solicitations ``inappropriate,'' and Republicans renewed their calls for Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate fund raising within the Clinton administration.
Calls from telephones in government buildings - even on lines paid for by the Democratic Party as described by George Stephanopoulos - apparently would have been illegal.
Former federal Judge Abner Mikva circulated a 1995 memo while White House counsel that said: ``Campaign activities of any kind are prohibited in or from government buildings. Also, no fund-raising phone calls or mail may emanate from the White House.''
Had he known that the DNC was arranging money-raising events in the White House, Mikva told Newsweek magazine, he ``sure as hell would have been upset about it - and we would have put a stop to it.''
Mikva said he did not know about coffees at the White House which Newsweek said the DNC budgeted as ``fund-raising events'' and listed the amount ''projected'' to be raised from each event.
``Any Philadelphia lawyer knows you don't raise money in a government building,'' Mikva told Newsweek. ``And if they were budgeting money for them, that's raising money.''
Appearing on ABC's ``This Week,'' Stephanopoulos, former senior adviser to Clinton, said the party was broke in 1994 and 1995, and ``of course the vice president was raising money.'' He said other administrations have acted similarly.
``You set up special phones, political phones, paid for by the DNC,'' he said.
Asked by panelist Sam Donaldson to elaborate, Stephanopoulos said: ``You put in different lines, but the legal counsel sets it up. You put in special phones, special faxes, special computers that are for political work, for the fund-raiser work.''
Donaldson: ``But still inside of a government building?''
Stephanopoulos: ``Sure.''
Donaldson: ``A government residence.''
Stephanopoulos: ``Absolutely.''
Another panelist on the ABC show, William Kristol, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle, said, ``You cannot raise money in or from a government building.''
Stephanopoulos: ``Well, I mean, that's nuts.''
The ex-Clinton aide then accused Quayle of sponsoring ``fund-raisers at the Naval Observatory,'' the vice presidential residence. Kristol denied it.
Later, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., demanded an investigation by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee of a reception Quayle gave at the observatory on Sept. 23, 1990, in honor of ``the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle.'' Waxman, lead Democrat on the committee, already has suggested that a special counsel be appointed to investigate Democrat fund raising and a joint congressional look into improprieties by both parties.
With his letter to the committee chairman, Waxman circulated a 1990 fund-raising letter from Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., in which he said a series of Washington events planned during a two-day ``fall briefing'' for Inner Circle members would include a dinner at the vice presidential residence.
As politicians wrangled over how to address the growing revelations of political fund-raising irregularities, some saw the wrangling itself as evidence that sweeping campaign finance reform is needed.
``Even what's legal now is a scandal,'' said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.
The DNC said Gore was the main attraction at 39 DNC events in 1995 and 1996 that raised $8.74 million. ``There's nothing surprising about the fact that an incumbent vice president is working hard to re-elect an incumbent president,'' DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said.
Gore's fund-raising network raised $40 million of the $180 million collected by the DNC for the 1996 campaign, The Washington Post reported in Sunday's editions.
Morris said he pushed Clinton and Gore to raise big money in 1995, when polling was unfavorable to them.
Asked on ``Fox News Sunday'' about Gore's activities, Morris said: ``I was tickled to death that he did it. Unless he got on the phone and actually asked people for money, we never would have had the money to be able to win the election.''
Clinton would not make direct solicitations, Morris said. Gore's approaches violated no law if he did not use government facilities to make the calls.
The Post said the three previous vice presidents apparently never made such direct requests for contributions. The newspaper reported that several donors privately complained that Gore's calls were inappropriate.
Many of those contacted operated businesses that relied on government contracts or assistance. Such calls, said White House special counsel Lanny Davis, are ``appropriate so long as there's no promise of a quid pro quo.''
According to The Post, DSC Communications reportedly gave a $100,000 contribution to the Democrats as a ``thank you'' for the Commerce Department's efforts on behalf of DSC's bid to win a telecommunication contract.
``Vice President Gore was part of an effort to compete against the Republicans,'' Davis said on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' ``He did nothing wrong and nothing illegal. The suggestion of any coercion is completely baseless.''
Wellstone and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., criticized Gore for making the calls but denied Republican claims that the fund-raising activities of Clinton administration officials violated the law.
``I'm not going to be in the business of defending the undefendable, and what is more I do not personally believe it is appropriate for the president or the vice president of the United States to directly solicit contributions,'' Torricelli said. ``It's inappropriate, but it is not a legal issue.''
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