
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994                    TAG: 9406140009 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A14    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940614                                 LENGTH:

ON WINGS OF CHICKEN

{LEAD} President and Mrs. Clinton rode into Washington last year on the back of a white charger, promising to change the culture of ``sleaze'' that supposedly characterized Washington under the Reagan and Bush administrations. What no one knew, of course, was that they would install the culture of Little Rock.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy had already come under criticism for mysteriously exempting the poultry industry from tough new ``zero-tolerance'' meat inspections that were imposed on the beef and pork industries. (Those inspections, by the way, have been suspected recently of causing more problems than they are solving.) Now comes word the FBI is investigating Espy's receipt of free air travel and other goodies from Little Rock-based Tyson Foods, the country's largest chicken producer and an alleged recipient of easy treatment from Arkansas regulators during Clinton's governorship.

{REST} Surely Espy knew that trips to a Cowboys playoff game, the Oscars, a Chicago Bulls basketball game and the Super Bowl, courtesy of Tyson, would raise eyebrows. Tyson flacks have called the contacts between the nation's top agriculture policy maker and its top poultry producer ``entirely proper'' and only ``good business practice.''

Justice Department sources said an investigation by its Public Integrity Section is unlikely to result in criminal charges against Espy. The probe is based on the 1907 Meat Inspection Act, which prohibits Agriculture Department employees from accepting ``anything of value'' from the industry they regulate.

Even if, as Espy claims, he reimbursed Tyson for some items, that might not get him off the hook. After all, tickets to the Academy Awards or the Super Bowl are not generally available to ordinary proles, whatever the face value of the ticket might be.

The cloud of ethical suspicion that hangs over the Clinton White House thus grows darker. There are still plenty of unanswered questions about Hillary Clinton's overly fortunate investment in cattle futures and the Clintons' role in the Madison Savings and Loan bailout and the Whitewater real estate development. Democrats in Congress continue to stonewall any meaningful hearings into the Clinton's politico-financial dealings.

The agriculture secretary could perhaps be forgiven for thinking what he was doing was perfectly proper, given the track record of the Clinton White House in the travel department. Recall the firing of the entire White House travel office staff on trumped up charges of financial irregularities when all the president's men really wanted was to replace them with Arkansas cronies. More recently we saw Coptergate, whereby the White House aide who had done the travel office firings was himself fired for taking two military helicopters on a golf outing.

This administration came to Washington loudly proclaiming an end to the ``sleaze'' of the 1980's. What the American people got instead was 1990's sleaze, Little Rock-style. If any of this was happening on Ronald Reagan's watch, Congress would be hopping to investigate. Where is it now?

by CNB