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

DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994             TAG: 9410050014
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

THOUGHT HE WAS STILL IN CONGRESS ESPY'S ETHICS

What politician can be bought for Bulls tickets and a plane ride? None we know, including Mike Espy, the former Mississippi congressman who resigned Monday as President Clinton's agriculture secretary.

But Espy's resignation comes amid an internal White House investigation and an ongoing inquiry by an independent counsel into conduct - accepting gifts from regulatees, billing taxpayers for personal trips - that may be criminal. And it is at best conduct unbecoming a Cabinet officer in an administration pledged - but struggling - to raise ethical standards and to reduce special interests' influence.

Instructively, it is also conduct that, while prohibited to executive-branch officials, is not against the rules for members of Congress. They may, for instance, accept gifts and travel as long as they disclose them. Remember that. Es-py apparently did.

The secretary denies any wrongdoing. And surely, scheduling business trips home that coincide with personal business shouldn't necessarily spark the outrage it seems to, in this and other cases. Still, he and the president need to acknowledge more than an ``insensitivity'' to the appearance of impropriety. There are larger problems for both men, and they particularly concern a major player in an industry regulated by the Agriculture Department, the Arkansas chicken-proc-ess-ing giant Tyson Foods, and the women in their lives.

There may have been good reasons other than the political - cost, necessity, effectiveness - for Secretary Espy to hold up further regulation of the poultry industry. But politics more than policy prompts his resignation. Not just the secretary but his boss and his boss's wife have had some dealings with Tyson of political importance but dubious ethics.

It was Tyson's general counsel, for example, who helped then-first lady of Arkansas Hillary Rodham Clinton parlay a $1,000 investment in cattle futures into a quick and remarkable $100,000. It is Tyson's foundation, for example, which offered Espy's lady friend a ``scholarship.''

One standard on gifts for Congress, an-oth-er for the Cabinet. One tolerance level on ethical indiscretions for Mike Espy - and, if the secretary of housing and urban development steps down, as rumored, for misleading the FBI about arrangements with a lady friend not his wife, for Henry Cisneros - and another, more tolerant level for Bill Clinton. Those are a couple of double standards for the public to mull, right here at midterm elections. . . by CNB