THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996               TAG: 9606280027
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   32 lines

IS THAT ALL THERE IS TO WHITEWATER?

After 14 months and 500 million tax dollars the Senate Whitewater investigation is finally over.

While the Senate Democrats concluded that the president and Mrs. Clinton were blameless, the Republicans ``suggested'' that the first lady may have hidden misdeeds.

The ``misdeeds'' alleged by the Republicans supposedly occurred nine years after Whitewater and relate only to the untimely delivery of billing records.

Is that ALL that they could find after 14 months? Taxpayers should demand their money back, from the Republicans.

It's not surprising that the Republicans have made such a fuss over Whitewater, there's nothing else to harangue President Clinton about.

The economy is doing well, the stock market continues to set new records, he helped bring peace to both the Middle East and Bosnia and stopped the flood of refugees from Haiti. It's no wonder that the Republicans had to initiate the Whitewater witch hunt just to find something to criticize the president about. The real irony in the whole Whitewater investigation is that the great majority of Americans just don't care what happened 10 years ago in the Arkansas land deal. What we do care about is that some of our elected representatives have spent our tax dollars and 14 months of their time conducting a smear campaign for political purposes. Like the government shutdowns last winter, the final report of the Whitewater investigation adds up to Republicans again shooting themselves in the foot.

BRIAN V. CAMDEN

Virginia Beach, June 21, 1996 by CNB