[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 21 (Wednesday, March 2, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           WHITEWATER SCANDAL

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 2, 1994

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, this past week there appeared two 
editorials, one in the New York Times on February 27 and the other in 
the Washington Post on February 28, that I would like to bring to the 
attention of my colleagues and the American people.
  When the two most liberal and pro-Clinton papers in America start 
raising questions about the ethical climate in the White House, you 
just know something is rotten in Denmark, or in this case Little Rock.
  But one thing is certain. The sooner we get to the bottom of this 
sordid business the better. And we won't have all the answers the 
American people deserve unless Congress exercises its oversight 
authority and looks into the Whitewater scandal.

              [From the New York Times, February 27, 1994]

                      Slovenly White House Ethics

       President Clinton and his helpers keep saying they have 
     nothing to hide on Whitewater. So some evil genie must be 
     making them act as if they do. The latest affront is the 
     boneheaded conclave convened by Deputy Treasury Secretary 
     Roger Altman to give a ``heads up'' to three White House 
     officials about the Resolution Trust Corporation inquiry into 
     a savings and loan association connected to Mr. and Mrs. 
     Clinton.
       Mr. Altman said he wanted to brief Bernard Nussbaum, the 
     White House counsel, Harold Ickes, the deputy chief of staff, 
     and Margaret Williams, the First Lady's chief of staff, on 
     when the statute of limitations would run out on the R.T.C. 
     investigation of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan.
       That is an interesting question and not unrelated to other 
     questions that Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee 
     and other reasonably curious Americans would like to have 
     answered. Here are four:
       1. Was Madison used to convert Clinton campaign funds to 
     personal funds for the then Governor?
       2. Did a regulator appointed by Governor Clinton go easy on 
     Madison because it was owned by the Clinton's political ally, 
     James McDougal, who was also the Clinton's business partner 
     in the Whitewater Development Company?
       3. Did the Clintons pay the same amount of money for their 
     half share of Whitewater that Mr. McDougal paid for his? This 
     question is important because if bears on whether Mr. 
     Clinton, while Governor, received gifts or claimed 
     underserved tax deductions in connection with Whitewater.
       4. Did Mrs. Clinton's law firm behave properly in its 
     dealings with Madison and bank regulators?
       Given that such questions are now before a special counsel 
     and the R.T.C., a meeting between Mr. Altman and top White 
     House aides was improper on its face. It could never have 
     taken place in a White House that had even a rudimentary 
     respect for the common-sense rules on conflict of interest. 
     The Clinton team has taken the nation back to the sham ethics 
     of the early Reagan Administration. That crowd believed 
     conflicts of interest could not exist since they could not 
     conceive of letting any law or rule of propriety interfere 
     with the political and financial interests of the President 
     or his buddies.
       The stated reason for this meeting will not wash. 
     Information on the statute of limitations could be had from 
     the newspapers or a brief memo from the R.T.C. legal staff. 
     Senator Alfonse D'Amato and Representative Jim Leach 
     therefore have reason to suspect that the goal of the meeting 
     was to control political damage or compromise the R.T.C.'s 
     investigation. Who knows what the White House has learned 
     about the R.T.C. findings? After all, it was only through Mr. 
     D'Amato's efforts that the Government released an R.T.C. 
     document suggesting that Mrs. Clinton's law firm had failed 
     at proper disclosure of its dealings with Madison.
       In response to bad publicity, Mr. Altman has recused 
     himself from the R.T.C. inquiry on Whitewater. His R.T.C. 
     deputy should now take over all his duties at the agency 
     until a permanent director is appointed. Senator Donald 
     Riegle, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, needs 
     to step up his committee's oversight activities. Other 
     Democrats like Senator John Kerry need to cease their myopic 
     defense of Mr. Clinton on a matter about which neither the 
     Senator nor the public has been fully informed.
       Opposition leaders are right when they say that a 
     Republican White House that so recklessly meddled in the 
     Justice Department, the R.T.C. and other agencies would be 
     shelled with endless Congressional investigations. It is time 
     for the Democratic Congressional leaders, Thomas Foley and 
     George Mitchell, to try to educate this White House about the 
     normal protocols of governance. Explaining what 
     Representative Leach meant when he said ``arms length'' would 
     be a start.
       Clinton aides behave as if their President had deep 
     deposits of public trust. In fact, that account was pretty 
     slim when Mr. Clinton got to Washington, and it is just about 
     tapped out now.

               [From the Washington Post, Feb. 28, 1994]

                           Whitewater Recusal

       Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman's decision to recuse 
     himself from all matters relating to the investigation of the 
     Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan failure was belated but 
     proper. Besides his personal friendship with President and 
     Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Altman also serves as acting chief of the 
     Resolution Trust Corp. It's the independent federal agency 
     charged with disposing of collapsed savings and loans and 
     pursuing civil and criminal cases against those associated 
     with the failures, including officers, borrowers, accountants 
     and lawyers.
       Mr. Altman's disclosure last Thursday that he had recently 
     briefed White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and two top 
     aides to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton on how the RTC would proceed 
     with potential claims growing out of Madison's failure drew 
     Republican charges that the White House was improperly 
     involved in a case that affects the Clintons personally. On 
     Friday, Mr. Altman said that while his briefing was confined 
     to procedural issues confronting the RTC and not matters 
     related to the Madison case, he had exercised ``bad 
     judgment'' by initiating contact with the White House. ``If I 
     had it to do all over again, I wouldn't,'' he said. There are 
     good reasons, however, why he should never have entertained 
     the idea of going over to the White House in the first place.
       Mrs. Clinton and her former Rose Law Firm partners 
     represented Madison in the mid-1980s. Her firm also sued 
     Madison's accountants on behalf of the federal government in 
     1989. The Clintons were also business partners with James 
     McDougal, owner of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and 
     Loan. The Clinton-McDougal joint investment in the Whitewater 
     land venture also had a banking relationship with Madison. It 
     was inappropriate for the head of an independent regulatory 
     agency to give a ``heads up'' (to use Mr. Altman's words) to 
     White House advisers of the Clintons who are his friends and 
     who are also potential defendants in RTC civil suits.
       If, however, it was wrong for appearances sake for Mr. 
     Altman to offer a briefing, it was inappropriate for the same 
     reason for Mr. Nussbaum, deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes 
     and Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff Margaret Williams to accept 
     the invitation. The Whitewater probe is a personal matter for 
     the Clintons and does not involve the presidency. With the 
     hiring of private attorney David Kendall to represent the 
     Clintons' interests in ``Whitewater,'' White House staff, 
     absent a showing of an official link to the White House, 
     should keep their hands off the probe.

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