[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 107 (Friday, August 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        CONGRESS' RESPONSIBILITY

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I know the distinguished Senator from Hawaii 
is waiting for the Senator from Alaska. If he does not mind, I will 
take a few minutes. It may come as a great surprise that Robert Fiske 
is no longer the special counsel. The court appointed Kenneth Starr in 
what is described as a stunning move to replace Mr. Fiske, which 
indicates that the court did act independently.
  They do not impugn the integrity of anybody, including Mr. Fiske. I 
see this maybe as an opportunity for Congress to go back and try to 
rehabilitate itself and carry out the responsibilities we have as the 
Congress because, whether Mr. Fiske was correct or not, he was telling 
us when we could have hearings, what the hearings could be about, what 
questions we could ask and, in fact, I listened particularly to the 
sham hearings on the House side: ``Oh, Mr. Fiske says we can't do that; 
Mr. Fiske says we can't do that.''
  Mr. Fiske no longer has responsibility. The three-member panel has 
appointed Kenneth Starr, who has a good reputation as a private 
attorney in Washington. He was Solicitor General during the Bush 
administration and sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.
  I just hope that the Congress of the United States, even though it is 
controlled by the other party, will now go back and take a look at our 
responsibility--our responsibility. Take a look at the Constitution. 
Take a look at four or five major laws that say we have a right and we 
have a responsibility for oversight that we delegated or relegated, 
whatever, to Robert Fiske.
  My colleagues in the majority party were very happy to hide behind 
Robert Fiske because he was not going to let the hearings happen. We 
have only had about 1 percent of hearings in the Banking Committee. I 
must say, as far as I am concerned, members on both sides of the aisle 
in the Banking Committee did a fine job. I will say of Senator Riegle, 
the chairman, that he was very fair, as was the ranking Republican, 
Senator D'Amato.
  Now, I think it is time for Congress to regroup and reestablish our 
authority. We were taking orders from an unelected bureaucrat appointed 
by the Attorney General, and we were liking it, or the majority party 
was liking it.
  So now, hopefully, the American people will understand this is a very 
serious matter. It is a very serious matter and we have very serious 
responsibilities. I am prepared to start immediately with the majority 
leader and anybody else to develop a plan for full-scale hearings so 
Congress will have the investigatory power. It will not be parceled out 
by somebody called a special investigator. I hope Mr. Starr will 
understand that we have responsibilities and that somebody else 
appointed will not tell us who we can hear, what we can hear, when we 
can do it, how far it can go, what the scope may be.
  So, Mr. President, as it says in the wire story:

       In a stunning move, a three-judge panel today appointed 
     former Federal judge and solicitor Kenneth W. Starr to take 
     over the Whitewater investigation as an independent counsel. 
     He will replace Robert B. Fiske.
       A special three-judge panel said it intended no criticism 
     of Mr. Fiske, who had been investigating Whitewater since 
     January 20, when Attorney General Janet Reno appointed him 
     special counsel.
        It is not our intent to impugn the integrity of the 
     Attorney General's appointee, but rather to reflect the 
     intent of the act, that the act be protected against 
     perceptions of conflict, the judges wrote in a four-page 
     order.

  Without casting any aspersions--I have no quarrel with Mr. Fiske as a 
person--I think the way he compartmentalized the hearings and rationed 
what we could do, the Congress of the United States was taking orders.
  We supposedly represent the people of the United States. We have all 
been elected, and we did not exercise our rights. That is our fault, 
not Robert Fiske's fault. I think this may be a positive move, and I 
look forward to complete extensive and exhaustive hearings into the 
Whitewater/Madison matters so we can set the record straight and get on 
with our other business.

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