[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 18, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2487-S2488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE NOMINATION OF ANTHONY LAKE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter 
submitted by Anthony Lake to the President involving his nomination to 
be Director of Central Intelligence be printed in the Congressional 
Record at this time.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                              The White House,

                                       Washington, March 17, 1997.
     The President,
     The White House,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: I am writing to ask that you withdraw 
     my nomination to be Director of Central Intelligence.
       I do so not because of concern that the nomination would be 
     defeated if it ever came to a vote. In fact, there are 
     sufficient votes for confirmation--in both the Select 
     Committee and the Senate.
       And not because of concern about further personal attacks. 
     That gauntlet has been run. Every question has been answered.
       I do so because I have regretfully concluded that it is the 
     right thing to do.
       While we have made great progress in the nomination process 
     over the past month and during last week's hearings. I have 
     learned over the weekend that the process is once again faced 
     by endless delay. It is a political football in a game with 
     constantly moving goal posts.
       After more than three months, I have finally lost patience, 
     and the endless delays are hurting the CIA and NSC staff in 
     ways I can no longer tolerate.
       I am told that the Chairman of the committee, having now 
     reviewed the positive FBI materials underlying the report on 
     my background investigation, may want other members of the 
     committee to read them. I had doubts about the precedent we 
     have already set in allowing him and the Vice Chairman such 
     access. To bend principle further would even more discourage 
     future nominees to this or other senior positions from 
     entering public service.
       I am also told that his committee staff will again insist 
     that NSC staff meet with the committee on terms that White 
     House Counsel will find unacceptable, leading to a further 
     stalemate on that issue as well.
       In addition, the story today about the activities of Mr. 
     Roger Tamraz is likely to lead to further delay as an 
     investigation proceeds.
       All of this means a nomination process that has no end in 
     sight. We have been proceeding on the assumption that there 
     would be a vote this week. It now seems certain the committee 
     deliberations will extend past the recess until after Easter, 
     and probably longer. In addition, even after the nomination 
     receives a vote in committee, whenever that might be, there 
     is no prospect for a near-term vote on the floor and every 
     chance it will be extended as long as your political 
     opponents can do so.
       I have gone through the past three months and more with 
     patience and, I hope, dignity. But I have lost the former and 
     could lose the latter as this political circus continues 
     indefinitely. As Senator Richard Lugar, perhaps the most 
     respected member of the Senate, has said with regard to my 
     nomination and its treatment, ``The whole confirmation 
     process has become more and more outrageous.'' It is nasty 
     and brutish without being short.
       If this were a game, I would persist until we won. My 
     colleagues tell me to stay the course, lest I be perceived 
     the loser or scared of a further fight. I'm not.
       But this is not a game. And this process is not primarily 
     about me. It is about the future of the Central Intelligence 
     Agency. The Agency, once again, is becoming politicized. The 
     longer this goes on, the worse the damage. The controversy 
     and its effects could linger on after my confirmation. The 
     men and women of the CIA deserve better than this.
       The process is also impugning, through a new form of guilt 
     by association, the names of NSC staff members who have done 
     nothing wrong. So long as my nomination is mired in partisan 
     politics their reputations will be, as well. It is ironic 
     that the staff, which in every case took the right positions 
     in keeping national security decisions and domestic politics 
     separate, as I had encouraged them to do, is now the staff 
     bearing the brunt of criticism because it didn't go beyond 
     its own responsibilities to manage others' business as well. 
     This is a staff that was doing its job properly. There was 
     never any disguise of wrong-doing; they were consistently 
     doing right in the advice they offered, while concentrating 
     on the large daily agenda of important national security 
     issues before us. I am very proud of our work on these issues 
     and very proud of our staff members.
       In unprecedented fashion the nomination is also 
     politicizing the Senate committee.
       And I have noticed that, in numerous ways, it is poisoning 
     the attitude of members of the Agency towards the committee.
       Most of all, the way this process has been conducted would 
     make it difficult for me to work with the committee in the 
     ways that a Director of Central Intelligence must do--and as 
     I had hoped to do.
       I am deeply grateful to you for your strong support, for 
     your encouragement over these difficult months, and--most of 
     all--for the opportunity to serve over the past four years. I 
     am very proud of your foreign policy record and of whatever 
     contributions I made to it.
       I have greatly appreciated the support of Senators McCain, 
     Lugar, Lieberman, Kerrey, Kerry, Kennedy and many others, 
     like John Deutch. I have been moved by the principled 
     position of a large number of Republicans like John McCain, 
     Warren Rudman, Richard Lugar, Robert Gates and Peter King. 
     And I am especially grateful to the volunteers from the NSC 
     who have put so much into this, as well as officials of the 
     CIA. I am sorry that their efforts were not better rewarded.
       I have believed all my life in public service. I still do. 
     But Washington has gone haywire.
       I hope that, sooner rather than later, people of all 
     political views beyond our city limits will demand that 
     Washington give priority to policy over partisanship, to 
     governing over ``gotcha.'' It is time that senior officials 
     have more time to concentrate on dealing with very real 
     foreign challenges rather than with the domestic wounds that 
     Washington is inflicting on itself.
       This is a very difficult decision. I was excited about this 
     new opportunity to serve. I had developed firm ideas on how 
     to bring further reform to the Agency and had no doubt about 
     my capacity to implement them. I was ready to devote four 
     years to a tough new challenge. I truly regret that I will 
     not have the opportunity to seize it.
           Sincerely,
                                                     Anthony Lake.

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I do so simply to comment on the very 
unfortunate set of circumstances that led to the decision by Mr. Lake 
to submit this letter.
  I have had the opportunity to work with Tony Lake now for some time; 
first, as a Senator; and, second, as leader. I must say that I do not 
know that I have ever met anybody more decent, more committed, more 
dedicated to public service than is Tony Lake. Our Nation owes him a 
big debt of gratitude for his contributions, and a great level of 
appreciation for the many ways in which he has already served his 
country. I only hope that he will continue to choose to do so in spite 
of these extraordinary circumstances.

[[Page S2488]]

  Mr. Lake was asked to be the Director of Central Intelligence by the 
President of the United States. It has been the prerogative of the 
President to name people within his administration, going all the way 
back to George Washington. Of course, there are times when the Senate 
in its role as a body to serve with advise and consent that it has 
disagreed with the President about a particular nomination, or about a 
particular member of a given administration. But I must say in all of 
history I challenge somebody to come up with more flimsy evidence with 
which to destroy the character of a candidate for public office 
appointed by the President as grievously as what I see has happened to 
Tony Lake in the last several months.
  Mr. Lake was not even given the opportunity to be voted on, never 
presented an opportunity for a vote in the committee, never presented 
with an opportunity to be voted on on the floor.
  I was asked this morning if this is some retribution for John Tower, 
or Robert Bork. My answer was that I hope our Republican colleagues are 
not that cynical. I hope there is some other motivation for doing to 
Tony Lake what they did over the last couple of months. It is very 
unfortunate. And it is sad, Mr. President. A man of his integrity, his 
character, was treated so shabbily by the committee that is supposed to 
be as devoid of politics as any in this institution. I think they owe 
him an apology. At least they owed him a vote.
  Under these circumstances, I think he made the right decision. But I 
am deeply troubled. I am troubled by the way it was handled. I am 
troubled by the insinuations and allegations all printed on the front 
page of every newspaper as fact. I am troubled by his inability to be 
given the opportunity to defend himself adequately against this never-
ending list of additional allegations and questions going over old 
material time and time again almost as if it was an inquisition.
  So, Mr. President, it is a sad day for this body. It is a sad day for 
the Intelligence Committee. And it certainly is a sad occasion for 
those seeking to serve our country in the capacity and the level as 
Director of Central Intelligence.
  I don't know what recommendation I would give to some other candidate 
who now may consider this particular position. What advice do you give 
someone who puts himself forward knowing full well that there will be 
raw FBI data available to Members, and, if the chairman of the 
committee had his way, to all Members? What do you tell someone who has 
laid himself out? What do you tell the next person who is expected not 
to subject himself or herself to the same set of circumstances?
  Mr. President, this institution needs to restore civility, needs to 
come up with a way with which to take the meanness out of our process, 
whether it is a legislative issue or a nomination. Civility has to be 
brought back into this process. I hope we will start soon.

                          ____________________