[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 140 (Thursday, October 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1988-E1989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NOW MORE THAN EVER, IT'S TIME FOR AN INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 9, 1997

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to direct your attention to 
the following ``Tale of the Tapes'' editorial from the Albany Times 
Union, a newspaper circulated in my district. The editorial criticizes 
the Clinton administration for its feeble attempt to explain away its 
delay in forwarding videotapes of the White House coffees. The 
administration's most recent and abominable excuse for its inadvertent 
overlooking of the video tapes is that they entered the wrong word 
search on the computer.
  The administration's the buck-stops-there philosophy seems to now 
have gone beyond the customary excuses and is reliant on more creative 
ones. The mishaps, stalling, and inadvertent overlooking is at an all 
time high in the White House. And in the midst of all this, Attorney 
General Janet Reno remains hesitant to appoint an independent counsel 
to investigate the campaign finance violations and abuses originating 
in the White House and risks being seen as a cohort in all of this. It 
has become apparent that Ms. Reno cannot carry-the-ball and shed some 
light on these campaign finance illegalities, I thinks it's time that 
she hand the ball over to an independent counsel who can.


[[Page E1989]]



              [From the Albany Times Union, Oct. 8, 1997]

                           Tales of the Tapes


The White House strains credulity in its latest attempt to explain why 
                 videos of coffees were late to surface

       The Clinton administration is repeating a tawdry chapter of 
     history in its feeable attempt to explain away its delay in 
     forwarding videotapes of President Clinton attending White 
     House coffees where campaign contributors were guests. The 
     White House has, however, added a new cyberspace twist to it 
     all.
       The tapes had been sought by the Senate committee looking 
     into 1996 campaign fund-raising practices by both Democrats 
     and Republicans. Though filmed in 1995 and 1996, the videos 
     weren't anywhere to be found until last weekend, when a 90-
     minute sampler was forwarded to Senate investigators and the 
     Justice Department.
       In the words of Lanny J. Davis, a special White House 
     counsel, the tapes had been ``inadvertently'' overlooked.
       Never mind that this administration has used 
     ``inadvertent'' to explain away so many lapses that the word 
     now ranks in the political lexicon right along with such 
     staples as ``stonewall'' and ``plausible deniability.'' This 
     time, however, the twist is that the computer made them do 
     it.
       How so? The White House says it ordered a search for the 
     tapes, just as the Senate committee requested. Somehow, 
     though, the diligent, trusted White House aides came up empty 
     handed. Turns out they were entering the wrong word search in 
     the computer.
       Instead of searching under the word coffee, they were busy 
     searching under the words fund raising.
       Thus a new blame-it-on-technology excuse enters the 
     political lexicon, right along with the tried and true 
     evasion of blaming the secretary for an 18-minute erasure on 
     a Nixon audiotape.
       It's difficult to decide who looks more foolish in the wake 
     of these revelations--Mr. Davis and has boss, or Attorney 
     General Janet Reno, who wasn't told of the tapes until after 
     she announced that her Justice Department had found no 
     evidence that President Clinton had violated any laws by 
     attending the coffees.
       Now there is talk of even more tapes of political fund-
     raisers that have yet to be released by the White House. 
     Little wonder that Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican 
     who is co-sponsor of major campaign finance reform 
     legislation, is shaking his head and saying, ``I've never 
     seen anything like it.''
       All the more reason for Ms. Reno to face up to her 
     obligation to appoint a special prosecutor.

     

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