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Fred Thompson Wimps Out and The White House Comes Out Swinging
Fred Thompson - has he lost our attention?
Wednesday, September 24th 1997: It's about time. Perhaps someone at the White House is reading this column. Maybe Bill Clinton is growing tired of playing defense. Whatever it is, Clinton broke his silence yesterday as part of a well-orchestrated Administration offensive seeking to defend Attorney General Janet Reno, giving her a chance to slap down an over-zealous attempt by Republicans to blackmail her into appointing a special prosecutor aimed at Clinton/Gore fundraising excesses.
Anyone with just a scintilla of common sense realizes that GOP calls for "appointment (of an independent counsel) or impeachment (of Reno)" are simply a lot of hogwash, but Republicans have, up until now, been doing a better job convincing John & Jane Q. Public that revelations re Al Gore making phone calls and Bill Clinton "maybe" doing the same is some kind of high felony worthy of an imperial tribunal.
It isn't much of an offense yet, but rumors that Democrats now have testimony from dozens of witnesses who'll swear they've seen Republican Senators, House members and "others" make fundraising calls from federal offices surfaced over the weekend and circulated among Capitol Hill staffers early last week. The quiet message from the White House: "If you want to play hard ball, we'll play hard ball."
It was also no coincidence that Senator Fred Thompson moved away from tabloid-style Democrat bashers to esteemed intellectuals as witnesses this week. He knew Democrats were ready to launch their own attack, but were thrown off schedule by the preemptive "Impeach Reno" strike orchestrated by leading Republicans in both houses.
Janet Reno - Looking for a way out
It was clear that Reno needed help if she was to successfully resist mounting extortive pressure from Republicans and a blood thirsty media to appoint an independent counsel. Reno had already cleaned house and begun the 90 day process toward special counsel selection. Something had to give.
But when the dust settled, The White House came out swinging, circulating talking points among its staff, and Democrat leadership as well as unsealing the presidential lips themselves. While the White House can't communicate directly with the Attorney General on this matter, it was clear they needed to set a comfortable stage for her to reject the theory that a 114 year-old law banning campaign fund solicitation from federal employees applied to elected officials operating from their offices.
Arlen Specter - Who me?
It appears that a decision was made to have the President stop stonewalling the issue and utilize other talking heads to assert that not only was the law not on point, but that any elected official was free to make calls from their Washington suites. The brightest pundits began picking up on this theme as early as Sunday when one embarrassed Senator -- Arlen Specter -- was asked if he made such calls from his Senate offices. He paused, stammered and finally said he had "another private office" for that purpose. The interviewer pressed him on why he felt it necessary to move from one office to another and Specter's reply was wanting, telegraphing the fact that even he wasn't convinced the law was designed as Republicans touted.
Mike McCurry-Trial ballooning
After two trial balloons, one from Mike McCurry and another from presidential adviser Rahm Emanuel, the decision was made to hit the Republicans harder this week. Yesterday, the President responded to reporters in New York, "I believe what I did and what the vice president did was legal," he said. That one sentence accomplished a few things. He admits he and Al Gore "did" something, but dismisses the charge of illegality. By responding at all, he also ended his silence, signalling an offensive in the making.
Thomas Mann - Is anyone listening?
If Democrats do their job, then the words of Thomas Mann of the centrist Brookings Institution will seep into the public consciousness within the week:
"Remember, the purpose of the law was to protect federal employees from being shaken down by their political masters.It was not designed to prohibit fund-raising calls from public facilities, since telephones weren't known at the time."
Mann made this remark in front of Fred Thompson's committee yesterday before the committee was forced to adjourn at the official request of Tom Daschle -- a request that stopped all Senate activity under its historic Rules -- for the day. [Daschle was angry at Trent Lott's failure to bring campaign finance reform to debate in a timely manner, the protracted investigation of Mary Landrieu's Senate race in Louisiana and failure to confirm federal judicial appointments. Lott almost immediately agreed to schedule hearings on the McCain-Feingold bill in October.]
Tom Daschle - Stealth Senator
Fred Thompson may be sorry he took the spotlight off character assassination, but he had little choice. If the hearings had continued they way they were going, Democrats promised to bring up a raft of Republican misfeasance that would shock Americans as much, or more so than the buffet of Democrat shenanigans thus far served up by the chairman.
Thompson, yesterday, all but admitted his obliged mistake in switching gears from slander to egghead opinion, saying there was plenty of time for a replay of foreign money and Democrat fundraising abuse later on. But the hearings are scheduled to recess in November. When, I ask, will Thompson have the opportunity to regain the public's attention? The answer is unclear. Let's hope the Senator is smart enough to let the less-than-thoughtful Rep. Dan Burton take the heat in the House from now on. Thompson has achieved all he can in the Senate and for himself personally. In the process, he's made a kind of ass of himself -- alleging ridiculous Chinese plots to influence the elections and a plethora of other accusations that have miserably failed to materialize. If he truly wants to be president someday, he ought to take the money of increased visibility and run.
Bill Clinton - Saving Reno, Gore and his legacy. Can he do it? You bet.
A glance around Thompson's hearing room told the story yesterday. Reporters weren't interested in the musings of Washington intellectuals regarding the repair of the campaign finance system.
The room was virtually empty.
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