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Clinton Coffee Tapes - Don't Ask, Don't tell
The President in the Map Room
Tuesday, October 7th 1997: Even I, often erroneously accused as being "Defender of the Faith" for Clinton/Gore, don't believe that no one knew about the already infamous White House Coffee tapes. Not that it makes much difference. The tapes, complete with Former DNC chair Don Fowler unwilling to accept a pile of checks from one over-zealous donor, speak for themselves, and at least for now seem to underscore the White House line that coffees weren't fundraisers. At least not exactly.
But let me add that any staffer who did remember the coffees were taped, most likely decided to keep quiet about it and hope it went away. They probably didn't check with the ever-present film crew who hovers around the Oval Office nearly 15 hours a day -- capturing the POTUS for posterity. They never mentioned it to anyone. If the President remembered it, he would have kept it to himself.
Ever since Watergate, an atmosphere of suspicion and closed-mouthedness pervades Washington. If anything is even potentially embarrassing or controversial it just isn't talked about. Period.
That's the way things go in high-level politics. Deniability - a key to keeping the candidate clean. You don't go running to the President to remind him that the coffees were taped. Because if you tell him, then he knows, and then he has to do, or not do, something about it. There's a record of the conversation. So, you tuck the information away, and hope for the best. If it comes out, as it did here, then you put the best spin on it possible.
Ickes testifies today
Sure, I'll bet a dozen White House staffers knew the first few minutes of each coffee were taped. Certainly, the attendees noticed, probably happily, that the film crew was shooting the scene. "Maybe I can get a copy," each thought, "Wouldn't that make 'em stand up and take notice at home - me sipping java with Bill." Certainly the film crew recalled the events.
And as the alleged fundraising scandals emerged, lips sealed tighter. No one talked. Not one witness mentioned the tapes to Fred Thompson. The brighter the spotlight, the tighter the cheshire smile.
"All I can tell you is that as soon as I found about it late last week, I said, 'Get this out and let's go on.' And you can view the tapes and draw your own conclusions," Clinton said - and he was telling the truth. He didn't remember -- after all his entire life, for the past five years has been videotaped. The operative words here? -- "As soon as I found out about it." For if the President hadn't been told, he wouldn't have to have acted. Simple as that.
Whether it's obstruction of justice to conveniently forget that the White House Communications Agency made the tapes is an issue for lawyers. But it's tough to prove intent, especially if the tapes don't contain any hint of felonious conduct on the part of the host and attendees.
They were thrilled to be there.
I watched all 44 tapes early this morning. What I saw were a bunch of goo-goo eyed supporters, thrilled to be in the President's company. If they donated a lot of money, before or after the coffee, it was clearly worth it to each of them. Many of the attendees were obviously not big donors. I spied Mr. Tamraz, John Huang, Harold Ickes, and others I knew from my own years on "K" Street. What I didn't see was money changing hands. What I didn't hear were requests for donations. It wasn't necessary. Everyone knew their place, everyone knew what was expected of them.
Janet Reno - unhappy camper?
The White House is embarrassed. Janet Reno is not a happy camper. She had just given the President a clean bill of health while White House staffers were watching the tapes she hadn't seen. Whether they would have changed her mind isn't the point. She should have had the opportunity to view them before giving Mr. Clinton the thumbs up.
Republicans are not buying the excuses, but unless there's a video of President Clinton asking for money on those tapes, it's the same old story -- much ado about nothing. And you know what, even if the President was taped asking for money -- it's still up in the air whether he violated any law.
Harold Ickes, due to testify this morning before the Senate Oversight Committee said, "The left hand probably didn't know what the right had was doing on some of the subpoenas and also they've had so many subpoenas in the White House and so many document requests, and they've had to go through so many documents it's not unusual to have overlooked something."
What he should have said was that the left hand didn't tell the right hand what it was doing. That might have been closer to the truth.
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