Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403060077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CARL M. CANNON THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"The challenge for us is to keep our eyes on the prize, to keep ourselves focused," said presidential adviser Paul Begala. "It's hard to do when you have these endless attacks."
Last week, events seemed to reach a critical mass at the White House. Each day, new revelations hit the news. Key aides conceded it became impossible to concentrate on their other duties. The week culminated in subpoenas for top White House officials of their notes and records of Whitewater-related meetings Friday night and Saturday's forced resignation of White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum.
Saturday, the trash even began to pile up in the West Wing as aides sought to ensure that nothing covered by the subpoena was thrown away. And few administration officials believe they have heard the last of Whitewater.
"What will it take for it to go away?" one senior White House official asked a reporter.
On Friday, a reporter asked the same question of President Clinton, and he turned it back on her.
"Well, I think that's a decision more for you than for me whether there will be a daily spate of stories," he said. "Most of the newspapers in the country asked me to have a special counsel appointed. That's what I have done. I did it so that I could go on with my work."
As he spoke, Clinton was holding a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk in the East Room. The last time he saw Kravchuk, on Jan. 12 in Kiev, was the day he authorized the appointment of an independent counsel to probe Whitewater.
Saturday, a beleaguered president abruptly canceled his golf game and flew with his family to Camp David.
Ostensibly, "Whitewater" concerns the events of Whitewater Development Corp., a soured land deal that the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton entered into in 1978 with another couple, James and Susan McDougal.
What it really is about are much broader themes, some of them typical of the classic Washington scandal, some peculiar to the Clintons.
Whitewater, at least in part, is about Arkansas cronyism, including the web of relationships surrounding Hillary Rodham Clinton in her role as a law parter in Little Rock's largest law firm.
But it is also about having a strong and engaged first lady in the White House, where she is making policy - and enemies.
"Have you noticed how among some people, everything that goes wrong in this White House, whether its Whitewater, health care or other policy [issues], it is somehow Hillary's fault?" asked longtime Democratic party activist Ann Lewis. "That [characterization] offends me."
Finally, Whitewater is about the Clinton administration's handling of the crisis, which has caused some of the administration's adversaries to cry coverup.
"Why are they having all these secret meetings?" asked Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas. "Every day it's a different story. My view is that there must be something there."
"I think that it is clear that the Republicans have behaved in a fairly blatant, bald and totally political way in this regard," Clinton said.
But outside political observers - and top White House officials - agree that the president may be beyond the point where this kind of outburst helps him.
"We've got to keep him focused on the issues we care about, on health care and welfare reform and crime," said one key adviser. "If we stay on this - and get results in Congress - [the public] will stay with him."
Added another White House aide: "If it gets to the point where people think he's spending all of his time on this stuff - on his own business - it will spiral down."
by CNB