Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407280070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
On the opening day of politically charged hearings before the House Banking Committee, Democrats defended the Clinton White House while Republicans brushed aside Cutler's innocent portrayals.
Taking the lead for GOP lawmakers, Rep. James Leach of Iowa saw an ``arrogance of power'' in the way a fearful White House tried to handle the fallout from a Resolution Trust Corp. investigation of Arkansas financial dealings.
Cutler acknowledged at least 30 Whitewater ``contacts'' between White House aides and federal agency officials, including a top Justice Department officer. He described the contacts as innocuous, and said they led to no cover-up and no attempts to pressure the federal experts who were examining Arkansas financial failures.
On a scale of one to 10, Cutler said that if the Watergate scandal were a 10, Whitewater would be ``maybe a one or two.''
But Leach said Whitewater was ``a metaphor for privilege, for a government run by a new political class which takes shortcuts to power.''
Cutler was brought in by Clinton to steer the White House through the Whitewater inquiry. Once inside the White House, he said, ``I found there were ... too many discussions about too many sensitive matters'' among officials who feared the RTC could embarrass President and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But bad judgment was the only offense, he said, methodically reading the rules on government ethics and finding no transgressions.
It was the opening skirmish in two weeks of Whitewater hearings. Some of the participants in the administration RTC contacts will be quizzed Thursday before the House panel. Senate hearings begin Friday.
Tuesday's opening, televised on Cable News Network and public television, shed little new light on the Whitewater affair - partly because Democrats had leaked information in advance to dilute any drama in the hearings.
Hour after hour, Cutler gave no ground, and committee Democrats were quick to back him up. Over and over again the 76-year-old presidential adviser said no laws were broken and no ethical standards were breached. He emphasized that no regulators were deterred from their investigations.
The RTC was looking into the S&L that helped stake the Clintons' involvement in Whitewater Estates, a real estate investment that flopped.
The GOP's persistent questioning did little to elicit new information. But there were a few developments:
In a party line 31-19 vote, Democrats decreed that questions concerning the death of Vincent Foster, boyhood friend of Clinton and law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton, would be out of order.
Independent counsel Robert Fiske said his investigation showed Foster's death a suicide, with no Whitewater connections.
Committee Chairman Henry Gonzales, D-Texas, proposed ground rules that forbid asking questions about the Clintons' investment and Foster's death.
``If these ground rules applied to the O.J. Simpson trial, you couldn't ask about the knife, the glove or the blood. Under these ground rules, all you could ask is: `So, O.J., how was the flight to Chicago?''' said Rep. Toby Roth, R-Wis.
Roger Altman, deputy Treasury secretary and friend of Clinton, apologized in writing to Clinton for his decision to meet with White House aides about Whitewater. ``The decision to have that meeting with your staff was dumb. I take full responsibility for it,'' he said.
Altman said ``the appearances escaped me and never should have.''
Cutler said he could now count 30 or more ``contacts'' about Whitewater among White House staffers and government agencies, including one with a high Justice Department official. Originally, the administration acknowledged only one such contact, then a few. Fiske counted about 20.
Cutler, showing a flash of temper, sharply dismissed any comparison of Whitewater with Watergate, which he called the ``granddaddy'' of cover-ups.
by CNB