Angry Words At Senate Hearing

Thompson, Levin trade accusations over Democratic request for Bush videotapes

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 23) -- Sen. Fred Thompson today rebuffed a Democratic attempt to seek government videotapes of former President George Bush meeting with campaign contributors at the White House.

Thompson, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, dismissed the request by Sen. Carl Levin for a log of White House Communications Agency (WHCA) videotapes of Bush as a "a fishing expedition."

"What does this have to do with the '96 campaign?" Thompson demanded. "This is a desperate attempt to shift the focus away from the question."

Republicans on the committee this week have zeroed in on the White House coffee videotapes and Clinton's meetings with supporters. But Levin said the Bush tapes would help show whether what Clinton did was really unprecedented.

"You want a fishing expedition," an angry Thompson told Levin (D-Mich.). "How many past administrations do you want?"

"Just one," Levin said.

"Sad, sad, sad," Thompson said. Thompson tried to cut off Levin, who protested, "These are my two minutes!" (192K wav sound)

The Senate committee's inquiry into why it took the White House so long to produce the much-debated coffee videotapes got off to a slow start, as Thompson and Sen. John Glenn again debated the fairness of the panel's investigation.

Thompson opened the morning session by castigating the White House for its delay in producing the tapes, and for keeping information from the Justice Department as well.

"If we had a Justice Department worthy of its name, that would not be tolerated," Thompson said.

'Pound This Information Out Of Them'

Thompson, a Tennessee Republican, called the White House's five-month delay in producing the tapes "unconscionable" and said it was disturbing that "we had to be the ones to pound this information out of them."

But Glenn, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said it wasn't only the White House that has been slow in producing information the committee needs for its probe into campaign-finance abuses, but Bob Dole's campaign and the Republican National Committee as well.

Glenn said Dole campaign manager Scott Reed and deputy finance director Jo-Anne Coe have both refused to give depositions to committee investigators.

Glenn said the committee ought to look for wrongdoing wherever it occurred and push campaign-finance reform legislation.

If the committee locked up every Democrat guilty of wrongdoing in the 1996 campaign, Glenn said, it still wouldn't solve the problems of so-called "soft money" or overseas money flowing into the system.

"We can lock up everybody in sight and it won't fix the system," Glenn said. "We alone can fix the system here."

In between the arguments, there was some testimony by staffers of the White House Communications Agency, which did the videotaping.

Senators and staff investigators questioned Stephen Smith, the agency's director, and other staffers.

Smith testified he never received a White House memo that specifically asked for videotapes, which Thompson said showed that the committee's request "did not find its way down to Mr. Smith and WHCA."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that was "perplexing," but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said too many people knew of the videotaping for anyone to conspire to hide their existence.

"There was a question of misguided information and perhaps incompetence," Durbin said. "That is bad enough, but I don't think there was intentional concealment."

Under Democratic questioning, another WCHA staffer, Chief Petty Officer Charles McGrath, quoted Michael X. Imbroscio, associate counsel to the president, as saying, "Oh, s---," when he saw the existence of relevant tapes in the agency's video database.

Levin questioned WHCA staffers about an allegation by Rep. Dan Burton, who chairs the House committee looking into campaign finance, that the White House fund-raising videotapes may have been doctored. "That's a pretty serious allegation," Levin said.

WHCA officials said none of the tapes had been altered.

The hearings are set to resume at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

In Other News:

Thursday Oct. 23, 1997

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• Angry Words At Senate Hearing
• White House: Child Care Needs Unmet
• Va. Gov. Race: Poll Gives GOP 7-Point Lead
• GOP Steered Donations To Independent Groups
• Fast Track Legislation Is In Jeopardy

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