Tuesday, September 8, 1998

Killing the independent counsel office

By Joseph Spear

Sometime after the turn of the year, Congress will take up the question of whether to reauthorize the Independent Counsel statute. If it is not renewed, it will expire on June 30, 1999.

I say let the sucker die.

As readers of elephantine recall will surely inform me, this sentiment is a complete turnaround on my part. Over the past decade, I have written perhaps a dozen columns adamantly defending the institution of the Independent Counsel. I would still argue it was a lofty endeavor to ensure honesty and integrity in government - and it worked magnificently, until fiercely partisan Republicans began exploiting it for political purposes and thereby ruined it.

The Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC) was created in 1978, in reaction to the Watergate scandal. Congress hoped the counsel would assure "fair, impartial and thorough" investigations of criminal allegations against senior officials; inspire public confidence in government; insulate probes of public officials from politics; and preserve, by virtue of the independent counsel's credibility, the reputations of the wrongfully accused.

During Jimmy Carter's tenure, two top aides were investigated and cleared of cocaine charges. Under Reagan, four then-current and former officials were probed on various criminal allegations. One of them, Michael Deaver, was convicted of perjury, given a suspended prison sentence and fined. Then came the seven-year, $47.4 million Iran-Contra investigation, headed by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, which resulted in 11 convictions, two of which were overturned on technical grounds.

The Walsh probe infuriated Republicans, who loudly proclaimed their hatred of the Independent Counsel statute and subsequently killed it. But Bill Clinton's election brought about a miraculous change in GOP hearts. The statute was re-enacted, and before the end of Clinton's first term, Republicans had succeeded in launching four inquiries. One of them, a probe of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, was terminated after his death in a plane crash. Two others, the investigations of Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, are just getting under way. Consider the quality of three other probes:

Since May of 1995, Special Counsel David Barrett has been investigating whether former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros misled the FBI about the amount of money he paid to a former mistress. Cost of the probe so far: $5.5 million.

Since September of 1994, Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz has spent $15 million investigating whether former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy accepted favors from people whose businesses he was supposed to be regulating. In August of 1997, Smaltz finally indicted Espy for accepting $35,458 worth of football tickets, plane and limousine rides, luggage and crystal bowls. Meanwhile, Smaltz launched a web site (www.oic.gov), on which he posts his accomplishments, including "speeches and articles." No memoirs or poetry collections yet but stay tuned.

Since August of 1994, right-wing hero Kenneth Starr has spent upwards of $40 million investigating the Clintons' involvement in a 20-year-old Arkansas land deal, as well as Travelgate and Filegate. Last January, he finally used Bill Clinton's less-than-forthcoming testimony in the meritless Paula Jones lawsuit to criminalize the president's flaccid morals and has since been probing Clinton's sexual escapades with a White House intern. In the process, he has managed to eviscerate the president's right to confidential communication with his lawyers and aides and has converted the Secret Service into a coven of spies.

In short, in the 20 years of its existence, the OIC's focus has devolved from drug and bribery probes to prurient and highly partisan investigations of sexual peccadilloes. It is clearly time to let the independent counsel law die. Stab the sucker through the heart with a silver dagger and deliver unto Kenneth Starr and his right-wing pals their much-deserved legacy: They killed a noble experiment.

Newspaper Enterprise Assn.