-Caveat Lector-
May 17, 2001
ESSAY
The Senate Plumbers
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
WASHINGTON - The American Spectator is a feisty little right-wing
magazine that drove the Clinton White House crazy.
One of its reporters flushed out "Troopergate," the story of an Arkansas
public employee's harassment by then-Governor Clinton, which started the
train of cover-ups that led to his impeachment.
Another scandal - far more venal - was covered by James Ring Adams about
Clinton's connection to the Indonesian billionaire James Riady. In
exposing the curious fund-raising of John Huang, Riady's man with the
run of the White House, I found the early Spectator material useful in
writing columns that helped trigger a reluctant investigation and
ultimate conviction of both felons.
Weeks ago, the author of the first "Troopergate" piece - David Brock,
who has since flipped to become a passionate defender of the Clintons -
went to The Washington Post with allegations against Ted Olson, the Bush
nominee for solicitor general.
He claimed that Olson, whose law firm represented the magazine, was an
active part of an expensive project to expose Clinton malefactions.
Nobody disputes that the "the Arkansas project" existed (and Clintonites
got the Justice Department to investigate, which led nowhere). The
Spectator Foundation's board hired Coopers & Lybrand to review, not
audit, who was paid what, and only its conclusions of no wrongdoing were
announced.
In confirmation hearings, Olson testified that he was the magazine's
lawyer, not its editor, and made no editorial decisions; moreover, the
magazine was engaged in journalism protected by the First Amendment.
But to some Democrats, Olson has two strikes against him: (1) he was the
lawyer who brilliantly argued and won the Florida case for Bush before
the Supreme Court, and (2) his wife, Barbara, wrote a book flaying
Hillary Clinton that appeared during her Senate campaign. A top
Democratic aide gleefully told Neil Lewis of The New York Times, "there
is a certain sweetness to watching this."
The sweet payback, however, requires trampling on the First Amendment.
Ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy demanded that Olson, as the magazine's
attorney, and now Bob Tyrrell, editor of the Spectator, "provide copies
of the internal audit, board books and minutes . . . and all notes
and records of Board discussions of the audit. . . ."
That includes expense accounts, telephone records and other ways to
expose journalistic sources. When the publication ignored this
outrageous intrusion, Leahy warned, "should that request be declined,
the committee as a whole should take appropriate action to obtain the
information."
The last time senators tried to invade editorial sources was in the
Thomas confirmation, when reporters were leaked Anita Hill's
inflammatory testimony. Nina Totenberg of NPR (represented by Floyd
Abrams) and Tim Phelps of Newsday (represented by Ted Olson) cited the
First Amendment and refused to identify sources. The Senate backed off.
So did the House, when an angry committee in 1976 threatened to send
Daniel Schorr, then of CBS, to jail for contempt. As recounted in his
memoir, "Staying Tuned," he replied, "To betray a source would be for me
to betray myself, my career and my life . . . I cannot do it."
What will Tyrrell and his associates do if Senate investigators come
knocking? "Nothing covered by the First Amendment," he says, "will be
revealed by me."
Vermont's Pat Leahy is the best senator the Democrats have. He is my
longtime friend, a stalwart on privacy and totally devoid of
vindictiveness. "There are discrepancies in Olson's testimony," he
argues. "I just want to know if he was paid what he said he was paid."
He will not see that waving a vacuum cleaner at an editorial office is
no way for Congress to go after the facts. This aberrant behavior
recalls what Benjamin Franklin wrote to George Washington about John
Adams, cited in David McCullough's monumental biography of Adams:
"Always an honest man, and often a wise man, but sometimes and in some
things he is absolutely out of his senses."
Come back to the Constitution, Pat. Let journalists joust with
journalists and senators berate other senators; let politicians snap
back at persnickety editors to their hearts' content - but never permit
the investigative power of government to chill the expression of any
opinion or report of what the writer has reason to believe to be the
truth.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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