Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.comment From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: The dispensable prosecutor Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:23:38 EST Message-ID: \SE G;COMMENTARY \SS (WS) \HD The dispensable prosecutor \SH Shameless meddling \BY Dan Thomasson If there was any doubt about the political nature of the independent counsel's investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal, it was dispelled on the eve of the presidential election. Not only was the re-indictment of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger seemingly timed to do the most damage to President Bush's re-election campaign, it now looks as though Gov. Bill Clinton's campaign may have been given advance notice. The Washington Times has reported that a Clinton campaign press release citing the new indictment and charging that the president lied about his role in the scandal was dated Oct 29 - the day before the indictment was filed in federal district court here. An unnamed smart aleck in Mr. Walsh's office brushed off The Times' inquiry by suggesting that maybe Mr. Clinton got the information by practicing voodoo. Wonderful. And for this kind of behavior, the taxpayers have been charged more than $35 million over six years. The Clinton campaign claims that someone just put the wrong date on the release and that it was prepared quickly on the day of the indictment from initial press reports. But the press release was far too comprehensive for that to ring true. Legal experts note that the Walsh office was under no pressure to file the re-indictment of Mr. Weinberger that came about because the court threw out one of the counts in the first indictment. There seems to have been no statute of limitations problem for moving on the superseding indictment. So if there is no legal necessity to file at that time, why do it? For political reasons, obviously. And the octogenarian Mr. Walsh and his super ambitious deputy, Craig Gillen, can deny it until they are blue in the face and it won't change the fact. They knew when the election was to take place and they knew that George Bush was closing on Mr. Clinton in the polls. They also would have had to have been almost criminally naive or profoundly stupid not to know what this kind of repackaged, warmed-over allegation might do to Mr. Bush. Since they are neither, one can only surmise that their intent was to do just that. A day after their "Halloween surprise," the momentum shifted back to Mr. Clinton. Whether this was the sole reason will be speculated on forever. It probably was not. But it certainly played some part in blunting the president's surge. I was speaking in the Midwest the day it occurred and my audience spent 10 minutes grilling me about it. The alleged advance notice to the Clinton campaign compounds the seriousness of the entire episode, but doesn't change it much. It probably would be very difficult to prove such a leak without appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the special prosecutor. Lord knows that after six years of Mr. Walsh and his gang, the American taxpayer doesn't need another one of those. It is enough to say that the entire affair seems to confirm what opponents of Mr. Walsh have been saying for years - that his motivations have become increasingly political as he has become more and more frustrated over the dismal failure of his prosecutorial efforts. They argue that Mr. Walsh, or perhaps more so Mr. Gillen, realizing that there is not evidence to indict Mr. Bush, decided to at least help defeat him at the polls. If Messrs. Walsh and Gillen bristle at such a suggestion, they should have thought about the consequences before this shameful episode. But then they probably did. Such is the way of arrogance. Dan Thomasson is editor of Scripps Howard News Service. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM