Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.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: Overpowered by Funk Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 15:07:21 EST Message-ID: Lines: 85 \SE E;COMMENTARY;EDITORIAL \HD Overpowered by Funk And so, Tamposigate - a classic exercise in Washington scandalmongering centering on the search for Bill Clinton's passport files by Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Elizabeth Tamposi - entered its next scheduled phase last week with the release of State Department Inspector General Sherman Funk's report. Mr. Funk found "an attempt to use the records and employees of [the State Department] to influence the outcome of a presidential election" - a "heinous" offense. Sounds bad, but Mr. Funk had barely finished speaking before his report was being dismissed as grossly inadequate by those who have been enjoying themselves trafficking in this scandal. Raises more questions than it answers, averred The Washington Post editorial page archly. What did the White House know and when did it know it? demanded the New York Times editorial page. In fact, as we shall see, the inspector general's report is woefully inadequate. But the way the Bush administration's enemies in the media have grabbed this story and held onto it - namely, with the determination of an angry ferret - is astonishing to behold. Mr. Bush lost the election, after all. All the alleged dirty tricks and character assassinations and Willie Hortons in the world couldn't stop Mr. Clinton. Mr. Clinton is in, George Bush is out. There is no need for a Watergate-type scandal to get rid of the Republicans this time. And yet it seems that that is what we must have. It is becoming increasingly clear that what we are seeing results from a fervent (if unacknowledged) desire to see Bush administration officials go to prison. They may end up being charged with violating 18 U.S.C. 595 or 371 or 1001 or whatever, but their real crime is having deprived Democrats of power for too long. Mrs. Tamposi's actual improper behavior consisted of exactly this and no more: She acted in a way that may have violated obscure procedures for handling Freedom of Information Act requests. She was a political appointee who owed her position to John Sununu (who was exorcized from the administration in a previous scandal, and thus unable to protect her). In light of "disclosures" about her activities in the State Department - actually, a highly selective presentation of evidence against her in The Post - Mr. Bush and his acting secretary of state, Lawrence Eagleburger, threw her overboard. That did not end the matter, of course, and we now reach the point in this scandal where allegations of coverup and looking the other way take center stage. An illustration: In Appendix D of Mr. Funk's report, we find reproduced an Oct. 2 memorandum the inspector general wrote for his files on actions in response to the concerns of Mrs. Tamposi and her subordinates that Mr. Clinton's passport files had been tampered with. In this memo, which is excerpted below, Mr. Funk describes his detailed conversations about the files and the search with no fewer than 11 high-ranking officials, including the secretary of state, the department's chief legal adviser, Mr. Funk's own chief legal adviser, the attorney general of the United States and the attorney general's chief legal adviser. Not one of them, as described by Mr. Funk, raised the slightest concern about how or why these files were being examined. Why not? "A conspiracy so immense"? No. Probably because none of them thought there was anything particularly wrong with examining those files. And they were right. Their problem is that they didn't have the nerve to stick to that conviction once The Post decided this was a scandal. They have instead found it convenient, in retrospect, to rail against this "heinous" exercise in politicizing the State Department. It won't work. At the press conference Wednesday, at which the inspector general's report was released, a reporter asked Mr. Eagleburger why, when he first found out about the file search (on Oct. 1), he didn't shut it down. "Shut down?" Mr. Eagleburger asked in response. "I don't know what it is we're supposed to shut down." Mr. Eagleburger either didn't understand the question or pretended not to. It is, however, a question he and Mr. Funk - and all the other officials who knew about this but have decided to try to cut and run - are going to come to understand very well as this partisan witch hunt continues. 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