Editorials
Thursday, May 30, 1996
Whitewater verdicts
could affect election
A federal jury in Arkansas has returned verdicts that are certain to keep Whitewater ablaze for the duration of the presidential election campaign. The conviction of two former business partners of President Clinton, in addition to the present Arkansas governor, bolsters the credibility of independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who continues to investigate the scandal. By the same token, the convictions are damaging to Clinton, adding to public skepticism about his character. The effect on his re-election prospects is uncertain - Whitewater has yet to generate public outrage - but it can't help but encourage the prospective Republican candidate, Bob Dole. The verdicts may give Dole a sorely needed lift.
Few expected the sweeping verdicts against James B. McDougal and his former wife, Susan, who were convicted on all but one of 23 counts of fraud and other crimes associated with loans involving the McDougals' savings and loan association in the 1980s. Democratic Gov. Guy Tucker announced after his conviction of two counts that he will resign from office by July 15, yielding the governor's mansion to Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The government's chief witness, David Hale, testified that he had conspired with the McDougals and Tucker to issue loans that looted more than $3 million from the McDougals' savings and loan and Hale's investment company. Both companies were backed by the federal government, so taxpayers absorbed the losses.
Hale, a confessed felon, testified that one of the illegal loans was made as a result of pressure from Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas. In a videotaped deposition, Clinton adamantly denied the allegation and all knowledge of the fraudulent scheme. In reaching their verdicts, jurors said they relied on the documentation assembled by the prosecution more than on Hale's testimony, but that provides little solace to Clinton.
Encouraged by the verdicts, Starr can push ahead for the next trial, in June, in which Arkansas bankers are accused of hiding contributions to several campaigns, including Clinton's. Investigations of presidential lawyer Vincent Foster's suicide and White House Travel Office irregularities are ongoing.
While awaiting Tuesday's verdict, first lady Hillary Clinton, borrowing from Gertrude Stein's assessment of Oakland, remarked that Starr would find that "there is no there there." The first jury has determined otherwise. The larger issue still looming is the Clintons' culpability.
Other editorials in brief:
Sand Island Park
IT'S axiomatic that what you build you should protect and maintain. The state is not doing that at Sand Island Park and the adjoining marine training facility. It's a shame. Twin reports in the Star-Bulletin described the dismaying situation. At the park, the bathrooms are shabby, the lawns need cutting and irrigation. There is graffiti, rubbish, bottles "all over the place." Bulbs are smashed in light standards.
Although the state has financial problems, it cannot ignore its responsibility to protect and maintain them. The alternative is to throw away the money already invested.
Ambassador to Hanoi
IF he could have conjured up someone, President Clinton could not have found a person better qualified to be the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam since the Communist conquest than Douglas Peterson. The president's nominee is a former bomber pilot who survived six years in North Vietnamese prisons. Currently a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Florida, Peterson announced last fall that he would not seek a fourth term.
It is time the United States had full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, and Douglas Peterson seems to be just the man to handle them.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor