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FAIR GAME?
Can the Congress Investigate the Clinton Administration Fairly? May 19, 1998 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
Has politics tainted the investigation process? Is this anything new? Is there any way to conduct an investigation in a truly non-partisan way? Could the investigation backfire on the republicans next election? With the Republicans having such a slim House majority, how can there be a house committee with a two-thirds Republican majority for the Speaker to move the immunity question to? Has there been a decline in the quality of reporting on political scandal?
NewsHour Backgrounders
May 12, 1998
Reps. Henry Waxman and John Mica debate the House investigation.
May 8, 1998
The NewsHour reports on Hubbell tapes controversy.
May 8, 1998
Shields & Gigot discuss the Burton investigation.
May 1, 1998
A report on the public dispute between President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich.
May 1, 1998
Shields & Gigot report on the war of words between President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich.
March 10, 1998:
A report on Americans' trust in government.
January 1998:
Coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
March 5, 1998:
Two senators discuss the end of the Senate investigation into campaign finance abuses.
June 18, 1996:
A full report on the end of the Senate Whitewater investigation.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the White House, Congress, the campaign finance investigation and legal issues.
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Congressional investigations of the Whitewater and campaign finance scandals have often split sharply along party lines. But in the last week, the partisan rancor has reached such a level that Republican leaders were discussing moving parts of the inquiry from Rep. Dan Burton's Government Reform committee to a less contentious arena. The charges and counter-charges have flown back an forth between Congressional Republicans and the Democratic minority and the White House for months, but in recent week's the furor reached new levels:
Democrats claimed the committee chairman released unfairly edited transcripts of Webster Hubbell's conversations with his wife. They said the transcript omitted statements that appear to exonerate the president and first lady. Chairman Burton later apologized and ordered the release all the tapes.
- In a party-line vote, Democrats refuse to grant immunity to witnesses before the Burton committee. Republicans argue it is simply a move to protect the White House.
- In a conversation with an Indiana newspaper, Mr. Burton harshly criticized President Clinton and said his investigation was "out to get him [the president]."
- Republicans charge that the administration has tried to slow the investigation with repeated claims of executive privilege.
Speaker Newt Gingrich, in his sharpest criticism yet, said the administration had participated in "the most systematic, deliberate obstruction-of-justice coverup and effort to avoid the truth we have ever seen."
Where does the investigation stand? Is it all politics? Can the Congress investigate wrong-doing in the White House? Have the politics reached a point where no fair investigation can be had in Congress? Are the Democrats also guilty of playing the politics of delay and obstruction? Is all of this a smear campaign against the president?
Your questions are answered by two veteran Congress-watchers, Professors John Pitney and William Connelly, authors of one of the first studies of the House Republicans, Congress' Permanent Minority?. John Pitney, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is now a professor at Claremont McKenna College. William Connelly also served on Capitol Hill and now teaches at Washington and Lee University.
Questions asked in this forum:
Has politics tainted the investigation process? Is this anything new? Is there any way to conduct an investigation in a truly non-partisan way? Could the investigation backfire on the republicans next election? With the Republicans having such a slim House majority, how can there be a house committee with a two-thirds Republican majority for the Speaker to move the immunity question to? Has there been a decline in the quality of reporting on political scandal?
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