Obstruct art

National Review, June 22, 1998 by Thomas Galvin

###THOMAS GALVIN

Mr. Galvin is a former investigative reporter for the New York Daily News.

Obstruction works. What other lesson could I draw after four years of covering President Clinton's scandal management? Clinton and his band of spinners have proved that you can stonewall all of the people all of the time.

The typical Clinton scandal runs like this: Sensational allegation, signs of a cover-up, pledges of cooperation, hysterical Republican reaction, savvy White House response, public disgust at the spectacle, a rise in Clinton's approval ratings, talk shows over-analyzing what it all means. The new China missile scandal is already fitting the pattern.

Sitting on President Clinton's train as it rumbled toward the Democratic Con- vention in July 1996, White House political guru Doug Sosnik couldn't have given a hoot about Whitewater or Paula Jones. After all, Americans didn't care. "If Richard Nixon were President today, he'd never be impeached," Sosnik smugly opined.

Nixon would certainly have benefitted from such ruthless -- and effective -- scandal management:

* When allegations of womanizing nearly sunk Clinton in 1992, he hired gumshoe Jack Palladino to shut up the allegers. It doesn't matter now that some of them (e.g., Gennifer Flowers) were telling the truth.

* White House aides smeared Billy Dale in order to deflect blame for the Travelgate mess. Who cares if it meant he faced an unwarranted criminal trial?

* Aides lied about what Clinton knew about a federal investigation of Whitewater in October 1993. That gave the President some breathing room.

* Lawyer Bob Bennett was directed to delay the Jones lawsuit until after Clinton was re-elected.

* Two weeks before the 1996 election Al Gore solemnly told a national TV audience there was no truth to allegations of sleazy fundraising.

Delay. Obfuscate. Obstruct. Attack. Lie. Win.

In the latest example, Clinton will string out the Lewinsky investigation until the fall, then claim that Ken Starr is pursuing the charges to help Republicans keep control of Congress. The fight over Clinton aides' testimony will be dragged out for as long as possible. Then, after the elections, White House toadies (yes, Sid Blumenthal, that's you) will whisper that impeachment proceedings are silly at this point because Clinton will soon be out of office.

And the smart people who work at the White House will simply outplay the Republicans at this game.

In fact, GOP blundering is one of the reasons for Clinton's great escapes. Here's an example: When the White House admitted it had collected FBI files on hundreds of Republicans, there were the makings of a big story. But instead of holding back, doing its own investigation, and letting the story develop, Orrin Hatch's Senate committee immediately held hearings, letting all the air out of the scandal balloon.

White House aides were also just better than most GOP investigators. Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane, who had the job of keeping Whitewater from boiling over before the 1996 election, were smarter, more capable, and more credible than most of the Republicans on Clinton's tail.

Bob Giuffra was Al D'Amato's Whitewater counsel, and a smarmier guy you'll never meet. Mike Madigan, who led the Senate campaign-finance investigation, quickly alienated reporters with his cutesy way of implying wrongdoing without having the guts to declare it. If it came to trusting the word of Fabiani versus Giuffra, or White House aide Adam Goldberg versus Madigan, it was a no-brainer for reporters.

As a result, the White House aides' job just wasn't tough -- and when it was they made the right decision. When Hillary Clinton's subpoenaed billing reco- rds from the Rose law firm suddenly popped up in the Clintons' private quarters, there was real panic. Some White House aides were stunned by Fabiani's advice: Do nothing.

There was talk of resignations (maybe even Leon Panetta's), but Fabiani won the day. This wound up being a turning point. The White House took its licks, but the public never started clamoring for a lynching, and the crisis sub- sided. The message was clear: The White House didn't have to try to explain everything.

About a year ago, Clinton aides gave the press the stiff arm when it sought the record of Webster Hubbell's entries into the White House. Why? It turned out there was a heck of a story there about Clinton friends' efforts to get Hubbell work while he was undergoing questioning by Ken Starr before his first indictment.

Clinton aides also have a ruthless willingness to destroy enemies, real or imagined. When David Watkins's "Hillary Did It" memo surfaced, pinning the Travel Office firings on the First Lady, White House staffers were prepared to come forward with new sexual-harassment allegations against Watkins as a pre-emptive strike. It was only when they realized Watkins wasn't going nuclear that they backed off.

Despite the ruthless tactics, ask your typical White House aide whether he believes Paula Jones, or Monica Lewinsky's story on the Linda Tripp tapes, or Kathleen Willey, and well, the voice trails off . . . and then the subject is quickly changed.