Whitewater runs deep - investigation into Bill and Hillary Clinton's real estate investments that may have involved abuse of government funds - includes satirical ideas for motion script that Oliver Stone could produce about the Clintons - Cover Story

National Review, March 21, 1994 by Richard Brookhiser

LEACH: Right. So he does some checking.

EVANS-PRITCHARD: On his own. And discovers a complicated system of financing, with Jim McDougal always at the center. The Clintons made the investment with the help of a loan.

LEACH: From International Paper. They later got a sweetheart timber deal from Governor CIinton--

EVANS-PRITCHARD: Who also got the state to build a road through the development that directly enhanced his investment--

LEACH: Meanwhile, campaign debts mysteriously disappear, and Morgan Guaranty, McDougal's S&L, has money trouble, and petitions, via its counsel, Hillary Clinton, te be allowed to recapitalize via an unusual stock offering--

EVANS-PRITCHARD: Which is approved by a state bank regulator appointed by Governor Clinton--

LEACH: And when Madison does go under, the RTC is petitioned by Rose Law Firm, of which Hillary Clinton is a partner, to be named executer--

EVANS-PRITCHARD: The petitioner's neglecting to mention that it was they who bankrupted Madison in the first place.

LEACH: So poor Vince Foster, discovering this list of possible impeachable offenses, decides to make an honorable exit, rather than face the dilemma of lying and ruining his spotless reputation, or telling the truth and ruining the Presidency of his oldest and dearest friend. EVANS-PRITCHARD: Friends. Plural. A knock. A young man, Geoffrey, enters timidly.

GEOFFREY: I brought the tape, Mr. Congressman. It was done in Little Rock yesterday, and reached our ofrices this morning. Leach jumps up and ushers him in. LEACH: Great! Thanks, Geoffrey. He takes a small package from the young man's hand, and pops it open. A videocassette spills out.

GEOFFREY: Boy, if the special prosecuter knew I had leaked the McDougal deposition tape, boy I'd be in deep trouble.

Evans-Pritchard hurries to the door. Stops. Turns around, goes back to the bar and downs the rest of his whisky. Then he exits quickly. BARTENDER: Have a nice day! Cut to: Monocle Restaurant.

The Monocle, a busy Capitol Hillarea restaurant, is packed with lawmakers, lobbyists, staffers, and journalists. It's lunch hour. Congressman Jim Leach is seated at the bar, drinking a Perrier. On the TV above the bar, there is a White House news conference going on.

George Stephanopoulos is being grilled by reporters.

REPORTER 1: . . . and what about reports of file shredding at the Rose Law Firm?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Distorted.

REPORTER 2: Is there any connection of the loan to the Clintona from International Paper and the subsequent granting by Governor Clinton of timber rights to International Paper?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm not going to dignify that with a response.

REPORTER 3: Why has the Justice Department so far refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for the investigative files of Vincent Foster's death?

STEPHANOPOULOS: You'd have to ask them.

REPORTER 4: Where are the records of the 1984 Clinton gnbernatorial campaign fund-raiser? They're missing from the Pulaski County Registrar's office, from the Arkansas Secretary of State's office, and backup microfiche files have reportedly been destroyed.