From Davis to Carville

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 11, 1997 | by John Berlau

Slick Democrat spinning of the campaign-finance hearings may be suckering an unwary press.

Senate hearings on campaign-finance abuses and possible foreign espionage at the highest levels of government have received scant attention from newsmagazines and broadcast news shows more concerned with MTV star Jenny McCarthy (cover of Newsweek) and pop singer Jewel (cover of Time). But Democrats and the White House actively are engaging in spin operations lest the whole of the media start to pay attention.

The "Daily DNC Briefing," a one-page sheet the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, faxes to media outlets features a section on alleged "Republican Fund-Raising Abuses" in addition to reminding reporters of the number of "jobs created under President Clinton." The DNC's World Wide Web site (www.democrats.org) has a special "Hearings Update" section that contains "A Catalog of GOP Campaign Finance Abuses" going back to President Reagan, ostensibly to serve as a "reminder to everyone ... that the only effective and fair investigation is a balanced one that looks at both sides." The "Senate Hearings Preview" subsection lists "possible GOP themes" of the day's hearing and "the Republican record on these themes."

Deriding the hearings as "partisan witch-hunts" and echoing the "everybody does it" message of Democratic politicians and their supporters, the Web site emphasizes that "BOTH [boldfaced and capitalized in original] parties offered `perks' to their supporters" and "BOTH parties took foreign campaign contributions." Glossing over the breadth of foreign contributions to Democrats and the possibility of foreign agents setting government policy, the Web site and daily faxes make hay about some foreign loan guarantees to the National Policy Forum, a GOP think tank that, though not affiliated with the Republican National Committee, or RNC, was chaired by former RNC chairman Haley Barbour.

Bill Endicott, director of the DNC's speakers bureau, tells Insight that he fields "attorneys and people that used to work for the DNC" as guests for radio and television talk shows focusing on campaign-finance issues. Endicott says the DNC keeps the guests "up-to-date with information that they may need with what's happening in the hearings or talking points."

Meanwhile, White House Special Counsel Lanny J. Davis has launched a public-relations defense of the Clinton administration that is raising its own legal and ethical questions. Throughout the hearings that began in early July, Davis has been standing outside Room 216 of the Senate Hart Office Building, where the hearings are being held, handing out occasional statements and spinning to reporters. A July 9 statement blasted the Senate Government Affairs Committee for spending "thousands of dollars today `proving' something that the press has reported since last December.... If the committee can do nothing more than recycle old press reports, let's get on with campaign-finance reform. Surely Congress can do more with its time than spend taxpayer money repeating what has already been reported for months." RNC presence has been light, with only a communications staffer to hand out a release and no spin talk with reporters.

One expects to see party flacks at such an affair, but Davis' actions are raising concerns because his salary is not paid by the Democratic Party but by U.S. taxpayers. "It's unseemly," says Larry Klayman, general counsel of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based legal and ethical watchdog group. "He's performing as the Clintons' private lawyer. His clients are the American people, not Bill and Hillary Clinton."

Mark Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, says Davis'job as White House special counsel is to serve the American people by advising the president on official matters, not to flack for the president when he gets into political trouble. Levin tells Insight that "at some point" Congress should investigate to determine "what exactly is Lanny Davis' role" and whether the administration is "creating a Clinton-Gore campaign at taxpayers' expense."

Klayman tells Insight that "if [Davis] is trying to influence the process, he's walking very close to the line." Klayman adds that if Davis is giving out false information, he could be charged with obstructing justice.

Interestingly when Davis was outside the hearing room on July 17 claiming to reporters that Republican representations of former Commerce Department assistant secretary John Huang's visits to the White House were inaccurate, he refused to go on camera, explaining that he is "camera shy." Nor did he return Insight's calls to ask about the legality of his role at the hearings.

As if White House and DNC spin efforts weren't enough to keep a somnambulary media dozing, Democratic campaign operative James Carville created the Education and Information Project to sing lullabies. Its goal, as stated on its Web site, is to "provide a vigorous defense of the President and First Lady." Carville tells Insight that his group also is a "device to annoy right-wing groups."