Whitewater

WASHINGTON--It is a common idea these days that both the White House and Congress are out of touch with the American people. The appointment of Kenneth W. Starr as the special prosecutor in the Whitewater case suggests the judiciary can be added to those who just don't get it.In a city in which there is a lawyer on every street corner, a special panel of federal appeals court judges has chosen a Republican partisan enough -- and perhaps politically ambitious...

WASHINGTON -- At a recent luncheon meeting of the 44 Republican senators, Bob Dole, the Senate minority leader, presented Alfonse M. D'Amato with a bottle of Whitewater cologne.Mr. Dole's gag gift prompted hearty applause and cheers. The brash and combative senator from New York has helped escalate the complex business of the Clintons' involvement with the failed Whitewater land deal into an issue with potentially disastrous implications for the Democrats.Mr. D'Amato's high-pitched reminders on the Senate floor, day after day, have kept the issue alive.

DETROIT -- In a rare news conference and speech, the Whitewater independent counsel complained here yesterday about a lack of cooperation with his investigations but said he was making substantial progress anyway."

Washington. -- Pardon me for asking, but what exactly was wrong with those three meetings between Treasury and White House officials over Whitewater?President Clinton has conceded that "it would be better if the meetings . . . had not occurred," which is beyond dispute. The White House also seems to have decided, wisely, that there is nothing to be gained by even trying to defend the meetings' propriety.But the question remains whether there was anything actually improper about them, and the answer is far from obvious.

This is about love, marriage, the two-career family and the Olympic Games.Dana Chladek of Bethesda is a whitewater kayaker, the best in America, and perhaps, the best in the world. She wants to be an Olympian, but not for the obvious reasons of trying to achieve gold and glory."If I make the team, it means I'll get to sleep with my husband," she said.Don't blush.Chladek is married to Thierry Humeau, a whitewater canoe competitor from France who earned an Olympic berth last month. Now, it's Chladek's turn to charge through her country's trials on the way to the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

WASHINGTON -- Once again, the press is finding itself obliged to do some hand-wringing self-examination over its coverage of public affairs -- in this case, the whole controversy over Whitewater.The central question is obvious enough: Has the press given disproportionate attention to the story and, by so doing, made it into something more than it should be?If you followed the news only casually in the last few weeks, you would be forgiven for inferring that President Clinton's presidency is being threatened by a crisis of monumental proportions -- and that the White House is conducting a Nixonesque attempt to cover it all up.In fact, what we are dealing with is a series of questions raised about the conduct of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas more than a decade ago.Were the Clintons given a sweetheart deal because of his political position?

HOOKSET, N.H. -- In New Hampshire, the travail of President Clinton and Whitewater seems remote. Here in Hookset, they are up in arms because some guy wants to open a topless club. All over New England they are wondering what's wrong with Roger Clemens.But if there is a consensus about anything, it is that the press has done a lousy job on Whitewater. Nobody understands it. Clinton supporters think the media has gone too far. His critics believe the reporters are covering up for him.As Joe Keefe, a Manchester lawyer about to become Democratic state chairman here, put it, "The press is kind of getting a black eye."

Washington. -- One Whitewater puzzle is this: Why have the Clintons been so ruinously resistant to revealing everything about what probably are, at worst, dealings too minor and complicated to arrest the nation's attention, and concerning which a political statute of limitations has expired because an election has intervened?The answer may be: Revelation would disarm an administration dependent on sowing moral disdain for opponents. That is, Whitewater may be trivial, other than as a deflator of moral pretensions.

WHITEWATER IS BACK on the political agenda, no longer a stagnant pool but a frothing scandal destined to splash on President Clinton right up to election day. Now that an Arkansas jury has returned bank fraud convictions against two of Mr. Clinton's former business associates and his successor as governor, Jim Guy Tucker, Republicans are counting on further revelations to fortify the "character issue" that lies at the heart of Sen. Bob Dole's campaign.Technically,...

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and his attorney sent strong signals yesterday that a review of the Clintons' tax returns will show that their losses on the Whitewater Development Corp. may have been less than the Clintons have claimed -- and that the president and his wife might owe back taxes."If there were any mistakes, they certainly were not intentional," the president said in an interview with wire service reporters yesterday. "If we do owe, we'll make it good.""I'm happy to endorse the public remarks of my client," said David Kendall, Mr. Clinton's personal attorney, who is reviewing the Clintons' tax returns.