GOP Sees FALN Move as Chance to Nail Clinton

By Frank Pellegrini Friday, Sept. 17, 1999
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Bill Clinton might have to admit its a fair enough question: Why the sudden presidential pardon this summer for 16 Puerto Rican terrorists who had been in jail for years? Though good guys Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter backed the clemency, was it just a human-rights issue? Or was it political husbandry (and a bad job of it, too) for Hillarys New York Senate run? Republicans want to know. Clinton aint telling. The White House braved the ghosts of Nixon one more time Thursday and invoked executive privilege, waving away congressional subpoenas for documents and witnesses from the likes of Vince Foster sleuth Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. "The president has a moral obligation to the American people to explain why he let terrorists out of prison," Burton said Thursday.

But not, apparently, a legal one. And so we go again, around and around, for the umpteenth time in the last six-plus years. Janet Reno stands behind the President, assuring him he neednt play ball. Republicans seethe and look for a way in, a way to finally make Clinton pay for all the vileness he represents to them. "This committee is a bipartisan committee that's not going to be stiffed," said Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) of his Senate version of the investigation. "Frankly, we're just sick and tired of it." They are coming for Clinton on Wen Ho Lee, on FALN and Waco, on throwing money down the Russian sinkhole. Clinton, of course, has been through it all before, from Foster and Travelgate to Whitewater and you-know-what, invoking executive privilege all the while. Even when the effort was doomed, when Monica hardly qualified as national security, Clinton used the privilege successfully to stall for time. Time is short now; if the Republicans have recovered their appetite for scandal, theyre unlikely to nail the White Houses elusive current occupant. And there's another thing to think about: the risk of alienating an electorate sated with scandal and irritated by endless investigations.