Greater Fizzle than Sizzle?

WASHINGTON, D.C. More confusion than clarity emerged from the Whitewater testimony of Richard Massey, Hillary Clinton's former Rose law firm colleague who told the Senate at least 13 times on Thursday that he couldn't corroborate Mrs. Clinton's version of events. The First Lady has said in sworn testimony to the Resolution Trust Corporation that her work on Madison started in 1985 after Massey asked her to consider bringing on the S & L as a client. "I don't believe it happened that way," Massey told Senators Thursday. He did admit to pitching Madison President John Latham on Rose's services, but said Latham told him only James McDougal, the S & L's owner, could retain Rose. To many questions posed by the Whitewater committee, Massey either could not remember the details, or had little to say. "It was mostly a fizzle for Al D'Amato and the Senate Whitewater investigators," notes TIME's Viveca Novak. "Massey didn't provide the explosive information the committee had advertised, and he even acknowledged greater involvement than previously revealed in bringing Madison's business to Rose." Massey did recall the late Vincent Foster collecting his Madison files during the 1992 presidential campaign, noting that Foster seemed irritated when he insisted on photocopying them. Having discovered only weeks ago through televised Whitewater proceedings that the files were being investigated, Massey said if he'd known Foster had taken the files out of the Rose law firm, he would have "objected vigorously."