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The next day another aide passed along a memo to Harold Ickes, the President's deputy chief of staff, saying that "Nancy has asked us to follow up on this at the President's direction and his note indicates 'promptly.'" The memo called for "overnights for top top supporters." Accompanying McAuliffe's memo was a 10-person list of those "top top" supporters prepared by McAuliffe. Prominently holding down the No. 2 slot: longtime Republican Carl H. Lindner.
Five weeks later, on Feb. 9, Lindner was in the White House at a state dinner honoring German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. After entertainment by Tony Bennett and a German chorus, Lindner went upstairs to bed. Less than two weeks later, he was back in the White House for coffee.
CRANKING UP THE PRESSURE
Throughout this period, Lindner's allies in Congress kept the pressure on the Clinton Administration. On June 21, Senator Dole wrote to Kantor: "I am concerned that time is running out in the banana case. U.S. banana companies are on the verge of suffering even greater irreparable damage as a result of the E.U. and Latin practices."
Kantor scribbled a note in the margin of the letter, addressed to Jeff N.--Jeffrey Nuechterlein, senior counsel to Kantor--and Jeffrey L.--Jeffrey Lang, one of his top aides: "Please give me a way to proceed. Pressure is going to grow. MK."
Kantor says he has no recollection of the note. "I don't remember writing it," he says. Lang doesn't remember it either. He recused himself from the banana dispute, he says, because before his appointment as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, he represented the European side in the WTO proceedings. Nuechterlein, likewise, doesn't remember anything about it. "I was not involved with bananas substantively," he says.
Dim memories aside, the pressure did indeed grow. On July 19 Carl and Keith Lindner wrote to Kantor again, expressing their dissatisfaction with proposals put forth by the Europeans to resolve the banana dispute. At least in the view of the Lindners, the war should be waged as a joint effort, with Chiquita and its ally, the U.S. government, on one side and the European Union Commission on the other.
On Aug. 3, the four-member Hawaiian congressional delegation sent a letter to Kantor saying they were prepared to talk about possible "international courses of action" against the E.U. As America's only state producing bananas--most were grown for consumption on the islands--Hawaii had an indirect stake in the outcome of the banana war; because Chiquita, Dole and other producers had flooded the European market, tariffs notwithstanding, the overflow had found its way back into the U.S., driving down retail prices.
The following day, Lindner's American Financial Corp. delivered an additional $100,000 to the D.N.C. A few days later, the Lindners met once again with Kantor. Two months went by. On Nov. 3, the Lindners advised Kantor's staff that it was "very important" they get together for 20 minutes. This particular meeting did not take place, but nine days later, on a Sunday night, Lindner was sitting behind Clinton at a presidential gala in Ford's Theatre.