Congressional Democrats were quick to demand and get a special prosecutor to look into White House scandals when the Oval Office was occupied by Republicans.
Likewise, those same lawmakers were eager to revamp and renew the expiring law authorizing such independent, outside investigations even though special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh misused his office badly when probing the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations.So why are those same lawmakers not calling for a probe by a special prosecutor now that it's a Democratic president who is in trouble over not just one but two possible scandals?
A naive question? No doubt. But it needs to be raised in view of the problems outlined in a column on this page by Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson - including President Clinton's incomplete, unsatisfactory answers.
At this point, Clinton still deserves the benefit of a doubt. The allegations of marital infidelity might have been more credible if the Arkansas troopers had not waited until Clinton had been in the White House nearly a year before going public with their charges. The troopers claim they held off because they doubted that Clinton would be elected. But it's hard to believe the troopers were ignorant of public opinion polls showing Clinton way ahead of Bush last fall.
The other scandal involves allegations that when he was governor of Arkansas, Clinton's election campaign fund benefited from a troubled S&L and that the securities commissioner appointed by Clinton was slow to investigate the institution.
These charges can erode public doubts about Clinton's character and credibility, divert the chief executive from his efforts to formulate and promote various governmental reforms, and undermine his case for re-election.
Consequently, it's in Clinton's as well as the public's interest that the federal investigations already under way into the two scandals be turned over to an independent official whose superiors do not depend directly or indirectly on the president for their jobs.
Until this step is taken, the special prosecutor will look like a tool of partisanship rather than an instrument of justice, and a shadow of suspicion will be cast over Congress as well as the White House.