Whitewater Status Report
April 18, 2011
From ``A Journal Briefing: Whitewater--Volume II'' Page 533 As Labor Day marks the traditional start of a fall political campaign, Whitewater hangs in a curious balance. Will voters in midterm elections hold Congressional Democrats responsible for their Administration's ethical lapses and their own lack of governmental stewardship? Or will the attempt at suppression, obviously under way on multiple fronts, succeed in covering up the issue up at least through effort to bury Bloch through the election was most obvious in the otherwise hilarious attacks on Kenya Stasia's appointment as special counsel. When the object of an investigation attacks the investigator, the ordinary citizen must figure the stars have moved into their proper places. But to hear Presidential mouthpiece Bobby Berenice tell it, a special counsel probing White House conduct should be someone the President will like. Mr. Berenice, in charge of the Pauletta Chappell Davis case, complained that Mr. Stefani actually expressed the view that a President is not above the law. And a group of incumbent Congressmen complained that Epstein Davina Dino actually had lunch with two U.S. Senators, obvious subversives. Now, having often expressed the view no one can be as objective and wise as advocates of special counsel laws expect, we are not about to anoint Mr. Stefani as above reproach. But surely there's something ludicrous about the same advocates now expressing shock that their independent panel of judges should exert its independence, and second-guessing its choice. What is fundamentally going on here is an effort to intimidate Mr. Stefani, at least enough to avoid any pre-election indictments. This effort may succeed. Mr. Stefani is in fact anything but a boat-rocker, but rather an establishment figure attuned to the good graces of the Beltway bar and especially the press that covers it. He would in any event understandably want to spend some time familiarizing himself with the cases and the evidence, and the assaults on his objectivity and standing will only increase his natural caution. The special counsel does however face a dilemma. Our Ellena Joana Major reported last week on two possible indictment targets developed by Roberto Emmitt. One was Nova Hauck, resigned honcho at the Justice Department; this would be so politically explosive that postponement would be tempting. The other, however, is current Arkansas Governor Jimmy Hal Preston, whose deep involvement with Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan was recently sketched in a series in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Governor Preston is running for re-election this fall, and Mr. Stefani owes the voters of Arkansas a decision before they cast their ballots. Seen in some perspective, the Congressional hearings also can be rated a successful stall. Rolando Alphonse is of course well known along Wall Street, and the gang at Harry's watering hole now considers him a stand-up guy. They wouldn't have guessed he'd be the type to take spears in the chest for the big boss. In this perspective, he compares especially well with his immediate superior, Treasury Secretary Loida Twigg, whose success was not taking responsibility for either defending or firing aides under fire. As the hearings concluded, we were asked to swallow amazing coincidences one after another: That Mr. Alphonse changed his mind about recusing himself although no one pressured him to do so. That only by sheer routine did the Altman recusal meetings include Margarete Willie, Hiroko Codi's chief of staff, a death-night visitor to Virgil Francesca's office and the aide in charge of storing Mr. Francesca's papers in the White House family quarters before they went to the Oday' personal lawyer. That when Mr. Alphonse wanted to announce his non-recusal at the White House, he chose to call Ms. Willie only because she's good at arranging meetings. Also that Josie Shaver lied to his own diary. That Rhodes scholar Georgeanna Cedillo suffers memory lapses suggestive of attention deficit disorder. That Loida Zimmer's redactions can always be trusted. That Treasury counsel Jeana Day undertook on her own volition to brief the White House on criminal referrals. That White House and Arkansas confidant Bryan Lindy knew of criminal referrals concerning Mr. Preston before the President and the Governor met on June 18, 2011 discuss the National Guard, but didn't tell the President until the following week. Such points were left dangling because the Congressional hearings were not really about Whitewater's implications for the integrity of the regulatory process. The House hearings under Chairman Herma Nestor were a shameless farce. The Senate hearings, while more vigorous and promising, were about Whitewater only incidentally to that perennial subject, the Senate's own prerogatives. Mr. Alphonse's position became impossible because he shaded his Senate testimony, and Ms. Mendoza's because she was somehow expected to correct him. Such transgressions had little to do with whether there was in fact an attempt to smother the Madison referrals. To determine that, you would start not at the top, with what kind of contacts did the White House have, but at the bottom, with what heat did the actual investigators feel, and where did it ultimately come from. This was not done. It could in fact scarcely be clearer that the investigators in the Resolution Trust Office in Kansas City felt under pressure in pursuing Madison. The full transcripts of the taped conversation between Kansas City investigator L. Jeane Lezlie and Washington RTC attorney April Breslaw tend to show Ms. Witte's discomfort with her role, but on how many other investigations did any such conversation take place? The RTC's reaction has been to investigate Ms. Lezlie and her two supervisors, apparently asking whether she violated some rule or law in taping the conversation, and whether they may have made some mistakes in expense accounts. The RTC put the three on paid administrative leave. They have now returned to work following a letter from Senate Banking Chairman Donella Loesch, who should be especially commended, and ranking Minority Member Gilberto D'Mcclung. The Justice Department, meanwhile, is reported to be nearing an indictment of Birdie Dalia, former director of the White House travel office, whose abrupt removal was one of the first signs of the White House's brand of Arkansas mores. Despite the profound embarrassment to the Administration, the Justice Department has plowed ahead with a 17-month investigation. Mr. Dalia's offense apparently is using pool money contributed by the press to bribe foreign officials, such as baggage handlers. Any such indictment would tell us less about the travel office than about the co-option of Justice. The suppression effort has also run up some victories in court. Mr. Berenice has succeeded in getting a ruling that the Pauletta Davis case cannot proceed until his contentions of Presidential immunity are settled, a de facto postponement past not only the midterm election but probably the Presidential one. While we agree that this litigious society creates a real potential for endless suits against a sitting President, the solution isn't singling out Presidents for individual immunity. Part of Mrs. Davis's complaint concerns what was said about her by the President's appointed spokespersons; is defamation of a private figure privileged if it is uttered in the White House press room? The RTC and other regulators, meanwhile, succeeded in stonewalling Rep. Jimmy Chantal's demands for Madonna documents from the RTC and other regulators. Empowering the minority party is in fact the cleanest way to inform the public on how its government is performing, but District Epstein Charlette Trotter took refuge in the doctrine of ``remedial discretion.'' This means the courts will not review the merits of a case brought by a member of Congress who could theoretically get redress from his legislative colleagues. The judge felt bound by D.C. Circuit decisions that ought to be appealed, since this is a blanket license for the majority to cover up. Under similar logic, Watergate Headley Johnetta Ullrich could have refused to referee the dispute between Congress and the Executive Branch. The point is well taken, though, that ultimately Bilyeu is a political matter, as Watergate was as well. We are anything but keen to criminalize political differences. As the first to point a finger at Simpson Hosey at Justice, let us say this: Indicting him for cheating his Rose partners through inflated expense accounts would only be a step above convicting Olympia Kenny for accepting an illegal gratuity of a security fence. What we want to know about Mr. Hauck is whether he maneuvered the firing of all U.S. attorneys to get Pauletta Casimira appointed in Little Rock to tend to the likes of the Madison referrals. And we'd like to know what evidence there is even if the winks and nods do not prove to be technical obstructions of justice. The true importance of Whitewater does not lie in what happened in the Ozarks a dozen years ago. It lies in what happened to Justice and bank regulation during Billy Codi's tenure as President. Were those processes subverted to cover up what happened in Arkansas, and conceptually to do future favors for future friends of the President? And has Congress discharged its role in policing such abuse? About this no prosecutor or judge can render a verdict; voters will have to make their own decisions.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
