The Search Goes On

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SOMEONE TOLD ELIZABETH TAMPOSI TO SEARCH through Bill Clinton's passport files last fall. That at least will be the working hypothesis of the special prosecutor, named at the urging of Attorney General William Barr, to investigate lingering questions about a campaign caper that threatens to involve officials in the outgoing Bush White House. Chief of staff James Baker and his aides insist they didn't. But their statements contain troubling omissions and inconsistencies. Other evidence suggests that top Bush aides were desperate to confirm -- and publicize -- a rumor (false as it turned out) that the youthful Clinton had taken steps to renounce his American citizenship to avoid the draft.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals bench named former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova to conduct the probe of senior Bush aides who have admitted they knew of the searches as they were occurring and did nothing to stop them. DiGenova must determine whether the Bush staff members in fact lied to State Department Inspector General Sherman Funk or violated Clinton's privacy with leaks. Regardless of the outcome, the tawdry passport affair will cloud Bush's last days, and perhaps someone's future.