Searching for the Missing Pieces

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/ It is important to note that no one has offered proof of any criminal activity. Even if anyone did, it would be very difficult to prove the Clintons knew of it and approved. Who would be a credible witness against them? James McDougal insists they did nothing wrong, appearing last week on the tabloid TV A Current Affair to make the point. Even if he were to decide otherwise, he has suffered a mental breakdown. Susan McDougal is separated from him; last week she pleaded not guilty to a California indictment charging her with embezzling $200,000 from symphony conductor Zubin Mehta, whom she served as a financial adviser. Even Leach concedes the whole affair has no potential to be another Watergate; it is entirely possible the Clintons will never face any penalties at all or be asked only to repay some money to Madison Guaranty depositors and be accused of a conflict of interest. Still, even by the standards of Arkansas, where members of a tiny financial-political elite constantly deal with one another, Hillary's representation of a business partner before a banking regulator appointed by her husband the Governor seems to be going rather far.

At the very least, the Clintons' choices of James and Susan McDougal and David Hale as associates call into question their ability to judge character. And the other questions raised by the affair could come back to haunt Clinton in his probable 1996 re-election run. It may be that the President and his wife are guilty of nothing wrong. All the more reason to agree to have a special counsel conduct a vigorous investigation that is free of any suspicion of bias. Unless that is done, no one will ever really know.