			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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THE GHOSTS OF LITTLE ROCK HAUNT CLINTON
by
Eric Margolis  6 June 1996



LOS ANGELES - Here in the nation's most important electoral
state, most political pros believe Sen. Bob Dole has nowhere
to go but up - and President Clinton nowhere but down.

Clinton currently holds a commanding, 20-point lead over
Dole in the polls.  A lot of Republicans are pretty glum over
Dole's prospects.  But the president and his wife are in
deepening legal trouble.  This column has been told that
Hillary Clinton might even face indictment for lying to
investigators and obstruction of justice.

The conviction for fraud and conspiracy last week of the
Clinton's closet business partners, James and Susan
McDougal, along with his successor as governor of Arkansas,
Guy Jim Tucker, badly hurt the Clintons and rekindled the
issue of their veracity and character.  Neither Hillary nor
Bill Clinton were charged in this sensational case, but the
Little Rock jury clearly disbelieved President Clinton's
testimony for the defense.  If the folks down home in Little
Rock don't believe their favourite son, who should?

Interestingly, news of the verdict was fiercely downplayed
by the big three TV networks, whose owners in Hollywood and
New York ardently back Clinton.  Each network gave this
bombshell story only a passing mention, then went on to
linger over unremarkable new footage of events around the
Kennedy assassination, which was released - coincidentally,
of course-just as the Little Rock verdict was being
announced.  By contrast, the BBC and PBS devoted almost half
their air time to the trial.

On 17 June, the next Whitewater trial opens.  This time,
Bill Clinton is more directly involved.  Prosecutors have
charged two Clinton cronies, Robert Hill and Herby Branscum,
with conspiracy, fraud and theft.  They claim the two men
stole US $7,000 from their own Arkansas bank in 1990, and
gave it to the then deeply indebted Governor Clinton.

Within a month, Hill was appointed to the Arkansas State
Bank Board and Branscum, a former Arkansas Democratic Party
chairman, was named to the State Highway Commission. 
Prosecutors charge the $7,000 donation was part of a wider
conspiracy by the two men to steal federally insured
deposits from their banks, and use the money to repay
themselves and family members for donations made to Governor
Clinton.

Clinton is not being charged with selling offices, a
practice scandalously common to both parties.   But the president
will have to testify again on behalf of indicted political
backers.  They, or the McDougals, who are facing long prison
sentences, may make a deal with federal prosecutors and
testify against the Clintons.  There's even a chance the
president might be charged with accepting stolen money.


While the dirty waters of Whitewater were fast rising,
Clinton struggled to fend off sexual harassment charges by
Paula Jones.  With stunning chutzpah, Clinton's lawyers
actually claimed that as Commander-in-Chief, the president
was a serving member of the armed forces, and thus legally
immune from law suits.  As gleeful Republicans prepared to
make mincemeat out of the draft-dodging Clinton, his lawyers
abandoned this ploy right before a Republican TV ad was to
air, showing the prez playing the saxophone and golfing,
captioned, 'War is Hell!'

So far, Bill Clinton has been remarkably undamaged by sex
scandals, shady pals, and financial chicanery.  He has
escaped being tarred by the thick sleaze of Arkansas
politics.  Even the conviction of Hillary Clinton's law
partner, Webster Hubbel, for fraud and false billings, or
Hillary's miraculously profitable futures trading, failed to
besmirch the no-stick First Couple.

But intense focus by Republicans on the character issue will
eventually undermine the Clintons.  If Whitewater explodes
into a flood of dirty water, boring, aged, honest Bob Dole
may suddenly begin looking much more attractive to the 20%
of undecided voters who will decide the election.

Ironically, just when Clinton is trying to recast himself as
a world leader, troublesome ghosts of elections past are
conjuring up Little Rock, a town he'd probably just as soon
like to forget.

copyright  Eric Margolis 1996

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