WASHINGTON -- Republican and Democratic members of a Senate committee rejected arguments yesterday from President Clinton's personal attorney that the law establishing independent counsels is "fatally flawed" and ought to be scrapped when it expires June 30.
Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, the chairman, was joined by other members of the Governmental Affairs Committee in saying they agreed with some suggestions from the attorney, Robert S. Bennett. But all wanted to fix the law rather than let it expire.
Bennett said his views on scrapping the controversial law are his own and did not necessarily reflect the president's. But the Justice Department's No. 2 official, Eric H. Holder Jr., told a House subcommittee Tuesday that the law should be abandoned. Holder said he represented the administration's view.
Thompson, however, pointed to a need for the law, saying "the public expects some kind of mechanism" to guarantee an independent investigation of high-ranking government officials.
"We can't go back again," he added, referring to the situation 21 years ago when no provision existed for the court-approved appointment of outside special prosecutors.
Similar views were expressed by the only other committee members to speak at the hearing -- Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and Republican Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan M. Collins of Maine.
Lieberman said that despite the law's serious flaws, he would like "to assure that, in fact, independent investigations are conducted." Justice Department inquiries fail to achieve "credibility with the public," he said.
"We ought to try to salvage the Independent Counsel Act," Specter said.
Complaining that these probes are usually too lengthy and costly, he said an 18-month limit should be established as a starting point.
Despite such proposals for revision, opposition to the law in any form -- fanned by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's long investigation of Clinton -- appears to be growing.
Bennett, a prominent Washington defense lawyer who has represented other famous clients in independent counsel probes, including former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger in the Iran-contra investigation, said the special counsel statute has become "a nuclear weapon in the arsenal of partisan politics."
"Rather than ensuring that public officials are not treated with kid gloves, the Independent Counsel Act has become a vehicle for subjecting them, and those around them, to seemingly perpetual scrutiny more intense than any private citizen would have to endure," Bennett said.
But attorney Nathan Lewin, who represented Attorney General Edwin Meese III in an investigation during the Reagan administration, testified that "some law, even if imperfect, is better than none."
Pub Date: 3/04/99