Wright Denies Charges Amid New Revelations

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), facing new revelations concerning charges of impropriety against him, denied Sunday that he has done anything unethical and said he does not plan to step down as chairman of next month’s Democratic National Convention.

In a pair of televised interviews, Wright asserted repeatedly that while he “may have done some things . . . in my career that were bad judgment . . . I haven’t done anything dishonest. I haven’t done anything unethical.”

He predicted he would be exonerated by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which voted Friday to investigate the affair in response to a letter of complaint signed by 73 House Republicans.

At the same time, Wright sidestepped all questions about whether the House panel should appoint an independent counsel to handle the case.

Getting the Facts Out

“I’m not going to try to tell the committee how to run its business,” he said on “This Week With David Brinkley” on ABC. “Anything that can be done is fine with me so long as it gets the facts out and gets them out soon.”

Despite Wright’s plea for speed in the case, most Congress-watchers believe it will be impossible for the House panel to complete its inquiry before the Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to run from July 18 through July 21.

Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), who served as White House chief of staff during the Gerald R. Ford Administration and is now chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, said that if “they do a thorough job, it will take longer than that.” Republicans have been a major force in pressing the case against the Speaker.

Separately, Vice President George Bush said he thought the House panel had not gone far enough in calling for an internal probe of Wright’s activities, and renewed his previous call for the committee to appoint an independent prosecutor in the case.

“This inside, looking-at-yourself inquiry just doesn’t seem to me as objective,” Bush told reporters in Danville, Va., where he campaigned Sunday for a Republican congressional candidate. “I want to see a full, independent inquiry by whatever the issue is with the ethics committee.

“I’m not passing judgment on anybody to be looked at,” he asserted. “They (the Democrats) have passed judgment on the attorney general. Let’s leave the individuals aside and get the process fair.

“I want to see Michael Dukakis join me,” Bush added. “He seems to be talking about ethics all the time, and why doesn’t he just get in there and join me in suggesting we have an independent counsel for the House?”

Boosting ‘Jim’s Income’

Wright made his remarks after the New York Times published an article from Ft. Worth that quoted several longtime friends of the Speaker as saying, in effect, that they bought large numbers of copies of a paperback book that Wright wrote in order to help him financially without violating federal laws, which limit campaign contributions by individuals to $1,000.

The newspaper quoted S. Gene Payte, a Texas developer, as saying he was “just trying to make a contribution to Jim’s income” when he bought $6,000 worth of the paperbacks at $5.95 each. “And I couldn’t give him any money,” the quotation continued. “There are rules against that. So I bought his book.” Wright confirmed the purchases during the TV program Sunday.

The same article quoted William Carlos Moore, the publisher of the Wright paperback, as saying he conceived the volume in 1984 as “a vehicle to show the world this man, and for him to make a buck and me to make a buck.” The book, entitled “Reflections of a Public Man,” is filled with philosophical musings by the Speaker.

Efforts to reach Payte and Moore by telephone in Texas on Sunday were unavailing.

Meanwhile, Cheney complained on the Brinkley program that Wright runs the House in a heavy-handed fashion “in which he drives through, using the rules to his own advantage and oftentimes changing the rules to achieve his particular policy view of things.”

Cheney also accused the Speaker of “running his own foreign policy in Central America”--a tactic he labeled as “extremely unwise and unfortunate.” However, he repeatedly refused to comment on the ethics charges involving Wright.

The House committee voted Friday to look into six instances in which Wright allegedly used his position to enrich himself and Texas associates.

Among them are charges that he intervened with government agencies on behalf of Texas oil and gas interests in which he had a financial stake, sought favors from federal regulators for some thrift institutions now under investigation by the Justice Department, and published a 117-page book as a subterfuge to channel campaign funds to his own use.

At the least, the probe is expected to undercut hopes by Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis to use the so-called “sleaze” issue--and allegations of wrongdoing by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III--to embarrass Bush, the apparent GOP nominee.

It also could become a distraction at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

Wright on Sunday dismissed as “a distortion” allegations that he had used undue influence in holding legislation to bolster the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. hostage to help stave off foreclosure on a $1.5-billion loan owed by one of his constituents, Craig Hall, a Dallas developer.

He said his efforts to intervene in the case had helped avert “a $1.5-billion bankruptcy (that) would send shock waves through the Texas economy.”

Separately, on the CBS program, “Face the Nation,” Wright admitted jokingly that he hoped many Americans would buy his paperback. “That wouldn’t hurt anything,” he said, chuckling. “The royalty proceeds are going to my favorite charity, Mrs. Wright--and me.”