Cranston Attacks Helms : Tries but Fails to Oust Him From Keating Panel

Sen. Alan Cranston sought today to bar Sen. Jesse Helms from judging his part of the Senate ethics committee probe into links between five senators and Charles H. Keating Jr., the owner of the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Helms, speaking under oath, stoutly denied the charge by Cranston’s attorney that he had already made up his mind in the case. He refused to step aside.

The request, delivered by Cranston’s attorney, William W. Taylor III, provided a dramatic start to the second day of hearings into the so-called Keating Five, and reflected the political tensions involved as the Senate panel sits in judgment on five prominent lawmakers.

Cranston, who is ill with prostate cancer, came to the hearing room for the first time this afternoon.

In seeking to have Helms recuse himself, Taylor cited reports from Helms’ recent, successful reelection campaign in which the North Carolina Republican had referred to Cranston as “the leading water carrier” for Keating.

Helms acknowledged making the remarks, and said he did so after his Democratic opponent in the campaign received a contribution from Cranston’s political action committee. He said Keating had made an “enormous” donation to the committee.

“Senator Cranston injected himself into that campaign, and I was entitled to try to eject him. I make no apology for what I said because it was true,” Helms said.

Committee Chairman Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) after a brief recess, declined to order Helms off the panel.

The panel’s lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, then began outlining the case against Cranston, saying that the California Democrat actively solicited contributions from Keating at times when Keating wanted help with federal banking regulators.

“On approximately four separate occasions Sen. Cranston accepted or solicited several hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Keating” for his campaigns or voter registration drives to which he was closely associated,” Bennett said.

After Bennett outlined the case against Cranston, the five senators under investigation began mounting their own defenses.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told the committee: “I know I acted ethically and properly and in compliance with all applicable standards of conduct, including my own.”

Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) testified that “at no time did I ask for special treatment for anyone and at no time did I trade favors or perform actions in return for money.”