Cranston in Senate; Is Undecided on Ethics Fight

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), returning to the Senate for the first time since being treated for prostate cancer, said Tuesday that he has not decided whether to fight Senate Ethics Committee charges in the “Keating Five” scandal.

Looking robust and smiling broadly, the 76-year-old senator told reporters that doctors think he has “totally licked the cancer. No further treatment is planned.”

The ethics panel charged last week that Cranston had engaged in “an impermissible pattern of conduct” by intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Lincoln Savings & Loan while soliciting big contributions from its then-owner, Charles H. Keating Jr.

Cranston was the only one of the five senators investigated whose actions were judged to be in violation of Senate rules. Sources said the committee has decided to recommend that the full Senate vote some form of censure after Cranston has one more opportunity to reply to the charges.

The panel asked for a formal response by March 18.

“I have not yet determined the wisest course to follow,” Cranston said before he went into a luncheon with Democratic colleagues at the Capitol. Although he protested last week that he had been unfairly singled out for punishment, he quietly refused Tuesday to comment further.

As Cranston was being interviewed, a stream of senators stopped to welcome him back. He had been in California for surgery, radiation treatment and rest since giving a public statement to the Ethics Committee on Nov. 16.

The California senator said that he had lost a little weight but that he already is doing some running and playing tennis. He vowed to resume a full legislative schedule, saying that his immediate goal is to reach agreement with Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) on a bill to protect California deserts.

“We’ve had a couple of phone conversations, and (Seymour) has made some public statements and some private statements to me that are very constructive,” Cranston said. “We ought to be able to work something out.”

Cranston fought bitterly over the bill with Seymour’s predecessor, Gov. Pete Wilson, who wanted the bill to cover less acreage and provide more access for off-road vehicles.

Cranston said that he plans to work on drought relief for California, increasing federal aid for mass transit and improving veterans’ benefits.

Cranston announced last November that he will retire in 1992 at the end of his fourth term. He decided not to run for another term as Senate Democratic whip in the face of a strong challenge by Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.), who was elected to replace him.