Helms Releases Staff Report Urging Censure of Cranston

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) released a report by the Senate Ethics Committee’s special counsel that recommended that Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) be censured for helping the owner of failed Lincoln Savings & Loan.

The committee’s recommendations in the case have been delayed by partisan bickering over what sanctions Cranston should face.

Helms said he made the document public to force fellow senators to act, the New York Times reported in today’s editions. He declined to comment further.

A Cranston aide lashed out at Helms over the release, saying it showed the Republican’s “prejudice” toward his political rival.

The recommendation for censure by the full Senate was contained in a confidential report delivered more than a month ago to the panel investigating five senators.

The report on Cranston, which Helms said he released without notifying the rest of the panel, was drafted by special counsel Robert S. Bennett.

Cranston is one of five senators investigated by the panel for their alleged interference with federal regulators to help a major political contributor, Charles H. Keating Jr., owner of Lincoln.

The failure of the Irvine, Calif.-based thrift will cost taxpayers about $2 billion.

The panel had issued its preliminary findings in February, saying the senators had exercised questionable judgment.

The other four are Sens. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) John Glenn (D-Ohio), Dennis DeConcini (R-Ariz.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The report said Cranston’s “solicitation and receipt of contributions to his campaigns and voter registration organizations, his contacts with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board on behalf of Mr. Keating, and his fund raising and constituent service practices has been reprehensible and has brought the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” The committee has not yet decided whether to send the case to the full Senate.