Bush Lashes Out at Congress as ‘Privileged’

Attacking Congress as “a privileged class” that exempts itself from federal laws and shows scant regard for the reputations of others, President Bush unveiled proposals Thursday for reforming the Senate confirmation process.

Bush demanded a prompt investigation of the information leaks that plagued the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and declared that he would strictly limit Senate access to confidential FBI reports in future inquiries involving executive branch nominees.

Acting shortly after Bush spoke, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to launch an investigation into leaks of the explosive sexual harassment charges lodged against Thomas by law professor Anita Faye Hill, as well as earlier disclosures involving the “Keating Five” ethics case.

The President, speaking to public policy groups at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History, was highly critical of what he characterized as significant legislative branch excesses and called on Capitol Hill to subject itself to the same laws it imposes on others. Political authorities said that the tone of his remarks suggested that Congress-bashing is likely to be a central theme in his 1992 reelection campaign.

The President called for an absolute time limit on the duration of future confirmation proceedings, declaring that six weeks should be adequate to consider nominees for high office. But he did not propose any specific legislation to accomplish his reforms.

“That’s the Senate’s business,” a senior White House adviser said. “It’s best to let the Senate deal with its own problems.”

Bush told his audience that “the bruising hearings” on Thomas are an example of “what happens when political factions let agendas overwhelm personal decency.”

Attacking unnamed “special-interest” and “pressure groups,” the President declared: “The piranha tactics of smearing the individual and ignoring the issue serve no public purpose. They aim to destroy lives and wreck reputations.”

He said that the nationally televised Senate hearings into Hill’s allegations that Thomas had sexually harassed her when both worked at the Department of Education and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission became “more like a burlesque show than a civics class.”

Characterizing some members of Congress and their staffs as unable to be trusted with secrets, Bush said that future FBI background reports on nominees will be shown only to congressional committee chairmen and selected members. The reports will then be returned to the FBI, he said.

“Staffs will not have access to these reports,” Bush said. “This preserves confidentiality. . . . There is no excuse for leaks that wreck lives and needlessly destroy reputations.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) noted, however, that the leaked document in the Thomas hearings was not an FBI report but an unsworn statement that Hill had given directly to the committee.

Bush assailed Congress for exempting itself from significant federal laws, such as the Privacy Act of 1974, which provides for federal inquiries into damaging leaks of information. He also cited employee wage and safety standards and anti-discrimination laws, including those prohibiting sexual harassment.

“This practice creates the appearance and reality of a privileged class of rulers who stand above the law,” Bush declared. He called on Congress by year’s end to subject itself to the same laws it writes for the rest of the country.

The President’s pointed attack on Congress was quickly rebutted by key lawmakers.

Biden, who chaired the Thomas hearings, said that “the core of the problem” was Bush’s insistence on nominating conservative Supreme Court justices “and a Senate dedicated to protecting existing constitutional rights which this belief threatens.”

He said that any reforms “must start with the President and his selection of nominees.” Restricting FBI reports, he added, “misses the mark” because no FBI reports were leaked in the Thomas case.

Biden also took issue with the President’s proposal to speed the confirmation process, saying that “the White House takes five times as long to fill most judicial vacancies as we take to confirm nominees.”

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), another Judiciary Committee member, spoke to the Senate after Bush’s speech, declaring that “the President wants to turn the advise-and-consent process into a rubber stamp.”

“The only thing that really needs reform is the President’s cynical approach to the Supreme Court,” Leahy said, adding that “the character assassination of Anita Hill” was directed from the White House with the aid of Republican senators on the committee.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) remarked that “those who seek to reform others should first reform themselves.”

Asked why Bush launched his criticism, Mitchell said that the economy was in deep recession and the President “wants to divert the attention of the American people by attacking Congress.”

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.), referring to legal exemptions crafted by Congress, noted that the President is personally exempt from certain laws, including the Freedom of Information Act and ethics statutes banning certain lobbying practices after retirement from government service.

“Former presidents and vice presidents may immediately represent clients on matters they dealt with (when in office),” Foley told reporters. He agreed that Congress should review its own exemptions, but on a case-by-case basis.

Overcoming bitter partisan differences, the Senate voted, 86 to 12, to approve a Democratic proposal to appoint a special counsel to conduct a four-month investigation into the Thomas leaks and earlier disclosures involving the Senate Ethics Committee’s investigation of five senators accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating Jr., owner of now defunct Lincoln Savings & Loan, in return for campaign contributions.

Senate Democrats lined up to reject a Republican alternative, offered by Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), that would have confined the investigation to the Thomas leak, voting, 55 to 43, against the proposal. Democrats Tom Harkin of Iowa and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who are both seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, were absent during the voting.

The decision to move forward with the combined inquiry followed a heated debate in which Democrats accused Republicans of trying to exploit the furor over the Thomas leaks for political advantage and Republicans accused Democrats of trying to defuse and delay the Thomas investigation by lumping in other, older leaks.

As Mitchell and Seymour traded verbal assaults on the floor, the reason for partisan bitterness became apparent: the Republicans wanted to confine the investigation to the Thomas affair because a Democrat is assumed to have leaked the allegations of sexual harassment that Hill made in a confidential statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. The Democrats, for their part, wanted to protect the party from a one-sided political embarrassment by broadening the investigation to include leaks for which Republicans are believed to be responsible.

After two days of back-room negotiations between Mitchell and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) failed to produce a bipartisan compromise, the two sides agreed to showdown votes on the Senate floor.

Calling the Thomas leaks a “national disgrace” that left a “stench” hanging over the Senate, Seymour said that public confidence in government could be restored only by a “straightforward, credible and independent” investigation to expose the senator or staff aide responsible for the unauthorized disclosure.

His amendment, to an unrelated bill awaiting final passage, would have directed the FBI to investigate the Thomas leak and report its results to the Senate within 30 days.

Besides exploring the Thomas leaks, the special counsel will look into earlier disclosures of the status of the Ethics Committee’s investigation of the “Keating Five” affair.

The ethics inquiry involves allegations that five senators ran interference with regulators on behalf of Keating while at the same time soliciting sizable campaign contributions from him.

The Ethics Committee has decided not to discipline four senators--Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), John Glenn (D-Ohio) and John McCain (R-Ariz.)--but continues to deliberate the case of Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.). Cranston has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.

Times staff writers William J. Eaton, Douglas Jehl and Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.