Robert B. Fiske Jr.

* Appointing Robert Fiske as special counsel for the Whitewater affair (Jan. 21) is an outrageous waste of the taxpayer’s money and an egregious disservice to the American public. What will be accomplished by this investigation? How can this effort possibly help reduce our debt, pass a comprehensive health care program or in any way facilitate the solution of the very serious problems we have?

We have a new, vigorous President who is working hard to bring about change in our country. We need to support this effort. Preoccupation with events that took place before President Clinton took office, such as Whitewater and who slept with whom, is a debilitating diversion which is unnecessary, unfair and irrelevant.

ALAN B. UNGAR

Calabasas

* Your article on the Clintons’ Whitewater venture had quite a generous spin in favor of the Clintons (Jan. 31).

According to tax bills (stamps), the Clintons sold their lot for $2,000 and it was then resold for $35,000. After this was made public, it was claimed that the sales price was $33,000 and there was a simple mistake on the taxes. Isn’t that called tax evasion? Hillary, on retainer with her investment partner, James McDougal, petitioned a Clinton-appointed commissioner to approve a recapitalization on a failing land investment with a troubled financial history. She “sidestepped” the law by borrowing $30,000 from a bank she was on retainer with and loaned it back to her investment partner, who owned that bank. Is this not the type of fraud that caused the savings-and-loan failures?

The Clintons are victims because they lost money on the deal; however, they had not claimed the loss on tax returns and the unquestioned reason was that the $68,900 they lost was a contribution. Get real.

JERRY D. CLAXTON

Corona