Dole, Democrats to Plan Hearings on Whitewater

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Sunday that he will meet with Senate Democratic leaders this week to begin planning hearings on the Whitewater case.

“Let’s do it. Let’s get the facts out,” Dole said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

But House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, appearing on the same program, warned against doing anything that might damage the inquiry being conducted by special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr.

Fiske is looking into the involvement of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in an Arkansas land development corporation linked to a failed savings and loan.

Fiske is also probing White House contacts with Treasury Department officials regarding a federal investigation of the deal.

“(Fiske) says he’s going to get the Washington part of it done in three or four weeks. We can have hearings after that, if it’s appropriate to do that,” said Gephardt (D-Mo.).

The Senate voted Thursday to hold hearings on Whitewater but set no timetable. Dole said he plans to meet Tuesday with Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) to begin working out a format and schedule.

“We don’t want to interfere with (Fiske’s) investigation, but we don’t believe we have to wait till he shoots the firing pistol and says, ‘OK, you can start now,’ ” Dole said.

Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), who has been leading the charge for a Senate investigation of the Whitewater controversy, said in an interview Sunday there may be “little if anything” at its core.

“I never said I expected any substantial wrongdoing or any at all,” D’Amato said on WNBC-TV in New York.

He predicted that hearings will start in late April or early May, adding that the Clintons probably would be asked to give sworn statements.