Armey Cites ‘Politics’ of Whitewater

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) on Thursday defended the Whitewater hearings as a justified response to a “very mean” Democratic Party led by a president who practices politics as a “blood sport.”

In perhaps the most open official acknowledgment yet of the GOP’s political interests in the hearings, Armey said in a C-SPAN cable network interview that “politics is a mean business, and the Democratic Party is a very mean party. And our guys have to respond.”

Armey cited the title of a recent book on the Whitewater affair, “Blood Sport.”

“That’s the way politics are,” he insisted. “The president’s as good as anybody at this blood sport called politics.

“You have to look at the other guys and say, ‘Look, you can’t field a team and tell your team: Don’t block and don’t tackle while the other team’s smash-mouthing people and pulling every stunt in the trick [sic],’ ” he said. “I’d like to live in a world where you didn’t have all these politics. But I tell you, politics is a mean business.”

Armey’s comments came on a week when the two parties’ leaders in Congress broke a long standoff by agreeing to extend funding for the Whitewater committee until June 27.

His contention that the hearings were justified by politics will probably surprise few Washington observers. Yet until now, the GOP leadership has been careful to publicly avoid such arguments, contending instead that the hearings were needed to expose the truth about the president’s financial dealings in the face of official attempts to cover them up.

Armey also referred to that justification for the hearings in his televised remarks. He said the Whitewater affair had seen “a lot of mysterious doings,” including the sudden appearance of previously absent legal records “at a politically convenient time for the president.”

Speaking of Armey’s reference to politics, Ann F. Lewis, communications director for the Clinton-Gore campaign, said that she “appreciated Congressman Armey’s confirming that this is what it’s about. . . . Clearly, a large number of people already think these extended, unending Whitewater investigations are a means to achieve politically what the Republicans are unable to do otherwise, which is weaken the president.”