Lott Vows to Work With, and Probe, Democrats

Newly elected Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) pledged Tuesday to cooperate with Democrats in the 105th Congress but immediately declared that the Republican-controlled body must first investigate allegations of illegal fund-raising by the Democratic Party.

Appearing at a news conference to trumpet his reelection as the Senate’s top Republican and to showcase his new GOP leadership team, Lott suggested that investigations of campaign finance irregularities could dominate both Congress and the White House for the next six months or more.

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who was reelected as minority leader, said the chamber’s Democrats intend to place sweeping campaign reform legislation at the top of their agenda.

“Campaign finance reform is first and foremost our strongest desire as we begin to deal with the agenda of the 105th Congress,” Daschle said, promising to introduce a bill to reduce the influence of money on campaigns. “We don’t need another commission. What we need are more limits on spending and the influence of special interests.”

Lott and Senate Republicans, however, made it clear that that is not their immediate focus. GOP senators appear more intent on gleaning new details from the White House about ongoing reports alleging improper campaign contributions by Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady.

Lott said the administration’s refusal to seek appointment of an independent counsel to review questionable campaign contributions, as well as news accounts of a 1993 letter from Riady containing policy proposals on a variety of Asian issues, make it imperative for the Senate to conduct its own examination.

“I don’t think we can ignore that at all,” Lott said, adding that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s decision to decline GOP requests for an independent counsel “actually increases significantly the need for us to have a good look at that.”

Lott predicted that an independent counsel will be appointed but said the Senate will not wait. “We have our responsibilities, our requirements to look into these matters. There are letters that are coming out. It’s looking, you know, more and more like we have got to get into it and find out what happened.”

Lott is expected to assign the Senate Government Affairs Committee to conduct hearings into Democratic fund-raising activities. The Senate Rules Committee may consider possible legislation to prevent future problems.

Lott ruled out proposals by Daschle and other Democrats to adopt a constitutional amendment changing campaign finance laws, saying “that’s not going to happen.”

Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who was reelected as Senate GOP whip, said investigating the fund-raising activities takes precedence over changing campaign laws. “There’s been a lot of allegations that laws were broken in regards to campaign finance,” Nickles said. “It doesn’t really do a whole lot of good to talk about changing the law until you find out what’s the current status of the law, and has the law been broken.”

Daschle said he supports Senate hearings on the subject as long as legislators avoid conducting an “inquisition” into the Democrats’ activities. The hearings ought to be “balanced, fair and representative of the infractions that have occurred on both sides.”

“We will support any legitimate effort to look into infractions,” Daschle said. “But we would remind our Republican colleagues and everyone else that infractions occurred on both sides, and we would hope this would be a bipartisan inquiry into all of what needs to be done to clean up the current mess we find with regard to campaign finance.”