White House Acts on Flap Over Aide

The Clinton administration delivered documents to Senate Republicans on Tuesday in an attempt to play down Labor secretary-designate Alexis Herman’s role in a widely criticized White House coffee but questions persist over whether she improperly mixed her official and political duties.

The May 13, 1996, coffee for bankers has emerged as a potential obstacle to Herman’s confirmation to the Cabinet. Her White House office played a key role in organizing the controversial event.

Even President Clinton has acknowledged that it was wrong for the nation’s top banking regulator to have been invited to the White House gathering for bankers, which was sponsored by the Democratic National Committee. “Regulators should not come to meetings . . . that have any kind of political sponsorship, I don’t think,” Clinton said.

It was Herman’s staff at the White House Office of Public Liaison that put together the coffee attended by Comptroller of the Currency Eugene A. Ludwig, more than a dozen bank executives and two top Democratic officials. The idea for the meeting started at the Democratic committee, was passed to the White House political office and ended up in Herman’s public liaison shop, the White House said.

Administration officials explained that it was Kate Carr, an aide to Herman and a former finance director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who organized the meeting under the mistaken belief that it was a policy, rather than political, gathering. When Herman learned from Carr that party officials would be at the meeting, she expressed frustration over the mix-up and decided not to attend, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

The internal White House documents released Tuesday show that initial invitation lists compiled by Carr did not include Democratic officials. A few days before the meeting, the committee apparently assumed control of the invitation lists, adding the names of national chairman Donald L. Fowler and finance chairman Marvin S. Rosen, Lockhart said.

Still unresolved is why Herman did not notify Ludwig when she learned that the policy gathering was really a political meeting. “It’s not clear if Herman knew that Carr invited Ludwig,” Lockhart said. “That’s an open question right now.”

And even though Herman did not attend the banking session, she did attend half a dozen other White House coffees organized by the DNC.

Also unclear Tuesday was whether the documents released by the White House would satisfy the concerns of Senate Republicans, who have delayed Herman’s confirmation hearings while they look into the matter. “We’re still looking at the documents,” said Joe Karpinski, spokesman for the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

Meanwhile, Herman faces other questions. A federal agency that enforces the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by government officials, is investigating whether she may have improperly blended political and government work while in the White House.

The agency initiated the inquiry last week in response to media reports outlining Herman’s role in an African American outreach effort by the Clinton reelection campaign. Herman chaired the African American Working Group, one of several ethnic outreach efforts launched by the president’s reelection team.

The working group planned a variety of strategies to involve blacks in the campaign, to raise more financial contributions from African Americans and to reach out to black voters. Herman headed the strategy group and was listed as one of the White House’s surrogate speakers to deliver the administration’s message to black constituents.

A White House document cautioned political appointees such as Herman to tread cautiously in their political work. “Needless to say, it is inevitable that someone will . . . be singled out for criticism by the press,” said the African American outreach plan. “We should strive to minimize any negative publicity and ensure that all surrogates are clear about Hatch Act restrictions.”