Panel to Widen Campaign-Finance Probe

Amid fierce partisan wrangling, the House panel investigating campaign fund-raising abuses voted Thursday to broaden its inquiry beyond the White House--but Democrats decried the gesture as nothing more than a show.

After a lengthy, acrimonious hearing, Republicans agreed to expand the scope of their inquiry to include campaign-finance abuses anywhere in the federal bureaucracy. But Democrats--who want to expand the inquiry to include GOP fund-raising problems--saw the move as meaningless because the Republicans also gave committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) sole authority to issue subpoenas, and he has indicated that his priority would be the growing controversy over foreign-linked donations to the Democratic National Committee.

The two parties are at odds over whether the House campaign-financing investigation should focus exclusively on foreign-linked donations to President Clinton’s reelection campaign or should also look into possible wrongdoing by the Republican Party and congressional campaigns.

House Democrats, led by Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, fought for an inquiry that would mirror the one in the Senate, where investigators have issued subpoenas to both the Clinton and Dole presidential campaigns and intend to take aim at improprieties by Congress as well.

“This investigation is whatever the chairman wants,” Waxman fumed after the daylong committee hearing. “I don’t think it bodes well for our working together when they’ve gone off clearly in a partisan direction.”

While vowing to be fair, Burton repeatedly refused to say whether he would actively look into allegations of congressional wrongdoing.

“I cannot tell you every single avenue we’re going to pursue in this investigation because every time we open one door, we find five more that need to be opened,” Burton said. “Substantial evidence of impropriety and illegal activities will be pursued wherever they lead.”

Fearing the worst, Democrats sought to limit Burton’s authority to issue subpoenas unilaterally, without a vote of the full committee. Burton’s position as oversight committee chairman gives him that authority, but most of his predecessors cleared subpoenas with the minority party before sending them out.

“Power should not be concentrated in any one individual,” Waxman told Burton. “Mr. Chairman, you might think that, if you have all this power, you may not abuse it, but power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

So far, Burton has issued slightly more than 100 subpoenas, all of them focusing on key figures in the Democratic fund-raising controversy, including White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser John Huang.

Republican moderates forced Burton to broaden the scope of the House investigation, but the new language continued to enrage Democrats because they won no assurances that any GOP practices would be subject to review.

“The American people clearly do not think all the angels are on one side of the campaign-finance issue,” Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) said, arguing for a look at both parties.

But Republicans argued that the Democratic actions are so serious that they require a focused look.

“We are probably engaged in one of the most broad scandals in the history of the republic,” Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) said.

Democrats angrily disagreed that Burton’s investigation showed any signs of bipartisanship.