Daschle Accuses Gingrich of Intimidation

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) scorned House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) as the “guru of ethics” on Tuesday and accused him of trying to intimidate Atty. Gen. Janet Reno into appointing a special counsel to probe alleged campaign wrongdoing.

Unrepentant, Gingrich likened Reno’s behavior to that of John N. Mitchell, a former attorney general who was convicted as part of the Watergate cover-up two decades ago.

The comments came one day after Reno’s announcement that she would continue to rely on a Justice Department task force to carry on the probe, and underscored the partisan tensions surrounding the issue.

Senior Republican congressional leaders, including Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), have been sharply critical of Reno’s decision.

Gingrich said at a news conference that Reno’s decision “is something you might have expected from John Mitchell in 1973.” Mitchell served under President Nixon, and later served 19 months in prison.

Asked to comment, President Clinton said: “That cries out for an answer, I guess, but let me say I don’t have anything to add to what I already said. She had to make a legal decision on a legal question. She consulted her career staff people there and made a decision and that’s all I know. It should not be a political matter. It should be a legal matter, and that’s where everybody ought to leave it.”

Daschle said the very law that was designed to depoliticize controversy has become politicized.

“The guru of ethics, Speaker Gingrich himself, has now said it’s imperative that Janet Reno” appoint an independent counsel, Daschle told reporters. “For him to intimidate her, for him to put that kind of political pressure on her . . . borders in my view on unethical behavior itself,” he said.

Daschle’s comment about ethics was a reference to Gingrich’s admission in December after a long ethics probe that he had violated House rules. The speaker also agreed to pay a sanction of $300,000.