Clinton, Gore Urged to Testify on Fund-Raising

Two prominent Republican lawmakers called on President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore on Sunday to spell out their own efforts to raise funds for their 1996 reelection campaign, perhaps even in a voluntary appearance before a congressional committee.

Former presidential aide Harold M. Ickes and a current top advisor, Bruce R. Lindsey, are among those already subpoenaed to testify during televised Senate hearings that are scheduled to begin Tuesday. Other witnesses are expected to describe a 1996 Democratic fund-raiser at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, where Gore was the featured speaker.

Appearing on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called on Clinton and Gore to appear voluntarily before the Republican-controlled Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which plans three days of hearings each week for the next four weeks.

“If I were the president of the United States and the things had been said about me which have been said about President Clinton, or if I were Vice President Gore, . . . I would want to speak up,” said Specter, who is a member of the Senate panel.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) agreed that Clinton and Gore need to answer some serious questions, but he was not prepared to say whether they should appear before a congressional committee.

“Were phone calls made from the White House . . . to raise money?” Gingrich asked. “ . . . What was their knowledge? The vice president originally said he did not know anything about raising money at a Buddhist temple. Now it turns out it was a clearly scheduled campaign-finance event.

“I can’t imagine that they would believe that sooner or later people wouldn’t want to know, in a very clear and legally binding manner, what their role was,” Gingrich said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”

The last president to testify to a congressional panel was Gerald R. Ford, who appeared before a House Judiciary subcommittee in 1974 to answer questions about his pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon.

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Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), the Governmental Affairs Committee’s ranking Democrat, said a decision to appear before a congressional committee would be up to Clinton. “I can’t say whether he should or not,” he said. “I don’t know the facts.”

Glenn, appearing on “Meet the Press,” left the door open--ever so slightly--for pursuing testimony from Gore. “I don’t know whether that’s the best way to come before the committee or not,” he said. “That’s something the committee should explore.”

Lanny J. Davis, White House special counsel, issued a noncommittal response, saying the White House would “continue to cooperate with the committee” and respond to information requests from the panel “necessary to complete its investigation.”

Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), appearing on ABC-TV’s “This Week,” said it is premature to ask Clinton or Gore to testify on videotape. But he suggested that they “would want the answers to some of these questions.” In fact, he said, “I couldn’t think of anyone who would be more likely to want to assure the American people of some of these things.”

Thompson said he is seeking to put aside the partisan wrangling that has marked the run-up to the hearings.

He indicated that he will require that a subpoena for records of the National Policy Forum, the Republican-connected organization accused of accepting improper campaign contributions, be honored.

Times staff writer Marc Lacey contributed to this story.