Fund-Raising Probe Videos Star Clinton, Reagan

President Clinton and former President Reagan both appeared before the Senate campaign fund-raising hearings Wednesday--on dueling videotapes played by lawmakers eager to land partisan blows.

Clinton was shaking hands with contributors and explaining to them oh-so-earnestly how essential their big checks were to his campaign. Reagan, in his aw-shucks manner, offered heartfelt gratitude to his financial supporters of years gone by.

And for Senate investigators who have been frustrated in their efforts to track down key players in the donations controversy, Wednesday’s filmfest offered some consolation.

With the push of a button, embattled Democratic fund-raiser John Huang instantly appeared before the Governmental Affairs Committee. So did controversial businessman Johnny Chien Chuen Chung, restaurateur-turned-check collector Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie and--in frame after frame--the president himself.

With Chairman Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) acting as narrator, the panel screened a highlight reel from the latest batch of White House videotapes of fund-raising events--seen as damning or innocuous depending on viewers’ political stripes.

“I guess this is the Senate’s version of going to the Blockbuster video store,” quipped Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who said he was troubled by what he heard on both the Clinton and the Reagan tapes.

Thompson said the Clinton tapes provided potentially damaging evidence that the president’s reelection campaign had violated federal election law by using Democratic National Committee funds to pay for advertising clearly aimed at reelecting the president.

“This was total control,” Thompson said of the White House connection to the ads. “We’ve never seen that before in the history of American politics, as far as I know. What you had here was a sham situation.”

In one tape, called “extraordinary” by Thompson, Clinton explains to donors how he was able to get around the $1,000 contribution limit to his campaign by using unlimited “soft-money” donations to the party.

“We realized we could run these ads through the Democratic Party, which meant we could raise money in $20,000 and $50,000 and $100,000 blocks,” Clinton told supporters at a White House gathering on Dec. 7, 1995. “So we didn’t have to do it all in $1,000 and run down what I can spend, which is limited by law, so that’s what we have done.”

Thompson said the committee would send a legal brief to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno explaining how the Clinton-Gore campaign had violated election laws and urging, once again, the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the matter.

But Democratic committee members argued that both major parties paid for 1996 ads aimed at assisting their presidential candidates, and said the practice was within the law. As for the Clinton videos, Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) said, “I didn’t see a whole lot there myself.”

When Glenn had control of the play button, Reagan’s face appeared on video screens. He was shown at White House gatherings thanking donors for their support and urging them to continue to aid the Republican cause.

“It’s a bipartisan problem, and these tapes show it,” Glenn said.

Thompson, however, came to Reagan’s defense. “You didn’t see anyone there [in the Reagan videos] hugging the president, taking the 5th Amendment and leaving the country,” Thompson said.

As the volley continued, Democrats displayed a 1996 media interview with then-GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, in which he explained how the Republican National Committee had aided his campaign with a so-called issue ad. Such ads, which can be funded by “soft money,” by law cannot advocate the election of a candidate.

“We can, through the Republican National Committee, through what we call the Victory ’96 program, run television ads and other advertising,” Dole said. “It’s called generic. . . . It doesn’t say ‘Bob Dole for President.’ It talks about the Bob Dole story.”

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Dueling Tapes

Videotapes of President Clinton and former President Reagan speaking to high-level campaign donors were played before members of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Some excerpts:

“Your friendship andsupport since coming here have meant a lot to me. So I thank you for your generosity and your commitment. And I know that that commitment is for a long tim come. It isn’t just going to pass away after an election or two.”

President Reagan with Republican Congressional Leadership Council donors, April 22, 1985, in the East Room

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“Many of you have given very generously and thank you for that . . . The fact that we’ve been able to finance this long-running constant television campaign . . . where we’re always able to frame the issues.... has been central to the position I now enjoy in the polls.”

President Clinton at Sheraton Carlton. May 21, 1996