Gephardt Accuses Gingrich of Bias in Fund-Raising Probe

Partisan bickering over the handling of a campaign fund-raising investigation continued Thursday despite the firing Wednesday of a Republican investigator, with House Democrats criticizing Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) for telling Republicans to use the word “crimes” instead of “scandals” and Democratic lawmakers walking out on the speaker’s address to the New Hampshire Legislature.

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) wrote a letter Thursday asking the speaker to have no role in the investigation.

Gephardt said Gingrich has shown bias in comments about the Clinton-Gore 1996 reelection campaign, the period under investigation. He cited reports that Gingrich told a House Republican meeting to “focus on crimes that are being committed at the White House . . . to forget the word ‘scandals’ and start using the word ‘crimes.’ ”

“As I said publicly last week, your actions resembled a judge who begins a trial by advising the jury of his belief in the guilt of the accused,” Gephardt told Gingrich.

He said the House committee investigation cannot be conducted with fairness “as long as you direct its activities.”

In response, Gingrich spokeswoman Christina Martin said, “Mr. Gephardt hopes the media will focus on the wallpaper and ignore the hippo standing in the middle of the room. This letter is just another hollow prop to distract attention from the Democrats’ inexcusable stonewalling and obstruction.”

The exchange came a day after Democrats directed their criticism toward Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), head of a House committee investigation. Next week, the Democrats plan to offer a resolution calling for Burton to step down as head of the probe by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

Burton investigator David N. Bossie was ordered dismissed by Gingrich on Wednesday, for supervising release of phone transcripts that left out favorable material toward Webster L. Hubbell, a former associate attorney general, and his onetime law partner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In New Hampshire, two dozen Democrats in the Legislature walked out of Gingrich’s speech when he criticized President Clinton for doing too little in the face of wrongdoing in his administration.

“If a crime has been committed, the American people have a right to know,” he told the GOP-dominated Legislature.

As the first of 20 to 30 Democrats in the 400-member House headed up the aisles, Gingrich said, “People can walk out, but what I’m saying is a fact about a crime.”