House chairmen accuse DOJ of thwarting investigations

Five House panel chairmen vented their frustration Thursday, as they rehashed failed congressional investigations of the Clinton administration in an ostensible search for new tools to strengthen future probes.

In testimony to the House Rules Committee, the committee and subcommittee chairmen directed most of their ire at Attorney General Janet Reno.

The most vociferous complaints came from House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., who went far beyond his colleagues in accusing Reno of "corruption" by dodging or blocking his requests for information.

Burton's attack prompted one Rules Committee member, Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, to ask Burton why "you appear to look so tough and vindictive?"

While taking note of the tension between Congress and the executive branch, which he said was set up by the Constitution, Hall maintained that it had exploded into counterproductive partisan conflict.

In the end, the only reform on which Hall and the Republicans seemed to agree was a potential shift of one-minute speeches from the beginning of each legislative day to the end of it.

"Shut that dumb TV off," said House Resources Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. "How can you work with people when you have just heard [them say] you are no damn good?"

In his testimony, Young ticked off six investigations he complained were blocked by the Justice Department's failure to cooperate.

In most cases, the Justice Department refused to produce documents or prevented witness interviews on grounds that it might interfere with department investigations already taking place.

Rules and Organization of the House Subcommittee Chairman John Linder, R-Ga., said the subpanel session was the first in a series of hearings exploring possible rules changes that could give committees more leverage in their investigations.

The most specific suggestions came from Education and the Workforce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., who complained that his probe of the Teamsters Union was "substantially limited" by the Justice Department.

Hoekstra proposed a new rule to give oversight committees subpoena power they now can acquire only by a vote of the full House.

Hoekstra also suggested the House should entertain giving itself the power to pursue contempt of Congress charges in court; currently, the House refers contempt actions to the attorney general.

While Burton placed all blame for the trouble on the administration's partisanship, Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said it was "human" and endemic of the relationship between Congress and the executive branch.

Hyde said the Justice Department went over the line in refusing to cooperate, but laid the root of the blame on the pursuit of political power.

"Nobody trusts anybody," Hyde said. "If political power is the ultimate goal ... then whatever you do to obtain it, can't be too bad. ... Political power is the ultimate goal of many people who come here, and all we get out of it is cynicism."

Trying to put the long recitation of misfired Republican-led investigations of the Clinton administration in context, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, "Where there's smoke, there are politicians with a smoke machine."