8/11/00 4:30 p.m.
Puerto Rico Follows Clinton-Scandal Playbook
Will the Clinton-Gore administration obstruct justice yet again?

By Jim Boulet, Jr., Executive Director English First

onnoisseurs of the Clinton-Gore administration's methods of defusing political scandals will find some astounding parallels in Puerto Rico these days.

On August 9, charges of extortion and money laundering were brought against two Puerto Rico Statehood Party mayors, the former head of the island's Municipal Revenues Collection Center (CRIM in Spanish) and 15 other persons. At least $800,000 was diverted from a $56 million contract to computerize the island's property-tax collection system.

This corruption scandal is but the latest among many in Puerto Rico. Two ex-directors of a social services agency are presently on trial for stealing $5.8 million of U.S. government funds intended for underprivileged children, the homeless, and the elderly. A trial involving diversion of $2.2 million in U.S. funds from the San Juan AIDS Institute into political campaigns even saw the island's pro-statehood Governor, Pedro Rossello, forced to testify.

The island's public-housing system is now generating a huge scandal of its own. According to the Associated Press, Puerto Rico's Public Housing Administration (PHA), which receives nearly $1 billion in active HUD grants, stands accused of "flagrant fraud, waste and abuse" by Susan Gaffney, inspector general of HUD.

If you were Governor Rossello, how would you make these headlines go away before you took your place as a Vice Chair of the Democratic Party Platform Committee [http://www.democrats.org/news/releases/rel061400.html] in Los Angeles? You'd simply follow the Clinton-Gore Administration's proven playbook on scandal management.

Get Someone to Announce the Problem Is Solved. HUD spokesman Andrew Lluberes said this week that his agency rejected Gaffney's suggestion that Puerto Rico's Public Housing Administration be placed under a trusteeship because "the PHA has made changes in its administration to strengthen its internal financial controls." In other words, the horses may still be gone, but thank goodness! The barn door now has a fresh lock.

Put Your Accusers on the Defensive at all Costs. Susan Gaffney swiftly found herself accused of "an open scorn and prejudice against the American citizens in Puerto Rico" by the island's nonvoting delegate to Congress, Carlos Romero-Barcelo. Romero-Barcelo, a member of the island's Statehood Party, held a lengthy July press conference in which complaints by African-American congressmen against Gaffney's efforts to investigate public-housing programs in New Orleans, Baltimore, and San Francisco were the main bill of fare. Playing the race card generally is a strong indication that one's hand has been caught firmly in the cookie jar. Unfortunately, given the devastating political impact of any imputation of racism, this effort to change the subject generally succeeds all too well.

Suggest that Everybody Else Does What You Were Caught Doing. Governor Rossello complained that the CRIM indictments were unfair because "the accusations didn't include [Commonwealth] Party mayors who were members of CRIM during the time when the irregularities occurred." Romero-Barcelo went Rossello one better and blamed the corruption scandals on the people of Puerto Rico since "the government's corruption is a reflection of the corruption in all society."

When All Else Fails, Obstruct Justice. Governor Rossello has threatened to file a complaint with the Department of Justice over the actions of U.S. Attorney Guillermo Gil, who has prosecuted many of these corruption cases. Rossello was livid that Gil actually said that some of the stolen money had found its way into the hands of "several mayors and civil employees of the [Statehood] Party" and that "this extortion must stop."

Governor Rossello termed these accusations "irresponsible [and] inflammatory" and suggested that Gil was trying to "influence the November 7th elections against the [Statehood Party]." According to El Nuevo Dia, "the Governor did not reject the possibility of referring his complaint to the Attorney General Janet Reno."

When President Richard Nixon intervened in a criminal investigation this way, it eventually cost him his office. Of course, there may well be "no controlling legal authority" that prevents Governor Rossello from bending Janet Reno's ear, or even Al Gore's, about this troublesome man, and perhaps whispering, "Would someone not rid me of this accursed prosecutor?"

Of course, when a complaint from a prominent Gore presidential-campaign adviser like Governor Rossello arrives at the Clinton-Gore Justice Department, attention will be paid. There are indications that there are a large number of other corruption cases pending in Puerto Rico. Guillermo Gil may merely be asked to justify his efforts to his bosses. Or he may be allowed to choose between laying off the administration's friends in Puerto Rico, and seeking new employment.

The bottom line on all this is that the Clinton playbook has worked quite effectively to defuse scandals for almost two full terms. By following these methods assiduously, Governor Rossello and his Statehood Party may well weather this storm in the short run. For as President Clinton once noted when faced with a scandal of his own, "we just have to win."

Should Puerto Rico's Statehood Party keep control of the island's government, many of their problems may well go away — particularly under a presumably grateful Gore administration.

The long-term problem the statehooders face is that Congress has begun to lift more than an eyebrow at this astounding record of corruption and venality, a record that would shame the most hardened Chicago ward heeler.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, has requested an updated report on the HUD allegations. The Government Reform Committee's Chairman, Dan Burton (R-Ind.), is a strong supporter of Puerto Rico statehood, but the stench of corruption from the island could spur him to action as well. Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) still plans to continue his own investigation.

Any of these investigations will have repercussions for Puerto Rico's financial future. Puerto Rico's per capita income of $8,509 is less than one-third of the U.S. average, and about one-half that of Mississippi, the poorest state.

Roughly half of Puerto Rico's annual budget is provided by the U.S. Treasury. This percentage would increase substantially should Puerto Rico become America's 51st state.

This is why in Puerto Rico, statehooders boast that "statehood is for the poor." Little did anyone know that this slogan included Statehood Party politicians among the deserving poor.

Perhaps one day, when all these investigations have run their course, Puerto Rico will become yet another case study in how — all too often — politicians derive far more benefit from anti-poverty programs than the poor and needy ever manage to do.