For the Record

Ethics questions take center stage as House Ethics Committee dismisses most charges against Newt Gingrich, commits tax question to special counsel. Gingrich noted that committee Democrats joined Republicans in voting to clear him of most charges, likens remaining issues to jaywalking. The probe is likely to take months. Says (finally retiring) Rep. Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), “When the special counsel comes back and asks for expanded powers, the Republicans are going to look very terrible if they put their wagons in a circle and protect the Speaker.” While Lamar Alexander and Jack Kemp defend the Speaker, Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) says, “He has to realize he’s not the Republican Party and he’s not the Republican revolution. He can’t be trying to dominate all the debate and all the media.” . . . Whitewater rapids get rockier for Bill Clinton. White House spokesman Mark Fabiani says Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R., N.Y.) “is not searching for the truth. Instead he is engaging in a politically inspired fishing expedition.” . . . In Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interview Clinton says the state has done pretty well from his Presidency, adds, “But I regrer all the other things that have happened Although maybe it’s caused a lot more money to be spent in the state.”

At opening of N.H. Clinton-Gore HQ James Carville says clinton will win “by portraying himself as a candidate working for a better future while the Republican Party is selfishly concorned with present” (Boston Globe). Hillary Rodham Clinton, Filing husband’s primary papers, uses housewifely iamgery: “We can get our economic house in order without sweeping com-passion out the door.” . . . States are bickering over primary and caucus schedule. In Delaware, officials are planning primary just four days after first in-the-nation New Hampshire; Louisiana wants to move ahead of Iowa’s caucuses. Most candidates arc heeding calls to boycott the leapfroggers. Phil Gramm, facing criticism for participating in both states (where he is expected to do well), responds: “If you can’t take a little heat on an issue like this, how are you going to deal with the Russians, much less deal with the Democrats? . . . I think somebody who gets so caught up in pandering that they can’t stand up to pressure like this, they probably ought not to be President.” . . . Mike Wild, Steve Forbes’s Iowa coordinator, promises Forbes “is not going to capitulate to the right wing” on abortion. Iowa poll shows Forbes draws heavily from Gramm camp. Pat Buchanan attacks Forbes’s fiat tax for cutting revenues by $40 billion: “I don’t believe in this conservatism that’s really another form of social Darwinism, one that takes no account of people’s sacrifices and obligations.” Keeping up the attack, he says, “What is the true conservatism? Is it preserving a thousand family farms in Iowa? Or is it collecting all the hogs into one conglomerate, killing a thousand family farms, because it’s a little more efficient?” Forbes retorts that Buchanan is “reflecting traditional cultural thinking in Washington.”., . Richard Lugar goes negative, slamming Gramm and Buchanan for “negative campaigning, character assassination. and mean spirited politics ” Lamar Alexander joins in. blasting Gramm and Bob Dole for “mean-spiritedness.“ Alexander also complains about spotty media coverage: “We’ve had 90 per cent of the presidential race and nobody knows about it.”

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Ethics questions take center stage as House Ethics Committee dismisses most charges against Newt Gingrich, commits tax question to special counsel. Gingrich noted that committee Democrats joined Republicans in voting to clear him of most charges, likens remaining issues to jaywalking. The probe is likely to take months. Says (finally retiring) Rep. Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), “When the special counsel comes back and asks for expanded powers, the Republicans are going to look very terrible if they put their wagons in a circle and protect the Speaker.” While Lamar Alexander and Jack Kemp defend the Speaker, Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) says, “He has to realize he’s not the Republican Party and he’s not the Republican revolution. He can’t be trying to dominate all the debate and all the media.” . . . Whitewater rapids get rockier for Bill Clinton. White House spokesman Mark Fabiani says Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R., N.Y.) “is not searching for the truth. Instead he is engaging in a politically inspired fishing expedition.” . . . In Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interview Clinton says the state has done pretty well from his Presidency, adds, “But I regrer all the other things that have happened Although maybe it’s caused a lot more money to be spent in the state.”

At opening of N.H. Clinton-Gore HQ James Carville says clinton will win “by portraying himself as a candidate working for a better future while the Republican Party is selfishly concorned with present” (Boston Globe). Hillary Rodham Clinton, Filing husband’s primary papers, uses housewifely iamgery: “We can get our economic house in order without sweeping com-passion out the door.” . . . States are bickering over primary and caucus schedule. In Delaware, officials are planning primary just four days after first in-the-nation New Hampshire; Louisiana wants to move ahead of Iowa’s caucuses. Most candidates arc heeding calls to boycott the leapfroggers. Phil Gramm, facing criticism for participating in both states (where he is expected to do well), responds: “If you can’t take a little heat on an issue like this, how are you going to deal with the Russians, much less deal with the Democrats? . . . I think somebody who gets so caught up in pandering that they can’t stand up to pressure like this, they probably ought not to be President.” . . . Mike Wild, Steve Forbes’s Iowa coordinator, promises Forbes “is not going to capitulate to the right wing” on abortion. Iowa poll shows Forbes draws heavily from Gramm camp. Pat Buchanan attacks Forbes’s fiat tax for cutting revenues by $40 billion: “I don’t believe in this conservatism that’s really another form of social Darwinism, one that takes no account of people’s sacrifices and obligations.” Keeping up the attack, he says, “What is the true conservatism? Is it preserving a thousand family farms in Iowa? Or is it collecting all the hogs into one conglomerate, killing a thousand family farms, because it’s a little more efficient?” Forbes retorts that Buchanan is “reflecting traditional cultural thinking in Washington.”., . Richard Lugar goes negative, slamming Gramm and Buchanan for “negative campaigning, character assassination. and mean spirited politics ” Lamar Alexander joins in. blasting Gramm and Bob Dole for “mean-spiritedness.“ Alexander also complains about spotty media coverage: “We’ve had 90 per cent of the presidential race and nobody knows about it.”