Senator Thompson -- Down for the Count?

Senator Thompson -- Down for The Count?

Monday, July 14th, 1997 -- Television policy pundits were poking each other in the ribs this weekend as they reviewed Senator Fred Thompson's not-so-stunning performance during the opening week of his campaign finance scandal hearings -- a week which saw CNN's ratings drop during coverage of the event!

Thompson, who led the week with testimony from former DNC finance director Richard Sullivan, may have already blown his chance to be anointed by his party for the 2000 presidential bid. If the self-promoting bimbo-pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick is really dating Thompson and giving him advice between the senatorial sheets, he ought to change horses -- and fast!

Thompson, who started off last week with an overacted and overreaching story that China was plotting to "take over" the American political process, is being severely criticized by colleagues and foes alike as the Justice Department came unglued and a high-ranking Justice Department official found it necessary to send a letter to Senator Thompson saying the department does not necessarily agree with his conclusion that the Chinese government deliberately tried to influence the American political process.

In the meanwhile, Bob Woodward, still tiredly relying on his 23-year-old Watergate fame, wrote a piece for The Washington Post alluding that he has found another "Deep Throat" in the Clinton White House, one that tells Woodward that the FBI is holding back secrets from Congress in an effort to protect its Justice Department criminal investigations.

Woodward writes, "Executive branch sources said that Thompson's statement was cleared late Monday by the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency, a day before he read it at the opening of his hearings… Documentation of the Chinese plan is contained in highly classified intelligence intercepts that rarely are made public because disclosure might compromise sensitive sources and methods used to protect national security… U.S. intelligence has established that about $2 million was allocated by the Chinese government, of which at least $1 million was transferred to U.S. banks or to the Chinese Embassy here… The intelligence on the Chinese plan establishes that Beijing had the 'intent' to make illegal campaign contributions, one official said… Approved at the highest levels of the Beijing government, the plan was placed under the control of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, Beijing's equivalent of the CIA."

Take your choice -- either the Justice Department is stalling, Woodward is on to something, someone is lying to Woodward, or -- all of the above. That something, however, may not be much; even if the Chinese transferred $1 million to US Banks or the Chinese Embassy, Thompson and his sidekick Arlen Specter must establish a closed chain of events which trace the funds directly to the DNC, Congress or the Clinton campaign. It's doubtful that the wire transfers between a government and its agencies are marked "Use for campaign bribes."

The most stunning repudiation of the Woodward and Thompson stories came from ABC's This Week which revealed that Assistant US Attorney General Andrew Fois sent a letter to Thompson over the weekend saying that the "review" of Thompson's statement on China "was only for the purpose of protecting classified information and the integrity of the pending criminal investigation… You neither requested nor received assessments of the accuracy of any conclusions you drew from information available to the committee. Those conclusions, of course, are your own."

Huh? Then why did The Washington Post report, on Sunday, that the FBI, CIA and the National Security Agency "cleared" the statement and that FBI Director Louis Freeh was involved in the clearance process?

To round things off, even the venerable Tom Brokaw is in a fix with the Thompson Committee. Brokaw interviewed "congressional fugitive" Charlie Trie "somewhere in Asia" last month and congressional investigators are putting the squeeze on NBC for information as to Trie's whereabouts. NBC seems to be protecting its sources. Thompson reportedly told Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report that NBC "has been cagey" with efforts to locate DNC fundraiser Trie who is said to be hiding out in China.

Thompson calls the structure of his hearings "a building block approach." Someone ought to remind Thompson that a the promised skyscraper of scandal better have a much stronger foundation.

Look for the hearings to take on a more sinister "look" this week as Thompson and his GOP colleagues try to rehabilitate their hearings.

Look for Americans to spot a phony when they see one.