The 10-year-old boy has always promised to do his best, to do his duty for God and country and to obey the laws of his Cub Scout pack.
On Friday, however, his parents were wondering how to explain to him that life, especially in the ambition-filled world of Washington, can be more complicated.
That’s because of a quandary presented by that morning’s big local story: the 18-count indictment of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros on charges of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to FBI agents who were investigating payments he made to a former mistress.
Cisneros had quit his Cabinet post largely so he could go into the private sector (a Spanish-language TV network) and make money to pay legal fees.
But the general belief was that Cisneros, the charismatic former San Antonio mayor, had told a few fibs during the background check done by the FBI prior to his becoming HUD boss: He had not come clean about modest payments to a former mistress.
Atty. Gen. Janet Reno triggered selection of an independent counsel. For more than two years, people wondered what was taking so long and whether taxpayer funds were being wasted.
Thursday’s indictment proved them wrong. The alleged Cisneros scheme was far more complicated and premeditated than they imagined.
The indictment alleged the scheme involved his payments of more than $250,000 over five years, not just $10,000 a year for four years as he had asserted. Further, there supposedly was a conspiracy to deceive investigators and the Internal Revenue Service that included one mistress and two former Cisneros aides. Another charge is that there was a second mistress, with the primary lady chum also getting paid to keep that liaison hushed up.
According to the indictment, “It was part of the conspiracy that during the late summer of 1992 through early 1994, Cisneros continued to pay (Linda) Medlar (mistress No. 1) in order to ensure her silence regarding, among other things, their relationship and the nature, purpose and extent of his payments to her and to `another woman,’ so he could be nominated, confirmed and serve as Secretary of HUD.”
He was nominated, confirmed, sworn in and served. His life outside work also contained a promise to uphold certain standards, as I discovered in a chance conversation with a friend Friday.
Although there was no mention of it in the fall-from-grace tales in newspapers, Cisneros was Cub Scout den leader for my friend’s 10-year-old son for more than a year during 1995 and 1996.
Twice a month, nine 8-year-olds, including Cisneros’ son, would meet with Cisneros in a church basement and enjoy various outings, take nature hikes, go camping and do crafts projects. They built model rocket ships and launched them here at a NASA research center.
Cisneros took them to the White House when President Clinton was out of town. The scouts sat in the Cabinet Room and ambled into the Oval Office, where a Secret Service agent showed them a bona fide Cal Ripken baseball bat hidden behind a curtain.
But, most of all, Cisneros spoke about the ideals of being a good scout. The 10-year-old’s mom says he was a fine leader and made a connection with the boys. Her son, who even watched a multipart TV series on Hispanic culture narrated by Cisneros, was upset when Cisneros left town without saying goodbye.
The boy’s father says, “It’s all amazing, a classic Washington story. He was this perfect Washington presence who was giving the scout pledge in front of an American flag.
“Now the story comes out, and it is even worse than you imagined. It’s much more elaborate and premeditated, and you think: `How hypocritical can a guy be? How can he stand in front of these little kids, recite all the scout platitudes and know he has done all these other things?’ “
“I don’t think he’s a monster,” the mother said. “But what do you say to your kid? The more I think about this, if he was a scout leader when he knew full well he was cheating on his wife and lying to the government, I’m outraged.”
By coincidence, there was a pack meeting Friday evening, and the kids were planning to sing carols at a home for retired nuns.
So what does one say to a kid?
Colin Greer, an educator who heads the New World Foundation in New York, answered: “You tell kids that people make mistakes and that there is more to them than their mistakes. The reason we have rules and regulations is that we make mistakes.”
“But how do we deal with those mistakes?” Greer asked. “Do we use them to set a higher standard and to hold ourselves accountable to the rules?”
As for Cisneros, “this is ubiquitous, the human flaw. Is it indicative of a society in moral collapse? I think not,” Greer said.
“But once personal ambition becomes a driving force for a life, the moral standards become instrumental. They are either secondary, or they are merely part of how you want to look. You do good things because that’s just a part of an image you want to present.”
That is a dynamic Greer discerns as having accelerated since the 1980s. Cisneros, HUD secretary and den leader, may be a prime example. “Individual achievement as a justification of a life has gotten out of hand. It’s like that old car ad: `If you’ve got it, flaunt it.’ “
When he got home from school Friday, the 10-year-old heard about Cisneros from his mom. His first response, she said, was concern for Cisneros’ son. She suggested he say a prayer for the boy before going to bed that night.
“I’ll say one for Mr. Cisneros too,” the boy said.
Industrial strength
As Tribune intern Noah Isackson found Friday, sometimes the real newsmakers don’t participate in their own press conferences.
A group calling itself Americans for Responsible Alcohol Access beckoned reporters to the National Press Club to call for an end to alcohol sales on the Internet.
Backed by a national survey and a few shreds of evidence collected by New York Atty. Gen. Dennis Vacco, the group said Internet liquor stores were breaking the law by selling alcohol to underage Web users.
Oh, the ARAA admitted that it is “significantly sponsored” by the liquor wholesalers industry, a group that receives a cut from all booze sales–but not from Internet sellers. Vacco admitted he was “invited” down by the industry for the event. The middlemen might have stood in front of the eager newsies, rather than hide behind the ARAA.
Perks of a Maxicrat
Our hearty congratulations if you are a DCCC Maxout.
Are you thus a member of a hot grunge band? No, just somebody whose organization forks over $15,000 a year to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
A letter provided me by a kindly lobbyist indicates that Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas), chairman of what’s known among us insiders as the “D Triple C,” wants prospective DCCC Maxouts to know that if they give by March 31, they’ll get these “special benefits”:
– Ten complimentary tickets to the annual Democratic Congressional Dinner on March 11.
– The Maxout Winter Retreat at The Homestead (a nice joint in Hot Springs, Va.) in March.
– The chance to attend one of the following events at cost: the Super Bowl, the Wintergreen Spring Golf Tournament, the Chairmen’s Council Skeet and Trap Shoot and Eastern Shore Duck Hunt, or the Speakers’ Club Summer Retreat at the Greenbrier (another nice joint, in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.) with Democratic members of Congress.
And this is not to mention a chance to show up at “our Annual Aspen Ski Trip in January.”
If you have a craving call Erin Graefe at 202-485-3519. She also might give you an update on the state of campaign finance reform.
