What we really need is an independent counsel to investigate the White House filing system.
We need to understand a storage and retrieval system that permits the release of personal letters from Kathleen Willey to the president within 24 hours following her appearance on “60 Minutes” but cannot comply with a federal subpoena for the Rose Law Firm’s billing records for more than two years.
We need to understand how a system can’t come up with a personnel file on former White House Chief of Security Craig Livingstone that explains who recommended this former saloon bouncer for the job and who approved his hiring, but one that can come up with a 30-year-old charge against a then-teenage Linda Tripp. Especially since the charge was dropped.
We need to grasp the concept of a system that “inadvertently” collects 900 classified FBI files on opposition party members but can’t seem to collect the records of the Whitewater and Castle Grande land schemes. If it was any office other than the presidency, we might think that there was some element of selective memory, duplicity or even obstruction of justice. But we were promised the most ethical administration in history. And if you can’t believe the president of the United States, who can you believe?
