Worried frowns in Washington over the latest setbacks for Team Turmoil – a.k.a. the Clinton administration – are not limited to the West Wing of the White House. They can also be seen on the faces of the GOP establishment over the political ramifications of the Starr investigation and, once again, how Republicans should handle the delicate issue.

This particular conundrum has stymied the GOP since Jan. 21, when the sordid tale first broke that a White House intern had an affair with the married president of the United States.

The GOP’s first instinct – to stay silent – was probably the correct one at that time, a bow to the Napoleonic dictum of never interrupting your enemy when he is making a mistake. However, this posture should not have become a blanket policy to be conducted forever. When Hillary Clinton enjoined the GOP into the battle with her “vast right wing conspiracy” charge, the Republicans should have responded quickly and aggressively.

With the notable exceptions of Steve Forbes and Sen. John Ashcroft, the GOP remained strangely silent even in the face of this allegation, which revealed a deeply disturbed paranoia permeating this White House. Her statement was, and still is, laughable – but because the Republicans never effectively responded, the notion gained a measure of credibility. As we all know, the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” got Monica her White House blue pass and encouraged her to draw the unsuspecting Bill Clinton into a compromising situation with her irresistible feminine wiles. Sure.

So the Clinton administration put off until tomorrow what they felt they didn’t have to do today. Each day, more and more piled up on the White House to-do list – but with no pressure from the GOP, what incentive was there to resolve this situation?

Even so, this strategy was a time bomb waiting to go off. For the Clinton strategy to work, the White House had to count on a 24-year-old to willingly be indicted and perhaps go to jail for perjury or for an independent counsel to give up on almost four years of hard work and leave with nothing to show.

Now Ken Starr has new wind in his sails and the White House is temporarily foundering. However, the Clintonites will regain their voice. They always do. And Mr. Starr clearly knows what he will do. The only question now is what will the Republicans do.

While no one is thrilled at the prospect of highlighting the utter trashing of the moral authority of the White House, restored to the nation by Presidents Reagan and Bush after the failed administrations of Nixon, Ford and Carter, there is nonetheless a realpolitik opportunity for the GOP, and it is not without historical precedent.

In 1974, after Nixon’s resignation and the subsequent Ford pardon, the GOP’s mood was near suicidal. Republicans’ worst fears were realized in the November landslide as Democrats swept House and Senate seats, governorships and state legislatures across the country. The Democratic voter turnout did not go up, however. Rather, it was close to the historical averages. It was the Republican base that did not show up for the election, falling 15 percent off the historical average, because Republican voters were embarrassed and demoralized by the scandals. (It’s interesting to note that at this time, some genius at the Republican National Committee decided to make buttons proclaiming “Republicans are people, too.”)

Unlike the early days of the scandal of January 1998, now is the time for the GOP leadership and candidates to come forward and end their silence. Washington is paralyzed at the prospect of Miss Lewinsky and Mr. Clinton testifying before the federal grand jury. The business of the nation has not and cannot go forward until Mr. Clinton lives up to his pledge of January and brings closure to this long national embarrassment.

The GOP must challenge Bill Clinton and all of his Democratic defenders to come clean, stop the partisan attacks on Mr. Starr and grand jury witnesses and put the interests of the American people above petty political self-interests. The Republicans should exhibit some good old-fashioned public handwringing over the effects of President Clinton’s behavior and its damage to the nation’s children and the moral authority of the presidency and how we all must join together to find the truth. The GOP should not lay off the issue. Indeed, the party should take every opportunity to point it out as symptomatic of the larger moral crisis threatening America.

When the Clinton defenders attack the GOP for conspiracies, the GOP needs to ask them what they are hiding. When they attack Miss Lewinsky, Linda Tripp or anyone else who might come forward, Republicans need to defend their right to speak the truth free from coercion or smears. When they argue that this is all just “a private matter,” the GOP needs to point out that this issue is not about national security, but our national sanity. President Clinton has called the White House the “people’s house,” and as such, the conduct of those selected by the people to live there reflects on every American. Private matters there are the people’s business.

An old political mentor once told me that in politics, one needs to find the nexus between good policy and good politics. It is certainly true that the Clinton scandal is a good opportunity to discuss our national moral policies while providing the Republicans with the opportunity to depress Democratic voter turnout in November.

Cynical? No. Opportunistic? You bet. But don’t Republicans owe it to themselves to press any advantage to promote their ideology and bolster their candidates’ chances at the polls? Shouldn’t they, for once, treat politics like the Democrats have for years, as a war for keeps, not just a game to keep score?

Craig Shirley is a GOP consultant.

LOAD-DATE: August 3, 1998

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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