Troubles lie ahead for President Clinton

By Martin Walker

WASHINGTON: Despite the appeals for "common ground" from President Bill Clinton and Republican congressional leaders, an array of flashpoints wait in store for the new administration which are likely to put it at loggerheads with the Republican Congress very soon.

The first confrontations could come before Christmas, as Clinton sends up his new cabinet nominees to the Senate for its approval. Now even more strongly in Republican hands after they won two extra seats, with a 55-45 majority, the Senate can veto the appointments and embarrass him with its questioning in public hearings.

This prospect may already have saved the job of the attorney- general, Janet Reno, who runs the justice department and is responsible for opening legal inquiries into controversial matters like the Clinton campaign's dubious fund-raising from Indonesian, Iraqi-American and Russian business sources.

To replace Reno would mean any new appointee being grilled in public on his or her approach to the various Clinton scandals, from Whitewater to Hillary Clinton's embarrassments to the new campaign finance controversies. That is a confrontation the Clinton White House would rather avoid, even if it means sticking with Reno, who is seen as neither politically astute nor fully loyal.

There will be Senate confirmation hearings into a range of new officials, from secretary of state to the secretaries of defense, commerce, transport and energy. Clinton's awareness of the Senate hurdle is a strong factor in his decision to recruit Republicans to his cabinet.

But even a Republican Senator like Richard Lugar or former general Colin Powell, serious candidates to replace Warren Christopher or William Perry, can expect tough questions on how long U.S. troops will stay in Bosnia. Nominees for both the state department and commerce will be grilled hard on relations with Indonesia, after the fuss over the generosity of the Indonesia- based Riady family to the Clinton campaign.

Other flashpoints will be Clinton's plan for a swift campaign finance reform bill, and the next budget, where the Republicans will fight for tax and spending cuts.

The big question is whether Clinton will try to grant any pardons to Whitewater miscreants, a decision which would expose him to ferocious Republican attack. But some Whitewater figures, led by former Whitewater partner Susan McDougal, convicted on separate fraud charges, appear to be expecting clemency.

The current mood in the office of the House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, is to use the threat of persecution to pressure Clinton to give way on other policy issues.

Senator Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the banking committee, confirmed Monday that he would drop his Whitewater inquiry. This leaves matters in the hands of the special counsel, Kenneth Starr, who runs the continuing legal inquiries into Whitewater, Travelgate (concerning Mrs Clinton's denial that she sacked the White House travel office staff), and Filegate (about the misuse of FBI files on Republicans).

Outside Congress, the supreme court is expected to give the go-ahead to the Paula Jones sexual harassment case against Clinton.

But there are also a series of issues looming which are likely to ignite flashpoints between the White House and the Democratic Party. The first will be the plan to bring Chile into the North American Free Trade Association, which is supported by the White House but opposed by the trade unions and most congressional Democrats.

A similar battle looms over policy towards China. The president appears inclined to meet Beijing's price of supporting Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization in return for a headline-catching summit for Clinton next spring, before the formal handover of Hong Kong.

-- The Guardian