Then There Was One

By MARGARET CARLSON

The timing almost seemed designed for minimum exposure, like putting a rerun of Nova up against Cheers. The day the whole world was watching the gulf war end was the moment the Senate Select Committee on Ethics chose to issue its long-delayed report on the Keating Five. The committee found that only the aged, ailing California Senator Alan Cranston, 76, had engaged in "impermissible conduct" in which "fund raising and official activities ! were substantially linked." The case of the Keating One will be referred to the whole Senate for possible action. The other four are officially off the hook.

The findings came after a 14-month investigation detailing how more than $1 million in contributions, four trips to the Bahamas and all-expense-paid stays at resort hotels found their way from indicted savings and loan executive Charles Keating, who needed protection from federal regulators trying to shut him down, to five U.S. Senators and their staffs. The committee found Senators John Glenn of Ohio ($234,000 in Keating contributions) and John McCain of Arizona ($112,000) the least culpable, engaging only in "poor judgment" because they gave Keating less help than did the others. Senators Donald Riegle of Michigan ($76,000) and Dennis DeConcini of Arizona ($55,000 along with more than $50 million in real estate loans from Lincoln Savings to top campaign aides) gave the "appearance of being improper" because their intervention for Keating was more extensive.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the citizens' lobby Common Cause, which initially demanded the investigation, was outraged at the lenient treatment, and angrily commented: "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world." Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called the report a "whitewash."

The committee's ruling offered no guidance as to what is legal and illegal. All five helped Keating and all five accepted money during the same period of time. But only Cranston, who received $982,000 from the S&L kingpin, failed to observe a respectful amount of time between service rendered and money collected. DeConcini hosted a high-level meeting at which he outlined Keating's demands, which gave an "appearance of being improper" in the eyes of the ethics panel. Glenn, who arranged a luncheon for Keating with then Speaker Jim Wright, was deemed merely to have "exercised poor judgment."

The committee recommended that the Senate draw up new guidelines governing constituent service and campaign finances. For now, there are no written rules distinguishing between the sort of constituent service that helps a citizen collect Medicare benefits and service that consists of organizing secret meetings and high-level luncheons or making threatening calls to federal regulators. While large sums changed hands, the report pointed out, no one was personally enriched by Keating's largesse. Nonetheless the committee seemed to overlook the fact that, among those who lust for power, money in the campaign treasury is a much bigger carrot than money in the pocket.

It may be left to the voters to decide the ultimate fate of the Keating Five. Citing health reasons, Cranston decided last November not to seek re- election in 1992; but his support has fallen so precipitously that half of California voters polled believe he should resign now. Bolstered by their national-hero status, former astronaut Glenn and former POW McCain, the group's lone Republican, have recovered from the beating they took in the polls right after the Keating affair became public. DeConcini and Riegle have not been so lucky. Polls show that if they were up for re-election today, any challenger with a pulse could beat them.