American Notes Investigations

The Senate Select Committee on Ethics is not known for speedy action or exemplary justice. In February the committee closed the books on four of the five Senators accused of intervening with federal regulators on behalf of failed S&L boss and campaign contributor Charles Keating Jr. However, the members continued to dither over what to do about the fifth Senator, Democrat Alan Cranston of California, who allegedly got $984,000 in Keating campaign gifts for helping with the Feds. Last week, angered at the slow pace of the 18-month probe, North Carolina's Republican Senator Jesse Helms released a 247-page report on the Keating Five based on a draft by the committee's special counsel, Robert Bennett. It recommended that Cranston, 77, be censured for "unequivocally unethical" conduct. Cranston's office charged Helms with partisan politics, and the panel's leaders threatened to investigate Helms himself for leaking the report. Enough already!