12/19/00 10:10 a.m.
Book Her
Republicans must make some noise about Hillary’s literary windfall.

Robert A. George is an editorial page writer
for the New York Post------------------------------------RAGGEDmail@aol.com

honestly don't understand Republicans sometimes. Instead of taking a gift from the Democrats, they run like Superman from a Kryptonite bowling ball. The latest example of this: Hillary Clinton's book deal.

Democrats understand politics. Republicans — especially those of the congressional variety — seem to think it is a foreign language.

A recent column by Deroy Murdock in these pages puts forth the argument that perhaps now is the time for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to pack it in and step down from the leadership. Mr. Murdock also wrote just last week that Republicans suffered from the problem of being "too nice." Lott's appearance on Meet The Press this past Sunday expertly summarized both of Mr. Murdock's points.

Host Tim Russert held up a copy of Saturday's New York Daily News with the headline: "Hill's $8 Million Book Bonanza." Russert asked about the ethics of the deal. Lott caved immediately, "I don't want to get into that. I'm going to have plenty to do working with this new administration, working in the Senate with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I look forward to working with Senator-elect Clinton. My meetings with her have been very pleasant." He added that he didn't "want to be critical of her." Now, this is the same majority leader who, days after Mrs. Clinton had been elected, said that "maybe lightning will strike" and she won't make it to the Senate.

This is the problem with Lott: He can make a remarkably petty remark seem flippant. However, when it comes to a matter of some import — the First Lady of the United States taking advantage of her unelected office to quickly close a book deal just before she jumps into her first elected office — he "doesn't want to get into" it. Oh, according to Drudge Report, the deal with Simon & Schuster was actually sealed in the White House itself.

Lott said that he disagreed with the way Democrats demonized Newt Gingrich five years ago over his $4.5 million advance on a book deal, so he didn't want to do the same with Hillary. Well, there you go. Democrats wouldn't hesitate on something like this. Gingrich's completely legitimate prosecution of former Speaker Jim Wright in 1989 became a precedent for David Bonior and company to force Gingrich into giving up his advance (he settled on $1 and royalties from actual sales). Gingrich had followed the ethics rules of the House, but it mattered not. The perception was that he was cashing in on his new role of speaker. Furthermore, the book deal was with Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch, who had legislation before Congress. (Full disclosure: this columnist formerly worked for Speaker Gingrich and currently works for the New York Post, owned by Mr. Murdoch).

What has happened here? Mrs. Clinton, the woman behind the quick-buck cattle futures and the Whitewater/Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan shenanigans, took her talent for creative accounting from Arkansas to New York (where she attempted a sweetheart mortgage underwritten by Democrat moneyman Terry McAuliffe), and is now carrying it right into the Senate chambers. She's barely breaking a sweat in the process.

But Trent Lott doesn't want to "get into it."

Perhaps this book deal won't fall under Senate ethics rules because Mrs. Clinton is in a fortunate post-election gray zone. This gray zone also enables her to duck the scrutiny she would have to deal with were she continuing as First Lady. Senators from Gary Hart to (current Defense Secretary) William Cohen to Daniel Patrick Moynihan have written books. However, at a certain point, a difference in degree becomes a difference in kind. John McCain, by the way, received only $250,000 for Faith of Our Fathers. As the Gingrich precedent demonstrated, the perceptions of conflict of interest and cashing in should be as equally valid for a new senator getting $8 million as they were for the new Speaker getting $4.5 million.

Republicans should be raising the issue, just as Democrats would if the roles were reversed. Either a precedent was set five years ago with Gingrich or it wasn't. If not, then Republicans are retroactively being complicit in the ethical pounding of Speaker Gingrich. Even worse, they are sending the signal that, when the chips are down, Mrs. Clinton will be able to transfer her questionable ethical behavior from the White House to the Senate chamber with the same ease that many of us flip our 401(k)s.

If Trent Lott thinks of himself as "majority leader," he should act like it and force the issue. If not, let someone else do so. One would think that at least one or two Senate Democrats aren't too thrilled about the appearance this book deal suggests. Any hope they may have had that Mrs. Clinton would keep a low profile in her first year have already gone out the window. The question is, does the GOP have the guts to make use of its majority and ask the questions that need to be asked?

Or, are they just a bunch of nice guys?