McCurry Calls GOP Memo a 'Political Search Warrant'

Aired April 26, 1996

JUDY WOODRUFF, Anchor: Well, that quote comes from White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry granting Bob Dole a temporary Democratic reprieve, since he has been so criticized by Republicans. But moments after uttering those words and saying that he feels sorry for Dole, Mr. McCurry noted the political tide can turn very quickly. He cautioned against jumping to November conclusions based on April polls. Well, Mike McCurry joins us now from the White House. Thanks for being with us.

MIKE McCURRY, White House Press Secretary: Yeah. It's a good reminder, isn't it, the president saying the other day we all want to remember Greg Norman's story because people can blow a lead pretty quickly.

WOODRUFF: Well, what did you mean when you said Bob Dole's had a bad week?

McCURRY: I was just thinking. I mean, everything time I pick up a newspaper I see some other Republican strategist or poobah giving him a hard time. And I felt sorry for him. I think Democrats have found ourselves in those positions sometimes.

WOODRUFF: Don't you think just to make the comment was a little bit of piling on yourself?

McCURRY: No, I was just- I was trying to be kinder and gentler down here on a day that otherwise we'd be doing business like balancing the budget and doing things that we ought to be doing.

WOODRUFF: Well, if Senator Dole had a bad week, the president has a little bit of an unpleasant weekend coming up with his testimony in the Whitewater trial, testimony on videotape.

McCURRY: Why? Why?

WOODRUFF: Will there be anything new, Mike McCurry, that the president's going to say in these supposedly hours of testimony that he's going to make?

McCURRY: I don't have any idea. I mean, he will be- You know, he's happy to participate in the session. He's been asked by the defense to see if he can be of help to their case and he's going to do that.

WOODRUFF: You've talked to some of the lawyers in the White House, is it your sense that there's going to be news from them?

McCURRY: I don't really work on that issue because the president's lawyers do. And he's going to do it, and then he has to go off Sunday night. He'll be giving a speech to APAC and talking about some of the developments in the Middle East.

WOODRUFF: The president said yesterday when he talked to reporters in the White House, the facts are plain for all to see with regard to special counsel Kenneth Starr. Was he saying that he agrees that Mr. Starr's outside legal interests do present a potential conflict?

McCURRY: I think that spoke for itself.

WOODRUFF: Can you add anything to it?

McCURRY: Nope.

WOODRUFF: Well, let me ask you about the story that Brooks Jackson just reported of us a few minutes ago, and that's this report from House Republican leadership, a memo that went out to all the House committee chairs and subcommittee chairs, asking them to come back with any dirt that they could find on the administration. Are they going to be able to find, just as an example, examples of dishonesty or ethical lapses in the Clinton administration?

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McCURRY: No, I think they sent out this very highly political search warrant, you know, misusing their own public trust, because there's nothing to find. And that's why they're urgently scrambling for something they can use against Bill Clinton, and that's the reason why they're resorting to this tactic. I noticed that the speaker's office is defending this as a legitimate exercise of their constitutional responsibilities. That's a stretch.

WOODRUFF: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. The spokeswoman for the speaker said they have a constitutional duty to oversee the use of taxpayer funds by the administration.

McCURRY: Well, they do. But if anyone wants to claim that that memo represents anything other than nasty, rank politics, I'd like him to see him make- I'd like to see them make that case.

WOODRUFF: One of the things that we know that Bob Dole has already been making an issue are the president's judicial appointments. We've learned today that the Republicans are planning to run an ad in a newspaper in Miami on Monday. This is the day the president's there to speak to a fund-raising event. This ad is going to make the point that federal judgeships for sale, it's going to mention Charles Stack [sp]. How do you all respond to something like this?

McCURRY: Well, the most important thing for Americans to know is that the federal judges appointed by the president on average have been giving longer sentences to those who have committed crimes. And secondly, and most importantly, of the 185 judges that Bill Clinton has nominated, Bob Dole has voted for 182 of them, so what's his problem?

WOODRUFF: So, when they run an ad like that, what can you all do to come back?

McCURRY: We just tell the record about exceptional qualifications of the judges the president has nominated, the good work they're doing, the longer sentences they're giving to criminals to keep them behind bars. And the fact that Bob Dole, by and large, supports all those judges.

WOODRUFF: The New York Times- what was that?

McCURRY: It's pretty straightforward.

WOODRUFF: The New York Times editorialized today on the budget agreement and said that the president won the political war and the public relations war, but that the Republicans won the policy war because they knocked more than $25 billion out of domestic discretionary spending.

McCURRY: Well, the important thing - that is however significantly you want to treat it - the important thing is that in 1993 we started this country on the pathway of reducing the deficit. We cut the deficit in half in the first two years, first three years of the president's term. And we did so, frankly, without any Republican support whatsoever. Now we have to build on that and balance the budget all the way. It's significant that we are making additional cuts. Frankly, it's also significant that some of the president's priorities were addressed in the agreement that they reached. But it's an example of how you can work together in a bipartisan way to get things done. And, frankly, that's what the president wants to be doing now. There's plenty of time for politics and campaigning and charges and newspaper advertisements and nasty memos in the fall. What we ought to be doing right now is balancing the budget, taking care of this need to extend affordable health insurance to Americans who don't have it. We ought to reform welfare and get on with that business. That's what people want us to do.

WOODRUFF: If we didn't know better, we'd think it was an election year. Mike McCurry, press secretary of the president, thank you for being with us.

McCURRY: You're welcome.

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