Step Up, Order Own Probe, Clinton Told Gop’s Hyde Appeals To Legacy In Suggesting Override Of Reno

If President Clinton cares about his legacy, a Republican leader told the nation Saturday, he will appoint an independent counsel to investigate himself and Vice President Al Gore.

“If Attorney General Janet Reno will not call for an independent counsel, perhaps the president will,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said in the GOP’s weekly radio address.

“In the final analysis, it is his administration and his reputation that are at stake.”

In condemning Reno’s decision last week to not seek appointment of an independent counsel to look into Clinton and Gore’s fund-raising calls, Hyde took aim at what is reputed to be the concern closest to the heart of the second-term president - his legacy.

Hyde, a Republican from Illinois who sponsored the Independent Counsel Act, said there will be “dodging, evasion and cover-up” without the appointment of an independent counsel.

“For the sake of the office of the president itself,” he said, “and perhaps, most importantly, to restore the public’s faltering confidence in our justice system, Attorney General Reno should reconsider the sound advice of FBI Director Louie Freeh and seek the appointment of an independent counsel.”

“The American people are entitled to know if there has been a massive conspiracy to subvert campaign finance laws,” he added.