Lake’s Abrupt Departure Raises Questions Did Witch Hunt Or Real Concerns Lead To His Failed Nomination?

The White House cast Anthony Lake on Tuesday as the victim of a partisan witch hunt in a capital “gone haywire.” But GOP critics and a leading Democrat said there were legitimate questions about President Clinton’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

One day after Lake abruptly threw in the towel, Washington rattled with a debate over whether Lake was treated fairly - and bowed out to save himself and perhaps the president embarrassment - or whether he was railroaded by a small cadre of GOP conservatives bent on sending Clinton a stark political message.

“Washington has gone haywire,” Lake asserted in a letter to Clinton in which he also deplored “gotcha” politics. Clinton told reporters, “Nobody should have to endure what he has endured in the course of his nomination.”

Indeed, several Republicans have been critical of Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby’s handling of the Lake confirmation. But most also pointedly reminded Democrats of their own fierce, and successful, efforts to spike two prominent Republican nominations in the past decade: former Texas Sen. John Tower for defense secretary and conservative Judge Robert Bork for the Supreme Court.

“Many Republicans and Democrats, I think, have rued the day that we got into what was called ‘Borking,”’ said Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar.

Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, however, said that while Lake “got some pretty rough treatment, he was not Borked. … Tony Lake may be the first fatality in the fund-raising scandal. And that is certainly a paradox because he was probably the least involved.”

In suggesting a truce, Clinton said, “The cycle of political destruction must end.”

In Lake’s case, however, there were indications that the final straw came from a Democratic lawmaker - not the persistent Republican opposition.

Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said he had called Lake and White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles on Monday to raise concerns about the nomination. Kerry said he called a new disclosure about the role of Lake’s National Security Council in questionable White House fund raising “a potentially disqualifying action.”

Kerrey was referring to reports that Democratic National Committee Chairman Donald Fowler had pressured the NSC to gain White House access for a controversial political donor. Lake has said he was not aware of the contact.

But Kerrey said the fact that such political contacts were allowed to occur, and that Lake was not made aware of them, raised significant questions about Lake’s management skills.

Kerrey’s wavering was a significant factor in Lake’s decision to withdraw - and in Bowles’ decision to stop urging the embattled nominee to fight, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. At a minimum, it became clear to them that the committee would not vote on the nomination for at least another month.

The official Democratic line Tuesday was that Lake was the victim of rogue Republicans. “We’re talking about endless delay, we’re talking about demeaning efforts to attack a person personally,” said White House press secretary Mike McCurry.