Business as usual

Congress and the White House are paralyzed by impeachment fever. There’s no federal budget, a shutdown looms, important legislation on health care, taxation, education, the global economic crisis and a host of other vital issues languishes. The average American might well think the wheels of government have ground to a halt.

Fear not. The work that matters is getting done. The business of campaign fund-raising is booming.

President Clinton is putting a lot of extra miles on Air Force One these days, hustling up bucks for Democratic candidates. Never mind that many of those candidates don’t want to appear on stage with him — he needs all the friends he can get and humiliation is a small price to pay. Then there’s the new evidence that his administration spent $1.7 million of the taxpayers’ money to create a data base of generous donors.

Everywhere there are smaller stories of fudging the line, bending the rules. The latest: A Texas businessman who pleaded guilty to making illegal political contributions says Majority Whip Tom DeLay, one of President Clinton’s sternest critics, personally helped him find “vehicles” capable of outrunning the campaign-finance police.

Best of all, Speaker Newt Gingrich has discovered telemarketing. Likely Republican donors get a dinner-hour call from the “Speaker’s office” bringing wonderful news of special leadership award and the opportunity to serve as honorary chairman of an elite citizen committee that will advise GOP lawmakers on legislation. The ability to write a check for a minimum of $500 is proof of these leadership qualities and everybody gets to be chairman. That pesky federal law prohibiting the use of government offices for fund raising? Doesn’t count. The calls actually come from a strip mall in Ohio and fibbing isn’t yet a felony.

The shape of political campaigns to come can be seen in Missouri, where voters face a crucial decision on casino gambling. The state supreme court recently ruled a law allowing riverboat casinos to be unconstitutional, so a constitutional amendment is on the election day ballot. The pro-gambling forces, who, of course, have all the money, refuse to meet opponents face-to-face, calling their concerns about crime, family decline and economic devastation “inflammatory.” The casino crowd prefers to make its case solely through that highly informative — and expensive — medium known as the television commercial. Debate is out, accountancy is in. Get used to it.

During the coming months, a lot will be said about the sex/perjury/obstruction scandal being “a cancer on the presidency.” The impeachment process may excise it, but the real sickness in government will remain.