TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/041789/04178900.044

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 5KB | 90 lines

NATION, Page 25

A Case of Wright and Wrong

Despite alleged wrongdoing, the Speaker is likely to survive


    Ethics is all the rage in Washington these days, as Speaker of
the House Jim Wright can testify. This week the House Ethics
Committee will release a 450-page report summing up a ten-month
investigation of Wright's alleged wrongdoing. A vocal minority of
Republicans, led by G.O.P. whip Newt Gingrich, predict that the
inquiry will result in Wright's censure, removal as Speaker or
maybe even expulsion. But in the end he is likely to hang on to his
job because this is an argument not about right and wrong but about
the peculiar ethics rules of the House.

    Those rules tolerate large swaths of gray and encourage
euphemism. Bribes, graft and expenses-paid vacations are never
talked about on Capitol Hill. Honorariums, campaign contributions
and per diem travel reimbursements are. Cash gifts, even of
$100,000, are not automatically illegal, as long as they are
disclosed and the giver has no direct interest in legislation.
Neither is free use of posh apartments and expensive cars.

    The Wright investigation began last June when Republicans,
stung by the improprieties of Mike Deaver and Ed Meese, set out to
make sleaze a bipartisan issue. As the highest-ranking Democrat,
Wright, whose slicked-back hair, caterpillar eyebrows and leering
grin give him the look of a wheeler-dealer, was a good target.
After revelations of an unusual deal in which a Texas publisher
paid Wright 55% royalties -- three or four times the usual rate --
for a collection of the Speaker's speeches and anecdotes, Common
Cause and 72 Republicans asked the House Ethics Committee to
investigate.

    The $1.5 million probe unearthed numerous allegations, many of
which have been discarded. The committee found that Wright's
heavy-handed intervention with federal officials on behalf of
failing Texas savings and loan associations was no more than what
other Texas Congressmen were doing. His intercession with
Government officials and Egypt's Anwar Sadat to help a Texas
oil-and-gas company was also found to be all in a day's work for
the average member.

    That leaves the committee to decide on two questions that are,
at the least, embarrassing to the Speaker. One is whether Wright's
financial dealings with Fort Worth developer George Mallick
violated House rules. The other is whether Wright's sweetheart
royalty deal was designed to get around congressional limits on
outside income.

    Mallick, who has known the Speaker for some 30 years, hired
Wright's wife Betty in 1979 as an adviser. The job description was
hazy, but the salary was $18,000 a year. Perks included a rent-free
apartment and a Cadillac. In 1981, for the same salary and
benefits, Betty Wright went to work for Mallightco, an investment
company that the Wrights had formed with Mallick and his wife.
Betty Wright also borrowed $75,000 from Mallightco. After she
stopped working for the company in 1984, the Wrights paid $21.67
per diem for the apartment when they used it and then purchased it
in 1988 for $58,500. Eventually they bought the Cadillac.

    In 1985 Mallick co-signed $2.2 million loan for a real estate
project developed by his two sons. In 1986, when Mallick feared the
loan might be foreclosed, he organized a meeting in Fort Worth at
which struggling thrift officials complained to Wright about
overzealous federal regulation; he later gave the Speaker a report
on their complaints. During this period Wright was deeply involved
in efforts to draft legislation that would help ailing S & Ls and
grant them more leniency from federal regulators.

    Then there is Reflections of a Public Man, the most notorious
non-best seller of 1984. Critics charge that the unusually high 55%
royalty payments could have been used to thwart rules that would
keep the Speaker from accepting more than $34,500 in speaking fees
annually. At least three times, staff members -- once with the
Speaker's knowledge -- asked the sponsors of Wright speeches not
to pay an honorarium but buy an equivalent number of books instead.
By so doing, the speaker could pocket the proceeds without
breaching the limit.

    Although Republicans once smelled blood, it now looks as if
Wright will survive. Wright's financial ties to Mallick seem to
have ended before he began his campaign on behalf of Texas thrifts.
Wright has no investments in S & Ls. Besides, the highly partisan
attacks by Wright's archenemy Newt Gingrich have aroused the
Democrats' protective instincts. Democrats with ambition to succeed
Wright, like Dan Rostenkowski and John Dingell, have not deserted
him, nor has Majority Leader Tom Foley, probably the only Democrat
popular enough to win his spot. No matter how unseemly Wright's
dealings may appear to ordinary citizens, they are probably not
unseemly enough to violate the shabby standards that apply on
Capitol Hill.