Word: iranscam
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...supporters, the Iran-contra scandal is effectively over. By taking responsibility for the Iran-contra diversion, John Poindexter helped save the President, and Oliver North's star performance blurred the moral issues involved. Now some are calling for a conclusive gesture that they hope will close the book on Iranscam: a presidential pardon of Poindexter and North...
...entitled under the law. "The best thing that could happen now from Ronald Reagan's standpoint would be indictment and acquittal," says a prominent Republican attorney. "He could then say, 'We were right all along.' " Says Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, a fervent Reagan ally on the Iranscam committee: "I oppose any presidential pardon until the gates of the prison are about to clang shut." And if Poindexter and North are convicted? "If I were President and they had been % found guilty," says Hyde, "I wouldn't want to leave office with them in jail...
...some members of the Iranscam committees, Poindexter's testimony simply did not wash. "I just don't believe what he says," remarked Democratic Congressman Louis Stokes of Ohio. "It does not appear logical that a man of his intellect and management skills would arrogate unto himself the responsibility of making a monumental decision affecting the President...
Viewers who have followed the Iranscam hearings have come to know not just Ollie and the lawyers but also a gallery of fascinating congressional characters who often were mere names before -- Inouye, Hamilton, Rudman, Mitchell, Boren, Hyde, Cohen, Hatch. Their questions, their demeanor and their quirks could be watched.They are now more recognizable than most of the "Seven Dwarfs" seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, who have largely been subjected to television's usual voice-over, snippety sound-bite techniques on the evening news. Of course, networks defend their sound bites by protesting how hard it is to condense...
Bashing Congress over the budget may represent the Republicans' best hope for regaining a political edge. Said one senior White House aide: "We're going to stay with this issue. In the fall, when the Iranscam hearings are largely behind us, we'll still be scoring with it." Chief of Staff Howard Baker was reluctant to go along with the confrontational strategy; he tried to remove the tough language from the President's speech, until one of his aides threatened to quit over the matter. "Baker's dying a thousand deaths right now," said a White House source. "He wants...