Clinton-basher Klayman Targets Bush, GOP

The Hill

April 18, 2001

Larry Klayman made his name suing Bill and Hillary Clinton every time they turned around. Last week the founder and head of Judicial Watch turned his guns on President George W. Bush and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R- Texas). They are, he intimates, not much better than the Clintons, and unless they straighten up and fly right he is ready to sue, sue, sue.

Klayman, who founded Judicial Watch in 1994 to serve as a conservative "watchdog" over the ethical and legal wrongdoing so much in the news in those days, began suing the Clintons almost immediately, finding the administration what the military calls a "target-rich environment."

Many of his suits came to naught and some have yet to be resolved, but his efforts unearthed more than a little Clinton wrongdoing that others had missed. It was Klayman, after all, who managed to find John Huang and begin uncovering Bill and Hillary's involvement with " fundraisers" who were, in fact, operatives of the Communist regime in Beijing.

What's more, it was Klayman who stepped forward to take the case of the first Bush administration officials whose FBI files had been illegally transferred to the White House and apparently became bedtime reading for the first lady. Hillary and a few of her cohorts continue to be at some legal risk as a result of this and other Klayman-initiated cases.

It's no wonder that Klayman soon became one of the most hated and admired figures in town. The Clintons and their friends came to despise the man who fast emerged as a watchdog with real bite. Both Clinton critics and Clinton haters came to see him as a hero, a courageous lawyer battling to get at the "truth" that they were firmly convinced would ultimately sink the gang from Arkansas.

Klayman basked in his notoriety, became a regular on cable television and built Judicial Watch into a truly formidable operation. The numbers tell the story. In 1995, Judicial Watch raised less than $10,000, but by 1998 the operation was bringing in more than $11 million a year through advertising and direct mail.

While others were celebrating the fact that with the election of George W. Bush the Clintons would at last be leaving town, Klayman began hinting that the only reason Bush wasn't anxious to continue pursuing the Clintons in court was that he was contemplating the same sort of activities. Why else, he hinted, would the new president keep saying he wanted to "put this behind us" when there was so much yet to investigate?

Indeed, Klayman began questioning Bush's ethics even as he was taking office. Things in Washington haven't changed much, Judicial Watch advertising seemed to be suggesting, but the public should be assured that he and his team of lawyers are still on the job.

Then, last week, Klayman held a press conference damning the Bush administration, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and DeLay. They were, he fulminated at a press conference, engaged in the same sort of illegal activity that characterized the Clinton administration.

He followed this up with a complaint alleging that an NRCC fundraising appeal represented an attempt to "sell" meetings with government officials and was, in effect, an effort to solicit "bribes." The charges were, to put it mildly, a stretch, but did represent a Klayman declaration of war on the GOP and the president.Klayman then promised a Judicial Watch "probe" of the supposed "secret deal" that resulted in the release of the 24 American fliers being held by China. "We aim to find out if any secret promises were made to the 'Butchers of Beijing' behind closed doors," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. How? By going to court.

Cynics suggest that Klayman pursues his watchdog role because he can't help himself. This, after all, is a man who sued his mother. Others say his motives are suspect in the NRCC-DeLay case because of a business dispute, but if one takes Klayman at his word, he comes across more as a super litigious Common Cause type than as a conservative.

Indeed, to listen to him, one is forced to conclude that he just happened to be targeting Democrats and liberals during the Clinton years, but is now ready to go after conservatives and Republicans with equal vigor. He even implicitly took credit for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance "reform" vote in the Senate during his press conference attacking DeLay.

The question is whether he can get conservatives or others to continue to write checks to his operation while he attacks DeLay rather than Clinton. Whether one likes him or agrees with him, Larry Klayman has now put his future and that of the organization he founded on the line.

David Keene is the chairman of the American Conservative Union and a managing associate with the Carmen Group, a Washington, D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm.