Cover Story | "At some point," White House press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters last month, "our goal here obviously is to dump all this stuff, flush the toilet, and say it's all one big argument for campaign finance reform." The "stuff" Mr. McCurry was referring to was the huge amount of "Asian money" solicited by Democrats close to President Clinton, much of which has had to be returned because of its dubious origins. But as Mr. Clinton begins his second term in office, the tendency of many Americans may be to think of all the Washington "stuff"--the multiple Clinton problems, and the Gingrich complications as well--in excremental terms, and to wish that all would merely be flushed away, and soon. That is not about to happen. The Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department are continuing their probes, as is an increasingly skeptical press. On Capitol Hill, both the Senate and the House are preparing to conduct ambitious investigations. Campaign finance reform? That will have to come later in this session of Congress, if at all. How to make sense of the campaign money scandal? WORLD asked veteran journalist and former Justice Department official Terry Eastland to take us on a flashlight trip through the maze.
