EDITORIAL : PARTISAN EXCESS DEMOCRATS PLAY A RISKY GAME IN ATTACKING LOAN TO GINGRICH.

Some congressional Democrats are playing a dangerous game by trying to make a big issue out of Bob Dole's loan to House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

By doing so, carping Democrats might indirectly raise more questions about President Clinton and Democratic presidential fund-raising excesses.

After all, since Gingrich has agreed to pay $300,000 to partially reimburse the House Ethics Committee for its cost of investigating him, then what about all the money spent investigating Whitewater and other Clinton matters, including the activities of White House insiders who helped funnel payments to longtime Clinton friend Webster Hubbell?

Those investigations, already totaling in the millions of dollars and with no end in sight, would have been less expensive if the Clintons and their cohorts had provided accurate, comprehensive testimony upfront - instead of inconsistent explanations and only belatedly turning over some evidence long after it was supposed to be produced.

This is not to suggest that Gingrich's eight-year, 10 percent loan from the former GOP presidential candidate is beyond question. The House Ethics Committee will review the arrangement and decide if it conforms to House standards. We see the need for that panel's oversight.

But what we do regard as unnecessary is the rage of some House Democrats over the loan. Presumably driven over the edge by blind partisanship, they probably would have criticized any loan arrangement that didn't throw Gingrich into bankruptcy court.

They should give Gingrich credit for paying the $300,000 penalty out of personal funds instead of using political accounts or a legal defense fund like the Clintons have. And they ought to pray that Americans don't begin asking whether it's time for the Clintons and the Democrats to begin paying more of their own way, too.