EDITORIAL : PRESIDENTIAL EVASION CLINTON SHOULD BE MORE FORTHRIGHT ABOUT THE GROWING RIADY SCANDAL.

BILL Clinton's tattered credibility isn't just shredding, it's disintegrating before our eyes. Sadly, the president seems determined to turn the Riady affair into another quagmire with far more serious implications than Whitewater.

Documents and statements from White House insiders now show that visits by Indonesian billionaire James Riady were more than ``social'' - a characterization made by aides just before the election. In fact, Clinton and Riady had discussed trade policy toward Indonesia and China, a fact that Clinton now begrudgingly concedes.

While in Australia last week, Clinton revealed that Riady approved of his decision to separate China's trading privileges from human rights concerns, and Riady urged him ``to intensify my effort in China.''

So what does the president - who earlier denied his administration's foreign policies were affected by contributions from the Riady circle - do?

On Wednesday, he told Australian lawmakers that the United States is committed to improving relations with China. An open and prosperous China ``is in our deepest interests,'' the president said. ``True cooperation is both possible and plainly productive.''

What makes the Riady affair more disturbing than Whitewater is the suspicion it raises about the motivation of administration foreign and domestic policy. For example, figures released Wednesday by the Commerce Department show that China is supplanting Japan as our nation's largest trading partner in Asia.

Today, Clinton was scheduled to meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in the Philippines. Obviously, the president is wasting no time in concentrating his efforts on China.

Clinton was correct in saying that furthering relations with China can be productive, but productive for who? The United States, the Riady family, the Democrats?

Riady's personal liaison with the White House was Glendale resident John Huang, who had access to the White House while he worked at the Commerce Department and who helped raise $2.5 million for the Democrats in this year's election. The Democratic National Committee returned nearly $1 million of those donations because they were either illegal or questionable.

Bombarded with questions, Clinton tried to level blame of the whole sordid situation onto the media. But his attempts to compare his situation to the plight of Richard Jewell, the former subject of an FBI probe in the Atlanta Olympic Games bombing, were clumsy and disingenuous. Jewell twisted in the wind for months before being cleared because the FBI - a government agency that Clinton has the power to oversee - flubbed its job. And Clinton flubbed his by not being more forthright in his answers concerning Huang and the Riady family.

This scandal will not go away, and the president has no one to blame but himself. He allowed aides to put out false or misleading information on Huang's role in the Commerce Department and the purpose of Riady's visits to the White House. The president ignored pleas by other aides, including former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani, in early October that the White House not misrepresent the facts of another potential scandal.

Someone should tell the president that he's the only one who is blind to his own ambition. To salvage anything resembling credibility, he must tell the truth clearly and immediately.