The bimbo eruption, etc.

NOW THAT questions about the propriety both of the Clintons' marital relations and of their financial dealings have faded from the front pages, there may be an urge to conclude that Washington can get back to politicking as usual. But White House obfuscation has left the lingering impression that there is more yet to be told about the two imbroglios.

Allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry that, as governor, Bill Clinton enlisted their help in conducting numerous trysts with women have specifics that open the door to more questions. Likewise, the Justice Department probe into the failure of the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan is now proceeding with new information pried from the Clintons.

For the troopers' claims to be untrue, they would have to have invented very specific details. Patterson told The American Spectator that he used a surveillance camera at the governor's mansion to witness Clinton engaging in a sex act with one of the women. In its separate story, the Los Angeles Times quotes the troopers as recalling the times Clinton would splash water on his face and chest to make his faux jogs appear more real so as to help hide his illicit rendezvous from his wife. The Times also dug up records of Clinton phone calls to women, including 11 calls one day in 1989 to the same woman. In what has become an all-purpose explanation for the President's phone habits, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum said, "This President calls a lot of people."

But the accusations also extend to using the troopers in ways far outside their job description. Patterson told the Times, "We were more than bodyguards. We had to lie, cheat, and cover up for that man." Another unnamed trooper said "that Clinton instructed him to bring the woman to the governor's mansion at least three times after his election as President in November of 1992." The woman named in this escapade denied to the Times any "improper relationship" with the governor. Little remarked upon has been that the troopers' story corroborates the claim made by Gennifer Flowers that Clinton helped secure a state job for her.

The story broke despite steady work by Clinton advisors to dissuade the troopers from going public. From inside the White House, senior aide Bruce Lindsey spent weeks laying the groundwork for a rebuttal. Outside the Administration, former Clinton chief of staff Betsey Wright flew into Little Rock to throw doubt on claims made by trooper Danny Ferguson that Clinton had offered him a job in return for killing the story. Even the President had a role in the suppression, though it is said to have been limited to calling several troopers to check out "rumors." Once a CNN report on the pending Spectator piece put the story on the AP wire, Clinton operatives set out to discredit the sources. Impugning the motives of the troopers, who would like to sell a book and are represented by Clinton nemesis Cliff Jackson, has had some success. Far more effective, though, at turning the press off the story has been the revelation that troopers Perry and Patterson misrepresented the facts of a 1990 auto accident which occurred after both had been drinking.

Why such a discrediting campaign, wholly stage-managed by the White House, is needed to combat "ridiculous" charges has yet to be explained. But through this operation the world got a close look at Buddy Young, the former head of the troopers' security detail. Thanks to a presidential appointment Young is now in a $92,300 job with Federal Emergency Management Agency, the kind of plum which Young says Perry and Patterson hoped for, didn't receive, and now are getting back at Clinton for not providing. It is worth noting that White House fixer Lindsey, by trotting out the comical Young, effectively sent a message that the security detail should be thought of as a Dogpatch Praetorian Guard always on the lookout for advancement.

Partly because of the discrediting campaign and partly because of general squeamishness about the topic, the mainstream media have not been eager to press the Clintons for details. Two White House press conferences went by without a question on the topic. Only when the White House press office hit a nerve by attempting to put the subject out of bounds for Mrs. Clinton's Christmas interviews did the press corps' interest seem to perk up. When asked point blank by Mutual Radio's Peter Maer if all the allegations were false, Bill Clinton stammered incoherently before saying he had already answered that. But as yet no one has dared to ask Hillary Clinton if the troopers' allegations of a romantic relationship with Vince Foster have any substance.

Foster is also an important character in the Whitewater drama, which has been steadily building for several months as federal investigators peel back layers surrounding the firm. In question are links to the failure of Madison (which cost taxpayers $50 million) and to one David Hale, who is under indictment for defrauding the Small Business Administration. Representative Jim Leach (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, has raised the alarm over the fact that it is Janet Reno's Justice Department that is being asked to conduct an investigation into the President's past. So far, the use of career Justice prosecutors as opposed to Rose law firm alumni has minimized the chance that the inquiry will be soft-pedaled. But Leach, not known as a partisan bomb-thrower, believes a special counsel is needed to plumb the depths of the Madison collapse and its relationship with the Whitewater Development Corp.

Whitewater was a land-development deal entered into by the Clintons and James McDougal (Madison's owner) and his wife. Here the Clintons' first defense is that there is nothing new that merits comment. Mrs. Clinton has treated as the last word on the subject the analysis made in March 1992 by Denver attorney James Lyons which found that the First Couple lost $68,000 on the Whitewater deal as "passive shareholders." She maintains she is "bewildered" by continued interest in the dealings. But since the election, relentless coverage from the Washington Times, in the past weeks joined by the Washington Post and New York Times, has shown it not to be that simple.

It is known that money from Madison was used to pay off Bill Clinton's campaign debt. McDougal held a 1985 fundraiser to retire Clinton campaign debts from the 1984 governor's race. One $3,000 check came from the son of a Madison board member; the son told the Post in December that he has no recollection of writing any such check when he was in college. Later, Madison received the go-ahead from the state's banking regulator, a Clinton appointee and former Madison attorney, to meet capital requirements by selling stock. At the time Hillary Clinton was on a $2,000-a-month retainer from Madison. No one has asked the Clintons if it was proper for her to be on retainer for a bank her husband regulated.

Just before Christmas, the Administration suffered perhaps the most damaging blow to its credibility, being forced to disclose that files on Whitewater were removed from Foster's office hours after his suicide and kept from investigators. In revealing that a search of Foster's office occurred prior to the known July 22 search by Nussbaum, spokesman Mark Gearan basically admitted he was less than forthcoming to reporters following Foster's death. Investigators hope the file sheds some light on the extent of the Clinton involvement in the Whitewater Professional Responsibility is also looking at the White House's handling of the hidden file in connection with Travelgate.

Part of the reason the President gave for refusing to answer any more questions about the troopers' story is that the topic is "so painful at holiday time." With the season now past, both Clintons are now free to categorically deny the allegations of extramarital affairs. While they are at it, they can explain the reason for the secret search of Foster's office and the need to mislead the public about it.