State GOP hits Hillary's 'hypocrisy' on spying

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State Republican Party officials across the country yesterday assailed Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for possibly eavesdropping on political opponents' cell-phone calls during her husband's tenure as Arkansas governor.

The criticism included charges of hypocrisy against Mrs. Clinton, New York Democrat, who voted in August against a bill that lifted restrictions on government wiretaps of foreign terrorism suspects.

Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Dennis Milligan called on the state attorney general to investigate the 1992 eavesdropping incident in that state during the presidential run of Mrs. Clinton's husband, then-Gov. Bill Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton's political eavesdropping was first reported in the book "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton" published in June.

"If these allegations are true, Arkansans have a right to ask the senator from New York, 'Why were you willing to break the law and use wiretapping for personal political gain, but you're unwilling to vote for measures that would provide our nation's intelligence community with the tools they need to catch potential terrorists?' " Mr. Milligan said.

Clinton campaign spokesman Howard L. Wolfson said the campaign had not responded to the accusation sooner because there were too many accusations in books to answer them all.

"The story is categorically untrue," said Mr. Wolfson. "This is partisan politics as usual from the Republicans who can't defend the failures of this administration."

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, declined to open an investigation because he lacks authority to probe "allegations of this nature, even if they were true," said his spokesman, Gabe Holmstrom.

He directed further questions to the county prosecuting attorney, who was not immediately available.

The criticism cascaded from state to state yesterday, following a report in the Hill newspaper on the eavesdropping story from the "My Way" book by Don Van Natta Jr. and Jeff Gerth, current and former New York Times reporters, respectively.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius "Saul" Anuzis called it "the highest form of hypocrisy and ... a clear example of how the Clintons will stop at nothing to recapture the White House."

Georgia Republican Party Chairman Sue P. Everhart said Mrs. Clinton's hypocrisy "knows no bounds."

"How she can think it is wrong to allow our intelligence professionals to prevent and disrupt terrorist attacks through intercepted conversations between plotters, but not think it is wrong to spy on her political opponents is beyond me," she said.

The Democratic-led Congress is scheduled to take up a bill today that would roll back the temporary expansion of government wiretap authority that passed in August.