EMERSON: WHITE HOUSE STAFF `INEPT'

President Clinton's White House staff ranks as the most inept ever, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson said Tuesday in calling for congressional hearings into the Whitewater affair.

The Cape Girardeau Republican predicted hearings will be held despite the efforts of the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate to derail such action.

"It is virtually unanimously accepted in Washington, by Democrats as well as Republicans, that the current White House staff is the most inept White House staff that anyone can remember," Emerson said.

He said there are no "seasoned people" on the White House staff. "They only brought in campaign people."

Fourteen months into the Clinton presidency, high-ranking White House staffers have not even submitted their paperwork for security passes, the congressman noted.

"The president and probably more than the president -- the first lady -- picked the White House staff," he said.

Republicans in Congress have been pushing for the hearings in the wake of continued allegations that have dogged President and Mrs. Clinton over financial dealings surrounding the Whitewater land venture and the now-failed Madison Guarantee Savings and Loan in Little Rock, Ark.

"The more questions that get answered, the more questions that arise," Emerson said from Washington, a day after Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell -- the number three man in the Justice Department -- resigned amid the spreading turmoil over the Whitewater affair.

"We don't know what the special counsel has uncovered thus far. We don't know what the White House staff has said to the grand jury or is saying to the grand jury. We know very little about the (Vincent) Foster matter," said Emerson.

Foster, White House deputy counsel, died last July of an apparent suicide at a suburban Washington Park.

Foster, a former law partner of Mrs. Clinton, was working on Whitewater matters at the time of his death.

Special prosecutor Robert Fiske is re-examining the whole issue of whether Foster committed suicide.

Suspicions were raised when the White House reportedly sifted through Foster's papers and held onto a suicide letter for a period of time before turning it over to investigators.

More recently, a paramedic who arrived first at the scene of Foster's death has publicly questioned the suicide verdict.

Emerson said the park, Fort Marcy, which overlooks the Potomac River, has remained closed since Foster's death.

Hubbell, a longtime friend of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the second high-ranking administration official to resign in a little more than a week.

White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum quit under fire on March 5 after revelations of White House briefings with federal regulators who are investigating the failed Arkansas savings and loan firm.

Hubbell was a former partner in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, the same firm where Mrs. Clinton was once a partner.

A federal official said Monday that it appears the law firm had been paid twice by the government for the same $30,000 of work in a case stemming from the failure of the savings and loan.

Emerson said it can't be overlooked that a number of White House staffers formerly worked as attorneys with the Rose firm.

And the congressman said the president was a good friend of staff members and administration officials such as Hubbell. "Hubbell was his close buddy and golfing partner," said Emerson.

"Given the magnitude of the allegations, if this had happened to President and Mrs. Reagan or President and Mrs. Bush, you could be assured that every committee of the Congress would be long into it by this time," he said.

"If there isn't anything to conceal, why are they working so hard to conceal it?" Emerson said of the Clinton administration.

Some Democratic leaders have argued against congressional hearings, suggesting they might interfere with the special counsel's investigation.

But Emerson said Congress has an oversight responsibility when it comes to the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC), which was set up to deal with the nation's failed savings and loans.

"Congress must hold sessions twice a year." He said Republicans are simply demanding that Congress comply with the law.

Said Emerson, "Ultimately, Whitewater and Madison are inextricably involved with the RTC."

Clinton has accused Republicans of pursuing "politics of personal destruction."

But Emerson said Clinton's tactic is simply an effort "to put out the Whitewater fire."

In the House, the Whitewater issue is before the banking committee.

Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, is the ranking Republican on the committee. "He is being very dogged in pursuit of this matter," said Emerson.

"Jim is a very intellectual, workhorse-type guy. He is not at all a hotdog," said Emerson. "He is probably the least partisan member of the House."

Emerson said he believes that since Leach is being so "tenacious" in pursuing the matter, it shows there's sufficient reason for Congress to investigate.