UNANSWERED QUESTIONS REMAIN ABOUT BILL WEBSTER

`The secret of success is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake those, you've got it made.'

- Groucho Marx

Many Missourians must by now be wondering if the news media has anything to write about except Bill Webster. The so-called "Webster case" has occupied, one could even say consumed, the newspapers and electronic media for what seems to be years. Indeed, it has been years, since the first glimmer of trouble in River City became visible nearly three years ago. There are politicians who have talked of nothing else since.

Unless one was unfortunate enough to have had unpleasant dealings with them, there was nothing to dislike about Bill Webster or his father, the late Dick Webster. Bill is bright, his father was bright. Bill's competency falls into the satisfactory-to-good category, and his father's was even higher. Bill has good manners, except when angry, and so did his dad. They were part and parcel of the Republican Party, staunch loyalists who took the bitter with the sweet and, like all good politicians, often made lemonade from lemons.

Webster senior and junior were good Missourians, good but not brilliant practitioners of the art of law and even better practitioners of the arcane tribal customs and traditions of politics. The father was better at this than the son, but this detracts nothing from the son's abilities for Dick was a seasoned master. A kind of Missouri Republican version of LBJ. Nothing wrong with that either, although some observers would seemingly prefer ineptitude in politics than admit that it seldom serves the cause of good government. It is when the brilliance is devoted to special interests, or personal ones, that Gladstones become Svengalis. And this is not good.

There have been far too many nuances in the Webster case to understand them all. The latest, and thus most compelling, conundrum is why a federal grand jury delayed a rumored indictment against young Bill for allegedly turning the Second Injury Fund into a contributions hand-maiden for his gubernatorial campaign - and then federal officials did not pursue this charge so that it could see the light of day and become a part of the public record. Webster denies that he did anything wrong in this instance, admitting only that he is guilty of two felonies that are less serious.

In this instance, Webster admits that he knowingly permitted the use of equipment in the office of the attorney general for his campaign for governor last year. He has also admitted that he permitted state employees to campaign for him, and in a second count, acknowledged that he used certain employees for his own benefit. For this, the man is going to prison? Folks, believe me when I say that if this is an indictable offense that requires prison time, the courts are going to be filled with cases involving public officials. These kinds of practices, abuses if you prefer that term, have been going on for years and years. The public official who doesn't use state-paid employees or equipment for his or her own political purposes is as rare as a winning M.U. football season. Prevalence does not mitigate illegality, it should also be noted.

The alleged Second Injury abuses, seemingly obscured in plea bargain papers, are the ones that should be of concern to every Missouri taxpayer, since he or she has been ripped off if the rumors are true. If the allegations are not correct, then Bill Webster is the victim of the most publicized vendetta since Iran-Contra.

If the testimony of one Webster aide that the attorney general used the Second Injury Fund to enhance his personal political fund is truthful, then Webster is guilty of a bonafide class triple-A felony. This allegation, if true, means Webster used taxpayer money to gain political office, and that is a world class violation of the public trust and the violator deserves to have the book thrown at him. Webster denies this; there has been no sign the public will euer learn the truth.

If the feds are going to require Bill Webster to spend a year or longer behind bars for doing what many other public officials, state and federal, do on a daily basis, then we are witnessing a new meaning of the word fairness. That isn't fair to Webster unless we begin investigating the multitude of the culpables who were doing it before Bill was ever born and are still doing it today. It's dead wrong but the practice is alive and well. The abuse should be on the new ethics panel agenda.

Quite frankly, we don't know whether Webster is guilty of Second Injury Fund abuses or whether he used the powers of his office to extricate his family from a failed real estate venture. The feds say he is and Webster says he isn't. It looks like those of us who pay the bills will never know.