Washington — Enthusiasm seemed to be on the wane Monday for more congressional investigations into President Clinton's last-minute pardons as House and Senate Republicans said the time may have come to follow President Bush's advice.
"I'd be inclined to move on," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said, repeating what Bush said he wants done.
This follows last week's 10-hour marathon hearing by the House Government Reform Committee, the fourth by the Republican-controlled Congress. That committee already had held one hearing on the subject, and the House and Senate Judiciary committees have held one each.
President Bush, who has been trying to get his administration together and to push his agenda in Congress without being overshadowed by his predecessor, has said that he thinks it is time for Congress to move on. Officials on all sides say, however, that Bush is not pressuring Congress to drop investigations beyond occasional "move on" admonitions.
"The president has spoken and said he is moving forward," spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday.
A high-ranking Republican aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said House Republican leaders would be surprised if Rep. Dan Burton, chairman of the Government Reform panel, held another hearing soon. "There is a collective sense that the panel has gone about as far as it can," the aide said.
Burton, R-Ind., has said he has no other hearings scheduled and doesn't know whether he needs more.
"Until we look at the information we've subpoenaed and the other information that's coming in and other people we're going to talk to, I can't make a determination," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "But I will tell you this: If we find there is additional questions that need to be asked of people under oath, we'll have a hearing."
The House Government Reform Committee looked Monday at amounts and dates of large donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation, raising money for a library to be built in Little Rock, Ark.
Republicans are looking for any hint of a money-for-pardons deal between Clinton and financier Marc Rich, who was an expatriate fugitive when Clinton pardoned him of tax and other charges on Jan. 20.
Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, contributed $450,000 to the library foundation, and her friend, Beth Dozoretz, a former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, has pledged to raise $1 million.
They refused to testify before Congress, invoking their constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who spearheaded pardon hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, also has no hearings scheduled but has said he wants more, perhaps on changing disclosure laws that cover presidential libraries.
Specter also has been among the lead advocates for getting Clinton to talk about the pardons, although all sides say it's unlikely Clinton would get a subpoena.
The U.S. attorney's investigation in New York of Clinton's pardon was part of the reason why Dozoretz and Denise Rich refused to testify before Congress, lawyers said.
Specter instead suggested Clinton come in voluntarily to talk to senators privately. Despite hints Sunday that Clinton might do so, that is unlikely, Clinton spokeswoman Julia Payne said.
"This is not an offer he's considering at this time," she said.
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