Sen. Fred Thompson's committee will soon be releasing its report on fund- raising abuses in the 1996 presidential campaign. So what will all those high- paid committee staffers be doing once the report's released?
We're told the committee's $ 120,000-a-year senior counsel, Harold Damelin, is pining for a job with Rep. Dan Burton's House committee investigating fund- raising malfeasance. This is noteworthy because Damelin was viewed by many Republican insiders as contributing to the Thompson committee's ineffectiveness.
Damelin's most notable blunder came in October, when he presented Thompson with information that President Clinton had met with three people implicated in a scheme to divert union funds to the reelection campaign of Teamsters president Ron Carey. Thompson then repeated this information during a hearing. It was one of the high points. Only one problem: The information wasn't accurate, and Thompson was forced to issue an embarrassing apology. Making matters worse was that Damelin tried to blame the error on another committee staff member.
Some cynically say Damelin will fit right in on the Burton committee. Others hope Burton isn't hiring.