But there's another congressional probe that should concern the White House.
D'Amato's colleague in the House, Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach, has quietly turned his Whitewater investigation in the direction of the drug-running and money-laundering operation that went on in Mena, Ark., during Bill Clinton's term of governor of that state.
Whatever was happening around Mena in the 1980s could be dynamite for politicians of both parties.
Sources I've spoken with over the past few months not only claim to have knowledge that drugs were being smuggled into Mena and money was being laundered.
But, they contend, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local Arkansas authorities turned a blind eye to what was going on.
Leach's committee is particularly interested in why none of the previous Mena investigations went nowhere.
The committee is questioning why a federal grand jury convened in the late 1980s was disbanded without any action being taken, even though evidence of wrongdoing was presented to it.
Leach last summer held Whitewater hearings that ran simultaneously with D'Amato's. But Leach hasn't reconvened his hearings, leading to the belief that he has lost interest.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Leach's Mena probe might end in a blockbuster report rather than just another Congressional hearing.
Leach's investigators have been spending the past few months tracing the money trail that begins in Mena, where cocaine was allegedly smuggled from Central America, and may end at the doorstep of Arkansas politicians and the state's prominent citizens.
Leach recently informed the Democrats on his committee of the investigation shift.
"Leach has gone into Mena with respect to the money laundering investigation," says a source.
Of particular interest seems to be a company called Rich Mountain Aviation, which is one of about 20 companies whose planes were taking off from Mena around the time in question.
Leach has also expressed interest in a man named Freddie Hampton, one of the owners of Global Associates, which was maintaining planes in Mena.
Leach has gotten "testimony that certain people brought in bags of money and had it broken up into $10,000 increments to avoid money- laundering laws.
Using the angle that banking regulations might have been breached, Leach is gently trying to come up with justification for steering his probe into Mena.
The Post has also learned that Leach has been in touch with DEA agents in New Orleans who are attempting to track money handled by Barry Seal, the now-deceased (assassinated) reputed head of the Mena operation. The DEA has "not been forthcoming."
Earlier this year, sources told The Post that the DEA New Orleans' operation had located Seal bank accounts. But it was unclear whether there was any money left in the accounts.
Leach's investigators are also said to be tracing Seal's drug money on their own.
"He was working for the government and had a big plane and not much supervision," is the way Seal was described by someone with knowlege of Leach's actions.
That has Leach intrigued.
Leach's people would also like to talk with Barry Seal's widow. Debbie Seal has denied knowing anything about her husband's actions.
But she has identified some suspicious notes that could provide a clue to investigator's looking into Mena.
All she knew, Mrs. Seal has said, was that Barry worked for the government.
Leach's committee has also shown a particular interest in some property that Seal may have owned in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are two tiny dots in the Carribean just east of Cuba.
In fact, Seal may have owned a bank on those islands.
Special Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr has had to officially steer clear of Mena because he fears that it falls outside his mandate.
But unofficially, Starr also has accumulated information about the covert government operation that seems to have been started as a way to get guns in the hands of Nicaraguan rebels.
Leach feels he has the excuse to delve into Mena. A lot of folks in Washington and Little Rock are going to have to duck for cover.
(John Crudele is a financial columnist with the New York Post. His mailing address is P.O. Box 610, Lincroft, N.J. 07738. Click here to send him e-mail).