Reproduced with permission of The Progressive Review, 1739 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202-232-5544, Fax: 202-234-6222. Editor: Sam Smith, ssmith@igc.org.

Social distributing in Arkansas

The candy man, Dan Lasater, came to Washington recently but the media was too busy writing about Clinton's umpteenth modification and spin of national drug policy to take much notice. Lasater is one of the more interesting characters in the whole affair -- a successful businessman who, among other things, started the Ponderosa Steakhouse chain and the second largest securities brokerage firm in the state. He also raised race horses and was a track buddy of Virginia Kelly, through whom he met her son Bill.

When Lasater started a bonding company, Bill Clinton recommended to him highway commissioner Patsy Thomasson, who became vice president of the Lasater firm.. Thomasson hired half-brother Roger as a limo driver. Roger was also employed as a stable hand at his Florida farm at the request of either Bill or Virginia Kelly -- Lasater says he can't remember which. When Roger's drug debts got too high, Lasater gave him $8,000 to clear them up.

Lasater began running into trouble in he mid-eighties. There was a big investigation of a major bond issue for state police radios that was thrown Lasater's way. And the feds got on his case for the possession and distribution of cocaine. Lasater was convicted but spent less than half of his 2 1/2 year sentence in jail. While he was in jail, Thomasson took over as head of the firm.

In his trial, and in testimony before the Senate Whitewater committee, Lasater admitted to being free with the coke, including ashtrays full of it on his corporate jet. He also admits to having given coke to employees and to minors. But he took umbrage at being called a drug dealer. In a bizarre exchange with the GOP's counsel, Michael Chertoff, Lasater described his crime as the "social distribution" of cocaine. At one point, Chertoff said,

I just want to get -- make -- sure we have kinda your moral compass right, that giving drugs away to your employees and to people you are entertaining even if they are underage, that's better than selling. There's a difference of distinction -- that's your position before this committee?

Lasater agreed. Now this is the man who, according to some witnesses, also had a back door pass to the governor's mansion. One state trooper has reported taking Clinton to Lasater's office regularly and waiting forty-five minutes or an hour for him to come out.

Bear in mind that Arkansas functioned as a sort of domestic narco-republic during the years that Clinton was in the governor's mansion. Clinton claims to know virtually nothing about all this and while there is good reason for him to play dumb, but that doesn't mean the Washington media has to follow suit. The big story of Whitewater has always been drugs and so when one of the candy men came to town to testify, it should have been news.