The Nation: Can Carter Afford Lance?
(3 of 4) The committee staff, moreover, has reconstituted itself into a true investigative unit, with Ribicoffs approval. Proffessional investigators have been borrowed from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and eight to ten staff members have been boning up on every relevant document in the Lance affair. For the first witness, the committee will call Comptroller Heimann. Lance himself is tentatively scheduled to testify the next day. “This is going to be a full-scale inquiry,” says one Senator on the committee. “Once and for all, we’re going to settle this issue. We’re going to get to the bottom of the Lance affair.” Adds an aide to Republican Senator William Roth of Delaware, “Bert’s avuncular, easygoing style won’t wash this time.” Three particular areas of Lance’s testimony from previous hearings interest the committee: Overdrafts It has been established that Lance, his wife LaBelle and nine other relatives collectively amassed huge overdrafts. At one point in
