Calling Archibald Cox.

• Position: Campaign finance reform and investigation - Editorial

Attorney General Janet Reno must immediately appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Bill Clinton's campaign-finance scandal. His legal and ethical violations have reached such lows that anything short of a full-scale, independent investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his office.

"Mistakes were made," he said at a January press conference. That Nixonian passive is putting it mildly.

The Clinton Administration, often with the direct, personal involvement of the President, appears to have systematically violated the campaign-finance laws of this country.

He has solicited funds in the White House, which is against the law.

His election campaign solicited and accepted illegal contributions from foreign individuals and foreign companies.

He allowed chief executives of foreign companies extraordinary access to the White House and input on U.S. policy affecting them.

He met with a senior arms dealer from China, as well as a reputed Mob associate, in the White House.

His election campaign accepted contributions from people who did not have the wherewithal to give them. This smacks of money-laundering.

He has regularly met with huge domestic contributors about official policy that they have a commercial interest in. This borders on bribery.

He and his Administration have repeatedly lied or dissembled about these activities.

He has turned the White House into a Disney World for anyone willing to pay $250,000 at the gate.

Here is one example. On June 18, 1996, a Thai businesswoman by the name of Pauline Kanchanalak came to one of Clinton's infamous White House coffees. She brought with her the three top executives of Thailand's largest multinational corporation, the C.P. Group, as The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported. The topic of the hour-long meeting was U.S. policy toward China, where the C.P. Group has large operations.

The same day as the coffee, Kanchanalak gave $85,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and her sister-in-law chipped in $50,000. The DNC's own records listed the "event location" as "WH coffee."

Kanchanalak is a legal U.S. resident, and therefore entitled to contribute to campaigns. Her family has contributed $650,000 to the DNC and state Democratic parties since 1992. The DNC was forced to return $253,000 of Kanchanalak's contributions after she admitted that the money had come from her mother-in-law.

Kanchanalak has benefited from her investments. She convinced the Clinton...