Men of Zeal.

• Author: Waldman, Steven

The Iran-contra committee preened before the television

lights', dished out immunity,, let lackluster lawyers lead

the charge-and let North & Co. off the hook.

The Iran-contra scandal has been reduced to just another item in the debit column of Reagan's ledger-a stain to be sure, but not much worse than Ed Meese's stock holdings, Noriega's drug running, and Reagan's opposition to plant-closing legislation. Three of the four men indicted in the scandalincluding the president's national security adviserprobably won't come to trial on the main conspiracy charges. And Oliver North is considered a national treasure by too many people. The Iran-contra committee deserves much of the blame. In their book*, Maine Senators George Mitchell and William Cohen, two of the most impressive members of the committee, argue that it did serve a useful purpose by disseminating information quickly, but they also try to explain some of the panelists' mistakes. Occasionally, they sound like the job interviewee who responds to the "what-are-your-weaknesses" quesdon by saying he works too dam hard. Mitchell and Cohen concede with great candor, for example, that a problem" was that the committee chose its attorneys on the basis of their brillant legal minds instead of TV good looks-but add that, dam it, they'd do it again. Their brutally honest selfcriticism somehow makes them look better.

The tide of this book certainly doesn't refer to its authors. Mitchell, a Democrat, and Cohen, a Republican, worship at the altar of bipartisanship and reasonableness. When the committee appointments were announced, I thought it was brilliant for the congressional leadership to appoint mostly procontra, dull respectables to the panel. That way the investigation couldn't be tagged a partisan, anticontra witchhunt. It would focus instead on arms for hostages, cover-ups, illegal wars, and the rule of law. Cohen and Mitchell held the same view. But we all got it backwards. The problem was not that the administration was populated by too many "men of zeal" but tat the committee was stocked with too few. Excessive bipartisanship and overreliance on nonpolitical hired help injured the committee more-and allowed the administration to get off the hook.

Fawn and Venus

But first things first. Did Cohen and Mitchell really write the book? Although legislators always insist diey did, in this case the claim is entirely plausible. After all, one of its authors, Cohen, is not just a writer (The Double Man, with Senator Gary Hart) but a poet (A Baker's Nickel). Unfortunately, Men of Zeal has a few too "poetic" touches. The authors point out, for example, that CIA Director William Casey was "dead and thus beyond the reach of any mortal subpeona" and that administration officials were "snookered" by "fast-fingered merchants schooled in steamy street bazaars " The tragic Bud McFarlane "yielded [the words] one by one, as if he were giving birth to each;" his suicide attempt was an effort to "accelerate his mortality." But nowhere would writer's block have been more welcome than in their chapter on Fawn Hall. They note that Hall "filled the nation's capital with helium," leading serious-minded men to experience "moments of adolescent giddiness" They know whereof diey speak. Hall, they wrote, has "golden hair cascading about a fine-boned face," projecting "a casual stylishness, reminiscent of actress Farrah Fawcett...Fawn arrives at the witness table, Botticelli's Venus yielded from a foaming sea." Gentlemen, please!

Their admission that members of the committee did, in fact, joke about asking Fawn Hall for her phone number is one of an occasional gossipy nugget that qualifies Men of Zeal as a "candid inside story." The book shows committee members obsessed with how the hearings could propel their careers, "an opportunity to step from relative political anonymity, reinforce one's standing at home, and enhance one's future national prospects." One big fear of committee members: that Fawn Hall would cry while they were questioning her.

Most disturbing, the authors (without naming names) paint a picwre of a rather...