The documents themselves have a tangled history. Susan McDougal, Jim’s former wife, had them delivered to the guardhouse of the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion at the Clintons’ request sometime in 1991. At least some of the papers were in Vince Foster’s office when he committed suicide last July. Jim McDougal repeatedly whined on TV that he wanted them back so be could work on his tax problems. (Special counsel Robert Fiske had his own copies.) Last week Clinton attorney David Kendall finally returned the papers to McDougal. NEWSWEEK and other news organizations bargained him down to 50 cents a page, a standard copying fee for court records. Is this the real dirt on Whitewater? Until the documents are released on Tuesday, only a few people know what they actually contain. They may be so fragmented and ambiguous that they only create more suspicion. Presumably, neither the White House nor McDougal would release any damning evidence so cavalierly. But then, you never know with Jim McDougal.
