HARKEN  (CONT)

Breeden passed this hot potato to his deputy, James R. Doty, to investigate. In private life Doty had been the accused's attorney.Among other things, Doty had negotiated Bush's acquisition of the Texas Rangers baseball team. Letting Doty investigate this transaction was as if the Clinton administration had tasked then Deputy Attorney General Webster Hubble to investigate the Whitewater transaction.

Doty quickly slammed the coffin lid shut on the investigation - without interviewing a single Harken board member. And there it has lain buried ever since - case closed.

All this raises an inevitable question: Why shouldn't the Harken case be exhumed for a full independent autopsy?