WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chairman and chief presidential defender on the House panel probing the Iran-Contra scandal, predicts the controversy will end up a mere footnote to Watergate's chapter in American history.
In an interview with United Press International, Cheney strongly defended President Reagan and former CIA Director William Casey and portrayed himself as a Reagan point man on the Democrat-led House select committee.
'I'm clearly a strong supporter of the president and have been in the past and expect to contine to be,' he said. 'That doesn't mean I agree with everything he did in the connection with the Iranian affair.'
Cheney and committee Chairman Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., planned to meet today with their counterparts on the Senate committee, Sens. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. The full panels will meet Wednesday, continuing the unusual cooperation that has arranged for joint hearings to begin May 5.
In the interview Monday, Cheney, who was President Ford's White House chief of staff, blamed much of Reagan's worst political crisis on personnel problems and said he does not favor new laws to put restrictions on future presidents.
Unlike Richard Nixon, he noted, Reagan did nothing in 'Irangate' that would warrant drumming him out of office.
'I think it is radically different from Watergate,' he said. 'I think there's a very real possiblity that it's going to be at best a footnote in the history books.'
Cheney conceded the administration 'was not as forthcoming as it might have been' when some of its top officials went before the House Intelligence Committee last year, but he would not elaborate and instead praised Reagan's forthrightness once the scandal came to light in late November.
'It was a serious mistake. I think the president understands that now too,' Cheney said. 'The president has been totally forthcoming in everything we've asked him to do, including access to his personal diaries.'
A congressional source said Monday that investigators from both committees and independent prosecutor Lawrence Walsh are nearing agreement with the White House about reviewing Reagan's notes relating to any deals with Iran and the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.
The source said the investigators would be given a more detailed look at Reagan's personal writings than the three-member presidential Tower Commission was granted. Investigators expect access to 'all relevant portions of the president's notes' and should announce an agreement soon, the source said.
In another development, retired Maj. Gen. Richard Secord told a federal judge in court papers Monday that being forced to surrender his foreign bank account records would violate the Constitution and a U.S. treaty with Switzerland.
Secord is believed to have played a major role along the money trail in the scandal, and U.S. District Judge Aubrey Robinson is weighing a request by the Senate committee for a court order forcing Secord to release the records.
Robinson has scheduled a hearing on the issue April 14. If Secord's arguments are rejected and he continues to refuse to turn over the information, he could be held in contempt of court and jailed or fined each day he does not comply.
Critics portray Reagan's presidency as disabled, if not permanently crippled, in the wake of the scandal, but Cheney said such assessments are 'overdone' and that Reagan had lower public approval ratings during the 1982 recession.
The Republican loyalist also defended Casey, calling him 'one of the best CIA directors the agency has ever had.' Casey, whose brain cancer forced him to resign two months ago, has been named in reports as the possible mastermind behind the arms sales to Iran and private supply networks to the Contras.
'I don't think it's fair for people to criticize a man based on speculation and innuendo,' Cheney said, 'and to do it at a time when he is incapable of defending himself strikes me as in extremely poor taste.'
The senator further asserted the GOP has suffered no damage from the affair that has plagued its White House standard bearer for more than four months.
