While I love re-reading the history, that committee was one of the key opportunities lost thanks in part to Fred not being able to bring it to its conclusion. Why? Because John Glenn, minority leader on the committee, frustrated the whole process. Why? Because Clinton had promised Glenn that he would cover long overdue campaign debts going back to 1984 and he would give John Glenn one last ride on the NASA Shuttle.
Fred was was too nice — as this article points out: the corruption was there for all to see but Fred didn’t have the b**** to press it.
I like Fred, but this was far from his best moment in the Senate.
He wasn't given the tools to press it, because Glenn blocked the necessary grants of immunity to key witnesses. In fact, the hearings were quite successful, as many of the key figures were eventually brought up on various charges, but the Democrats on the committee made sure the Clintons got off the hook.
If Thompson made a mistake, it was early on, based on his Watergate experience, in assuming that both parties would lay aside partisan differences in order to root out corruption in their ranks. He was unprepared for the "party over principle" attitude the Democrats developed in the 20 or so years between the events. I doubt he'll make that mistake again.
I suppose you expected Fred to order those who pled the fifth tortured, or hire mercenaries to hunt down those who left the country?
There WERE results. Anyone who actually expected that investigation to bring down Clinton and Gore is seriously delusional.
Anyway, there WERE results:
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http://hsgac.senate.gov/12.pdf
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In 1997, Thompson’s committee was designated by the Senate leadership to conduct an investigation into alleged improper or illegal activities growing out of the 1996 federal campaigns.
The committee exposed a campaign system rife with abuse and open to foreign influence, and produced a 9,600 page report that led to several indictments and a number of on-going criminal investigations. The New York Times declared that Thompson “forced Attorney General Janet Reno and a snoozing FBI to quit ignoring any and all indications of corruption in the 1996 campaign.”