"Clinton Ties to Tyson Scion Still Drawing Critics’ Fire : Politics: Some allege Arkansan got special treatment from Agriculture, Commerce departments. He denies it.
By SARA FRITZ
LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER
SPRINGDALE, Ark. — He is an unlikely looking millionaire kingmaker--a balding, impish man whose trademark khaki work uniform belies his wealth and power.
Still, Donald Tyson, who succeeded in building his father’s small poultry business into a multimillion-dollar food-processing empire, has been widely portrayed as a driving force behind the political ascendancy of Bill Clinton.
Indeed, during the 1992 presidential campaign, Texas billionaire and independent candidate Ross Perot dubbed then-Gov. Clinton “chicken man” because of his close relationship to Tyson and to Arkansas’ poultry industry.
And Clinton himself drew attention to the association when he acknowledged to a campaign audience that he had sacrificed the environment in Arkansas to create more jobs for the state’s poultry farms.
Now the alliance between these two men has become a cause celebre once again. Critics of the President contend that a relationship that benefited both men during their days together in Arkansas still provides mutual rewards today.
The Agriculture Department’s failure to impose tougher standards on Tyson Foods Inc. and other poultry processors has prompted widespread criticism--as well as a Justice Department inquiry. And the Commerce Department has been accused of rewriting regulations to benefit Tyson Foods’ fishing interests in the Pacific Northwest.
Furthermore Tyson--acting through his lawyer, James Blair--is now said by critics to have played a role in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recently disclosed commodities trading profits during the late 1970s.
These allegations remain unproven--and some stories circulating about Tyson and Clinton are plainly false--but they demonstrate the way in which the President continues to be dogged by questions over favored relationships with his old friends in Arkansas.
While such accusations can haunt any President, they have been particularly troublesome for Clinton--in part because he pledged that his White House would be free from the cronyism of presidencies past. In addition, the inherently close-knit nature of Arkansas’ political and financial elite seems to fuel the suspicions of Clinton’s critics.
Tyson, a liberal Democrat, freely acknowledges that he considers the President an old friend and that he has generously supported Clinton’s political career with campaign contributions and other assistance over the years. But he staunchly denies that the relationship has ever gone beyond that of patron and public servant.
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