To spur sales, Jim McDougal, a local savings and loan tycoon, thought he needed a model home - and the help of one of his Whitewater partners, Hillary Rodham, as she then called herself. Last month the Justice Department began to subpoena documents pertaining to sales of Whitewater lots. But a well-placed real estate source in the region says investigators are unlikely to find records of the initial transfer of the Cl intons' model home.
Unrecorded contracts are a damn funny way of doing business.
People familiar with Arkansas will say local business is often funny that way. But the Clintons are in the White House - and getting snagged on Arkansas roots is now a national spectacle. Every transaction during their political sojourn in Little Rock will become a measure of their character, of the ir ability to organize, administer and decide. In the First Lady's case, the stories that emerge portray a woman maneuvering through a world of messy connections, clumsy finances and ethical minefields. For example, in Arkansas the law firm of your enemy might just be your law firm.