WHITEWATER WRANGLING

By JAMES CARNEY/WASHINGTON

COMING FROM JACK QUINN, THE NEW White House counsel, the internal memo sent around last month was odd for being so elementary. It ordered staff members to give their "full and prompt attention" to document requests from investigators probing the Whitewater affair. "Nothing less will do," wrote Quinn, urging strict compliance. "Two years too late," commented a White House aide.

Quinn's memo went out a few days after the White House announced its discovery of Hillary Rodham Clinton's law-firm billing records, long sought by Whitewater investigators. Even as more controversial documents surface, the White House insists that it has been forthcoming in the Whitewater probe and that Republicans are trying only to harm the President. Among last week's developments:

White House visitor logs show that Mrs. Clinton met last August with a lawyer, Alston Jennings, one of whose clients was involved in the dubious Castle Grande land deal, for which Mrs. Clinton had done legal work. Republicans say the meeting is suspicious because it occurred around the same time that the billing records first turned up in the White House residence.

David Kendall, the Clintons' personal attorney, told the Senate Whitewater committee that when the records were rediscovered, he photocopied them before turning them over to the independent counsel. In doing so, he might have smudged any fingerprints on the documents.

Newly released notes taken during a January 1994 meeting describe top advisers to the President talking about sending an emissary to Arkansas to make sure a key Whitewater figure, Beverly Bassett Schaffer, a former state securities commissioner, would keep on describing her dealings with Mrs. Clinton as correct and proper. Republicans say the discussion showed an attempt to influence Schaffer's testimony.

The meeting was led by Harold Ickes, who had just become deputy chief of staff. Now Ickes is again heavily involved in Whitewater damage control. Other advisers want to launch an aggressive campaign of openness that would include releasing all Whitewater files to the press and having the First Lady volunteer to testify to the Senate committee. But Ickes, a close ally of Mrs. Clinton's and the primary manager of the President's re-election campaign, disagrees. He believes that any such strategy is risky and would not prevent the Republicans from keeping Whitewater a live issue throughout the campaign.

The dispute is mirrored by the falling-out between the Clintons' private lawyers, Kendall and Robert Bennett. Kendall has been criticized by Bennett and others for being politically obtuse. Kendall, in turn, has said privately that his job as a lawyer is to prevent his clients from being indicted, not to ensure the President's re-election. If there were a vote in the White House, Bennett's approach might win. But on Whitewater matters, officials say, the First Lady's opinion matters most. And she supports Kendall.

--By James Carney/Washington