Fred Barnes, executive editor

SEE IF YOU CAN follow this logic: There's a scandal involving some egregious wrongdoing in the business community. President Bush is favorably disposed toward the business community. Therefore, President Bush is part of the scandal and in big trouble. Or check out this logic implicating congressional Republicans: There's a scandal involving some egregious wrongdoing in the business community. After winning Congress in 1994, Republicans talked up deregulation and other steps to aid the business community. Therefore, Republicans created the conditions that caused the wrongdoing.

Now, it's obvious that both of these are faulty syllogisms. And there's no evidence the public is buying either one, even a little bit. The terrorist threat, the economy, moral values--the list is long of issues of greater national interest and concern. The president's approval rating hasn't dipped a whit. And just last weekend, a Gallup poll found Americans evenly divided on whether we'd be better off with Congress controlled by Democrats or Republicans. This is exactly what the same poll found last January and last November.

Yet a feeding frenzy, sparked by Democrats and pursued by the press corps, continues in Washington. It has produced several classic scenes of Washington excess. The first was Bush's press conference last Monday at which his sale in 1990 of $848,000 in Harken Energy Corp. stock was foremost on reporters' minds. The day before, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had declared that the stock deal exemplified "the permissive environment" toward business that has been "very destructive and very disconcerting to many of

The barely concealed expectation of reporters at the press conference was that another Whitewater was on the horizon. Twenty-one reporters asked questions, 13 about Harken or corporate corruption, one noting that Democrats intend to make Harken an issue in the midterm elections this fall. Most of the questions were simply Democratic accusations put in question form. Bush's answer: The Securities and Exchange Commission had long ago investigated this and found no violation.

Indeed, the SEC probe is one of many reasons Harken is not a Whitewater sequel. At the time the Whitewater flap erupted in late 1993, it had not been investigated, which is why Clinton was forced to call for an independent prosecutor. New information and new facts were coming to light about Clinton and Whitewater. But no new facts about the Harken sale have arisen.

The SEC agreed he hadn't operated on inside information to avert a tumble in the stock price. The price fell after the sale, but a year later Harken's value was double the price at which Bush sold his shares.

Not surprisingly, the press has focused on the one error made by Bush in the Harken sale and wildly exaggerated its significance. He filed a form notifying the SEC prior to the sale, but Harken was eight months late in providing a required second notice saying the sale had actually taken place. The first notice told the world someone connected to Harken was dumping his stock. This alerted other investors in case something was troublesome at Harken. The second form is a formality declaring the sale had occurred, as everyone already assumed.