Panel May End Action Against 2 of ‘Keating 5’ : Ethics: A special council’s study reportedly calls for dropping proceedings against Sens. Glenn, McCain stemming from the S&L; scandal.

The Senate Ethics Committee, responding to barbed Republican suggestions that its “Keating Five” inquiry has become a Democratic coverup, may decide today whether to dismiss charges against two senators, including the only Republican under scrutiny.

The committee’s Democratic chairman, Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama, made the announcement Monday after four Republican senators urged immediate action on a six-week-old report by the panel’s special counsel, Robert S. Bennett.

Bennett reportedly recommended a full-scale investigation of charges that Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) and Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.) improperly helped a major campaign contributor, savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr.

But Bennett, according to sources, also called for dropping proceedings against Sens. John Glenn (D-Ohio) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

In coordinated floor speeches, McCain, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and two other GOP senators suggested that Democrats are delaying action on the report to prevent the inquiry from focusing solely on Democratic senators just before congressional elections Nov. 6.

They demanded a committee decision before Congress adjourns this week, as well as public disclosure of Bennett’s 354-page report. Later, Glenn joined in the call with a press release.

“There’s far more at stake than my reputation,” McCain declared. “There’s the reputation of the United States Senate.”

In response, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) condemned a stream of “outrageous” leaks from the panel’s investigation, suggesting that Republicans are responsible for feeding the secret data to reporters because it concerned only Cranston, DeConcini and Riegle.

Meanwhile, Heflin defended the committee’s deliberate pace, saying that the panel was obligated to explore issues raised about McCain and Glenn by Common Cause, the so-called citizens lobby, after Bennett turned in his report Sept. 10.

Heflin cited a brief filed Oct. 1 by Common Cause President Archibald Cox, arguing that there was “no basis for removing Sens. Glenn and McCain from this case.”

The panel is investigating Common Cause charges that the five senators improperly helped Keating battle federal regulators on behalf of Keating’s failed Lincoln Savings & Loan, after receiving a combined total of $1.3 million in political contributions.

McCain said that he was speaking out reluctantly because he did not wish to “upset the very powerful Ethics Committee” or “jeopardize my political career.”

But, he added, “my concern is about my honor, my integrity and my reputation. . . . Not only am I personally frustrated by the failure of the committee to act on its year-long Keating Five investigation, there are growing allegations in the media of a coverup. . . . This system is incredibly and inexcusably delayed.”

McCain, while acknowledging that Keating had been a friend, a political supporter and “a hot property around the state of Arizona,” maintained that “I never lifted a finger for him. When he asked for my help in an improper fashion, I walked away.”

Dole called for prompt committee action as a matter of fairness.

“Here we are the week of adjournment and two of our colleagues have sort of been hung out to dry,” he said, noting that the new Congress will not convene until January. “There are all kinds of rumors floating around. Some say they (the three Democrats on the six-member committee) do not want to make a decision before the election, that it is politics.”

Observing that McCain had once been held as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese, Dole said: “Let us not keep him hostage here in the Senate.”

Sens. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) also joined in the criticism of the committee.

In his press statement, Glenn asked that “the committee not allow the Senate to adjourn and thus delay indefinitely a resolution of this matter. . . . For more than a year, my honor and integrity have been called into question and my conduct has been the subject of unending speculation.”

Mitchell said: “I do not believe any fair conclusions can yet be reached about the outcome of the committee’s deliberations.”

In assailing the leaks, he complained that they are “damaging the reputations of members. . . . Equally importantly, these leaks are attempting to establish a climate in which the judgment of the Ethics Committee will be immediately discredited if it reaches a different conclusion.”