White House 'vandals' row rages on

More than four months after George W Bush became US president, the argument goes on about the mess left behind in some White House offices.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, who early on accused the departing Clinton staff of vandalism on its way out, said he had wanted to drop the matter some time ago.

But when a Democratic congressman demanded last week that the White House apologise for making the allegations, Fleischer said he had no choice but to detail anew some of the damage found by the Bush team.

‘‘It was always the White House intention to let it die,’’ he said. ‘‘Unfortunately, the corpse kicked.’’

Rep Anthony D Weiner, a Democrat from New York, had asked for the apology, saying the White House was smearing Clinton aides with unsubstantiated allegations.

He said Fleischer had prolonged the dispute by refusing to back up the charges. He pointed to a letter last month from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, saying there was ‘‘no record of damage’’ deliberately caused by outgoing Clinton aides.

Fleischer said no written records were made of damage because Bush wanted to move on.

Rep Bob Barr, a Republican from Georgia, has renewed his request first made in late January for the accounting office to conduct a full investigation.

Jeff Nelligan, speaking for the office, said, ‘‘We’ll sit down with him and his staff to go over the scope and methodology of the requested investigation.’’

Fleischer said the Bush team found graffiti scrawled on walls. Scores of phones in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House could not be used because nameplates were ripped off and wires misrouted, or in some cases cut, he said.

He said voice mail had to be changed on all phones on the network because lewd messages were left on some.

Earlier, Fleischer said the White House had to buy 100 computer keyboards because the Ws Bush’s middle initial were missing. And he said pornographic pictures were sprinkled through stacks of photocopy paper.

Former Clinton aides have denied knowledge of destructive acts, saying only that pranks typical of a change in administrations might have happened.