Karl Rove showed misplaced indignation when asked about his meeting with Intel Corp. executives seeking help with a merger. Rove, who owned $100,000 of the company’s stock at the time and stood to gain financially if the merger went through, surely must appreciate the delicacy of his situation. Yet he chose instead to attack the messenger, accusing California Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, of stopping at nothing in pursuing his political opponents. Rove may be right in assessing Waxman’s tenacity, but the intemperate response served only to fuel the controversy.

Democrats now want to know whether Rove had a waiver from the White House counsel’s office to meet with the Intel executives. The equivalent of a hall pass in high school, it’s the bare minimum any White House aide seeks when conferring with somebody who might pose the appearance of a conflict. Clinton aides routinely got waivers as their first line of defense in an investigatory climate. “If Rove didn’t do it, it’s amazing,” says a Democratic congressional aide.

Catching Rove in a technical violation isn’t Watergate, but it would give Democrats the high ground in asking the potentially more serious question whether Rove influenced policy in which he had a financial interest. All the evidence is circumstantial. The administration was divided over whether the merger should go ahead with some Pentagon officials opposed. Intel executives say they discussed the potential merger in their meeting with Rove. He says he referred them elsewhere in the administration. After the merger was announced, a thank-you note from Intel to top Bush aides included a copy to Rove.

None of this makes Rove guilty of anything, but it raises questions Democrats would like to keep in the news. Polls show a majority of voters believe Bush and his top aides favor corporate America at the expense of average people and that they are too close to the oil companies. That is why Vice President Cheney’s refusal to release the names of the lobbyists he met with to devise the administration’s energy policy has piqued such interest among Democrats.

The Cheney investigation has moved beyond pesky inquiries from Waxman into a full-blown inquiry by the General Accounting Office. Cheney will eventually turn over the names. He can do so after a protracted fight and a public-relations disaster for the White House, or he can produce the information in a timely fashion. The harder the White House fights, the more curious Democrats get. What is it the Bush people are trying to hide?

The grudging response to legitimate questions is reminiscent of the way the Bushies handled Cheney’s heart attack. They are stingy with information and regard even the most polite inquiries as invasions of personal privacy. In a follow-up letter to the White House, the GAO toughened its language to demand the names, which could lead to subpoenas.

Democrats are hobbled because the Government Reform Committee is chaired by Republican Dan Burton, who is more interested in pursuing Clinton-era scandals than unearthing fresh dirt. Burton is still going full-tilt after Roger Clinton and the Rodham brothers for their role in the Clinton pardons, plus he’s got a broad gift investigation into every amenity the Clintons ever received. “New era?” says a Democratic staffer. “I come into the office and I think Clinton must still be president. Our committee is obsessed with him.”

GORE GEARING UP?

Democrats on Capitol Hill with political ambitions of their own are looking over their shoulder wondering whether Al Gore will join the 2004 presidential field. “The groundhog is still hiding,” reports a former Gore campaign intimate. How many more weeks of summer do we endure before Gore graces the political scene? The former veep is telling friends that he will re-emerge into the public eye this fall with his first speech on issues, as opposed to the “schmoozy talk-for-pay speeches,” he’s been making. Energy and the environment, Gore’s strong points, conveniently happen to be Bush’s weakest areas in terms of popularity with the public. But if he runs, Gore will have trouble holding his coalition of supporters together. Former top aides are noncommittal and friends of Gore’s former running mate, Joe Lieberman, say don’t count him out even if Gore runs. His pledge to defer to Gore is “evolving,” says one.

NEUTRAL TERRITORY

Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee’s office on Capitol Hill resembles a demilitarized zone between warring parties. Both Republicans and Democrats have figured out that Chafee is a man who cannot be swayed by political arguments, lured by inducements or bullied into voting any particular way. Republicans whisper that he’s “flaky.” Chafee has had no contact with the White House since his much ballyhooed 20-minute visit with President Bush in the wake of the Jim Jeffords defection. And he hasn’t been courted by Democrats since then either. “You can make a case to him, but once he sets his mind to something, that’s that,” says an aide. “He’s not a child of Washington.”