51.   Republican lawmakers attacked Attorney General Janet Reno Wednesday, charging that the hotly debated probe of alleged campaign finance abuses by her department had damaged public confidence in it.

52.   Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., will invite the head of the new Reform Party to testify before the Senate committee investigating campaign finance abuses.

53.   Senate Democrats, however, are pushing for an independent counsel investigation that will focus as well on alleged Republican campaign finance abuses and irregularities.

54.   Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the assistant Republican leader, said he thought that the Lewinsky matter was important but that campaign finance abuses were much more serious.

55.   Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has called on Freeh to launch a separate probe of campaign finance abuses, independent of the Justice Department.

56.   Senators on the committee probing campaign finance abuses said Friday they would shift course and turn to broader issues in anticipation of a vote on campaign finance reform legislation.

57.   That assertion is itself the best argument for an aggressive inquiry by those in Congress interested in campaign fund-raising abuses.

58.   That helped allay the fears of some of those worried that the Senate majority leader might head off an extended congressional investigation into campaign fund-raising abuses this year.

59.   The committee is interested in memos authored by Freeh, and by Charles LaBella, a former Justice Department prosecutor who headed the investigation into campaign fund-raising abuses.

60.   The documents obtained Tuesday have been turned over to the Senate Government Affairs committee, which is investigating campaign finance abuses.