Clinton’s RTC Pick Drops Out, Says Capital Is ‘Vicious City’ : S&Ls;: Citing threats and poor handling of his nomination, Stanley Tate says bureaucrats were threatened by him.

WASHINGTON — Stanley Tate, chosen by President Clinton to manage the savings and loan cleanup, bitterly withdrew his nomination Tuesday, calling Washington a “vicious city” in which he had been subjected to anonymous death threats and had encountered entrenched opposition from bureaucrats opposed to any reform.

Tate, a Florida real estate developer and banker, also blamed Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, for refusing to meet with him or hold a confirmation hearing on his nomination to head the Resolution Trust Corp.

Tate had been acting as a consultant to the RTC, now being run by Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman. “I am both saddened and deeply dismayed by the manner in which my nomination was handled,” Tate told a news conference.

Riegle, whose committee is responsible for the confirmation hearings on financial regulators, said in a statement that “several serious questions had arisen with respect to the nomination of Stanley Tate.”

Riegle referred to several Associated Press stories, one noting that Tate had asked RTC officials to give him information about cases involving an acquaintance. Another said Tate reportedly attended an RTC meeting on cancellation of contracts with the former law firm of a Louisiana congressman.

Tate said he gave the Treasury Department a book filled with details of waste and possible fraud at the RTC, the agency handling the disposal of more than $300 billion in assets from failed S&Ls.; He was nominated in July.

Tate said he wanted to distribute the book of RTC waste and fraud at Tuesday’s news conference but was warned against it by high-ranking Treasury officials, who reminded him of a confidentiality agreement he had signed.

Tate said the Treasury officials, whom he refused to identify, warned that public distribution of the book could lead to a nasty political dispute that would damage him and his family.

In a seven-page letter addressed to the President and the American people, Tate wrote: “There are employees working for the RTC who are afraid of me and obviously afraid of what changes to the system I might bring about. These people are really concerned that some of their actions and activities would be revealed.”

Tate said he had received two threatening calls, including one in which the caller reportedly said: “Tell Tate he is dead.” The alleged death threat is being investigated by the FBI.

“Mr. President, Washington is a vicious city, with all kinds of hidden agendas,” Tate said in his open letter. “It is a city full of rumors, allegations and accusations, without much, if any, regard for truthfulness or factuality as to the accusations or allegations.”

A Republican, Tate was selected after a lengthy search for a nominee to run an agency widely criticized for poor management, sloppy record-keeping and erratic policies. Describing himself as a careful businessman who watches the pennies, Tate said RTC officials were indifferent to the wasting of millions of dollars.

Congress recently approved the final installment of $18 billion in federal funds to complete the job of disposing of insolvent thrifts.

Riegle had told other members of his panel that he had no plans to schedule a hearing for Tate, in effect bottling up the nomination.

The White House must now “start the process all over again” to find a head for the agency scheduled to go out of business in 1995, Treasury spokeswoman Joan Logue-Kinder said, adding: “It’s a difficult spot to sell.”