WASHINGTON -- With Republicans moving in unison, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said yesterday that his panel would vote Oct. 5 or 6 on whether to begin the third presidential impeachment inquiry in U.S. history, with a landmark House vote to follow days later.
House Republicans are proceeding with remarkable speed, two
weeks after receiving independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's report outlining 11 allegations -- including perjury and obstruction of justice -- that could be worthy of impeachment. With the public leaning against impeachment and Democrats resisting him, Rep. Henry J. Hyde, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said the House must "not get sidetracked by attempts to cut deals or cry wolf about partisanship."
"The foundation of our legal system is based on telling the truth," the Illinois Republican declared, dismissing suggestions that perjury might not be a crime serious enough to justify impeachment.
The announcement of a timetable came as Democrats and Republicans bickered over the release of more of Starr's evidence and President Clinton sought support from a key loyal bloc, African-Americans in Congress.
In particular dispute is the release of 27 audiotapes of conversations between Monica Lewinsky and her former friend Linda R. Tripp in which Lewinsky describes a sexual relationship with the president. Those tapes launched the presidential sex scandal after Tripp delivered them to the independent counsel.
Some Republicans fear that the tapes could elicit sympathy for the president by portraying Tripp as a manipulative woman who coaxed Lewinsky into alleging that Clinton urged her to lie and tried to find a job for her to buy her silence. Lewinsky disavowed those accusations in her testimony before the Starr grand jury.
Some Democrats said Republicans were being inconsistent in refusing to release all the Tripp tapes, noting that Republicans had insisted on releasing all of Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony to illustrate the president's demeanor and tone.
"The Republicans want to take all the exculpatory information out" of the tapes, said Rep. Martin T. Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "The president has been railroaded enough without having all the exculpatory information kept from the public."
Hyde countered that the Tripp tapes contained discussions that would unfairly impugn innocent people and were full of irrelevant and salacious details. Republicans are likely to release written transcripts with sections deleted, Hyde said.
Republican timetable
The Judiciary Committee will meet privately today to decide how to release the tapes and thousands of pages of grand jury testimony by Tripp; Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie; his friend and confidant Vernon Jordan; and Secret Service and FBI agents and White House aides.
Those documents will be made public late next week. On Thursday or Friday, committee attorneys will brief panel members on Starr's evidence and set up a historic vote on convening impeachment hearings.
"Like all Americans, I want to bring this matter to closure as soon as possible," Hyde said. "The timetable I have proposed today is the most expeditious schedule we can follow."
Democrats reacted furiously to Hyde's announcement. They said they had not been consulted on the schedule and had been rebuffed on demands for a separate hearing on whether Starr's accusations are impeachable offenses.
Also at issue was Hyde's suggestion that Lewinsky might not be called to testify before an impeachment proceeding because he was inclined to believe her grand jury testimony. Other Republicans hinted that Starr would not be called to testify.
"I'm beginning to think this is going to be a pretty quick hearing," said Rep. Barney Frank, a Judiciary Committee Democrat. "We can't hear from Monica Lewinsky. We can't hear from Ken Starr. They don't want to hear from Bill Clinton. What are we going to do at this hearing, play records?"
Later, Hyde released another statement backing away from his suggestion that Lewinsky would not testify. Hyde said no decisions have been made on how to conduct the hearings.
Partisanship could undermine the case for impeachment by undercutting public support, even as Republicans try to bolster their legal arguments. Democrats appear to be winning the battle for public opinion with their complaints that Republicans are being unfair, that the president is being hounded and that House Speaker Newt Gingrich is orchestrating Clinton's downfall.
Clinton's standing with the public has rebounded since the release of his grand jury testimony, and there are signs of a backlash against the Republican-led Congress, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows.
GOP moderates uneasy
A handful of Republican moderates has expressed unease about proceeding full-tilt toward impeachment, as many conservative colleagues are urging. Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut has said Starr's allegations do not warrant the removal of the president.
"As of now, I don't think there's cause for impeachment," Rep. Peter T. King, a New York Republican, said yesterday. "I don't see it as being a sufficiently high crime."
Rep. Constance A. Morella of Montgomery County, the only Republican member of Maryland's congressional delegation who has not called for Clinton's resignation, has said it is too soon to determine whether the president's alleged offenses are impeachable.
Sensing his advantage, Clinton cultivated his staunchest supporters yesterday, courting African-American members of Congress and inviting the Congressional Black Caucus to set out their legislative priorities anew.
"The purpose of the meeting was to go over our agenda, things we're concerned about and want and need his support on," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat.
The lawmakers pressed Clinton on several issues they hold dear: supporting needle exchange programs to ensure that drug addicts do not spread disease; declaring AIDS among blacks to be a national health emergency; and using computer sampling to aid the census, which they contend has undercounted minorities.
"I thought it was very healthy to have us in like that," said Rep. Albert R. Wynn, a Prince George's County Democrat.
'It's about fairness'
Cummings said he invited Clinton to visit Baltimore, and that the president said he would likely do so in the next few weeks.
"I told him he would still be welcome in my district," Cummings said. "It's not about morality. It's about fairness. If the president can be treated unfairly, what about others?"
Clinton, perhaps emboldened by polls showing his job approval ratings holding steady, pledged to keep his focus on substantive issues of interest to Americans.
"The right thing for me to do is what I'm doing -- I'm working on tTC leading our country and I'm working on healing my family," said the president, appearing more confident than he has in weeks.
After a Rose Garden announcement of Census Bureau statistics on income and poverty, Clinton was asked whether he saw any way to avoid an impeachment inquiry. He did not answer directly but said the nation's political leaders should focus on keeping the budget balanced, saving Social Security, improving schools, cleaning up the environment and passing a patient's bill of rights.
"That's what I am focused on," the president said. "That's the way out. The way out here and the only way out is for people in Washington to do what the folks in America want them to do, which is to take care of their concerns and their children and their future. That's what I mean to do, and I'm going to do my best."
Though they control the impeachment timetable, Republicans remain on the defensive politically. Hyde protested suggestions that Gingrich is orchestrating his committee's actions. "All I know is, every time I give advice to Newt, he nods his head affirmatively," Hyde said.
Hyde said he believes his side of the aisle will be vindicated.
"We are here because circumstances and our Constitution have thrust upon us an onerous duty," he said. "At the end of it all, we are about one mighty task -- to vindicate the rule of law."
Pub Date: 9/25/98