More Democrats distance themselves from Clinton
September 7, 1998
By Mark Suzman in Washington
Leading Democrats yesterday continued to distance themselves from an embattled President Bill Clinton amid growing indications that his public apology over the Monica Lewinsky scandal was not sufficient to ward off the threat of impeachment hearings.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a respected Democratic senator from New York, warned there could be no final resolution of the matter until Congress had decided whether the report being prepared by Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating Mr Clinton, merited the president's removal from office.
"We have a crisis of the regime," Mr Moynihan said. "What we have before us - and we ought to get on with it - is an impeachment procedure."
His comments came shortly after Parris Glendening, the governor of Maryland and a strong supporter of Mr Clinton in the past, became the first senior Democrat to cancel a scheduled fundraiser with the president for fear it would damage his own re-election chances in November.
Both moves are a blow to the White House, which had hoped Mr Clinton's public expression of remorse at a press briefing in Ireland last Friday would help shore up dwindling support. After Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut senator, last week condemned the president's behaviour as "immoral", Mr Clinton for the first time said he was "very sorry" about his relationship with Ms Lewinsky, a former White House worker.
However, Mr Lieberman said yesterday: "There's no way for us and the president to get back to face the problems of the country - the uncertainty economically, the problems in the world - unless we open up the discussion of the president's misconduct."
He also said he did not believe perjury about a sexual affair was sufficient grounds for impeachment. But in separate interviews, Mr Moynihan and Trent Lott, senate majority leader, disagreed. "It is an impeachable offence," Mr Moynihan said. "It does not follow that the Senate will vote for impeachment, however."
In his report, expected by the end of the month, Mr Starr is almost certain to charge Mr Clinton with perjury for having denied under oath having a sexual relationship with Ms Lewinsky. Mr Starr is also expected to make other charges, including obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury for having allegedly sought to persuade Ms Lewinsky to cover up their affair.
However, Mr Lott said there was little point in speculating about what might constitute grounds for impeachment until Congress had received Mr Starr's report. "Let's see what the report has," he said. "Does it go beyond a single incident . . . into a pattern of misconduct or obstruction or abuse of power?"
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