Rats are preparing to jump the ship of fools:
Gephardt Says Clinton
Could Be Impeached
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 26, 1998; Page A1
SCRANTON, Pa., Aug. 25 - House Minority
Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), repeating
his criticism of President Clinton for his behavior
in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal, refused
today to rule out the possibility of impeachment
if the facts warrant such action.
Impeaching the president - and effectively
overriding the election of 1996 - should not be
taken lightly, Gephardt cautioned. Still, "that
doesn't mean it can't be done or shouldn't be
done; you just better be sure you do it the right
way."
Gephardt said if Clinton were to leave office,
"we'll get through this."
In a series of campaign appearances and press
interviews, the top Democrat in the House sent a not-too-subtle signal to the
White House he cannot be counted on to blindly back the president.
"If Congress decides to go forward with an impeachment process we will
be involved in perhaps the most important task the Congress will ever have,"
he said during a stop here. "We have to, under the Constitution, carefully
examine the facts and then make a judgment on whether or not he should
be expelled from office."
Gephardt spent Monday talking with House Democrats about their concerns
over fallout from the scandal. Clinton's fate increasingly depends on the
willingness of congressional Democrats to support him. Administration aides
had urged Democratic allies to declare the Lewinsky saga over after
Clinton's speech to the nation in which he acknowledged having an
inappropriate relationship with the intern. But very few congressional
Democrats have done so in the week following the speech, and many have
been openly critical of the president for the relationship and his handling of
it.
According to congressional aides, the House members who spoke to
Gephardt Monday said they were "upset, disappointed, angry" with Clinton's
speech and were "not willing to say this is over." Several told the
Democratic leader that it was a problem for the party that Clinton had not
cleared the air and been "more definitive" in his explanation. Many said,
according to aides, that they "don't know what else to do except wait for the
[independent counsel's] report."
In an interview this afternoon aboard his plane, Gephardt talked of the
uncertainty ahead. "There's going to be a lot more said and written about it
before we're done," he said, noting the media scrutiny of Clinton was
"legitimate."
Gephardt said he has not spoken to Clinton since the president's speech.
The two men have never been close and signs of tension were evident as
the House Democratic leader took pains to make clear his disapproval of
Clinton's behavior. "I'm very disappointed in what he did," Gephardt said,
echoing comments he made immediately following Clinton's speech. "There
is no way to condone his behavior - the whole totality of what happened in
the White House and what he said about it afterward."
Earlier in the day, Gephardt told radio station WARM in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,
"It was wrong and it was reprehensible."
Although Gephardt stressed he will wait for independent counsel Kenneth
W. Starr's report before making any specific judgments, his remarks were
particularly ominous because he was the one mentioning words such as
impeachment, expel and Watergate.
"I'm a prospective grand juror," Gephardt said in the interview. "We need to
do this right. It needs to be nonpartisan. It needs to be objective. It needs to
be careful. It needs to be rational. I think this is a big test for Congress,
whether we can do this right. If this becomes a partisan street fight the
American people are really going to be turned off."
Asked if people can trust the president, he replied: "Clearly that's an issue
that has to be dealt with and I think the president will deal with it."
Gephardt, a prospective presidential candidate in 2000, is on a three-day
campaign swing intended to trumpet some of the party's most promising
House candidates. Instead, he and the candidates he stumped with spent
much of the day fielding questions about the scandal engulfing Clinton.
During a visit to the home of former Pennsylvania governor Robert P.
Casey, whose son is running for an open House seat, all three men were
peppered with questions on how the Clinton scandal might play out this fall.
"What he did was wrong," said the young Pat Casey. "We can't dismiss
that." On the question of impeachment, he said: "I'm not going to speculate."
Gephardt, on the other hand, made clear his priority: "I want to keep the
trust and faith and confidence of the American people."
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