BBC - London - 09/15/98
Senior Democrats have joined the US press and many Republicans in urging him to admit lying to a grand jury when he said he did not have sex with former White House volunteer, Monica Lewinsky.
There are suggestions that if he does so, Congress will agree not to seek his impeachment and will be satisfied with a censure motion.
Opinion polls indicate that the American public would favour this course of action.
Many politicians and newspapers have criticised the president's defence as narrowly legalistic.
His lawyers insist that Mr Clinton did not perjure himself, on the grounds that oral sex does not constitute sexual intercourse.
The Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch told the BBC that "everybody knows" the president had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky and that he should admit this.
Basic standards of truthfulness
This stance has now been backed by the senior Democratic figures from both the Senate and the House of Representatives - Senator Tom Daschle and Congressman Dick Gephardt.
Senator Daschle said, "there is a basic understanding of the standard of truthfulness that the president failed to meet.
"The president and his advisers must accept that continued legal jousting serves no constructive purpose."
Senator Hatch said: "If he [admits perjury] he'll have a good chance of surviving this. If he doesn't do that and keeps splitting legal hairs I think he's going to be hurt pretty bad."
But George Stephanopolous, a former Clinton adviser, believes this could be a trap.
"All these members of Congress say, oh, 'just admit it - admit you committed perjury,'" he said.
"But as soon as he admits that they'll say, 'he's an admitted perjurer, that's a single count of impeachment - we have to go forward.'"
BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar points out any admission could also spark the re-opening of an earlier court case over sexual harassment brought by Paula Jones.
Under legislation approved by the House of Representatives last week, the bulk of the evidence collected by Kenneth Starr should be released by September 28, once material that could harm innocent people is
removed.
Some material could be released before that date, including President Clinton's videotaped testimony to Mr Starr's grand jury.
Further legal battles ahead
Mr Clinton is reported to be planning to bolster his legal defence team, either to negotiate a deal or to tackle possible impeachment hearings.
A senior state department official, George Craig, has been tipped as a possible "ambassador" to Capitol
Hill.
After the weekend's battering, Bill Clinton left behind the furore in Washington over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and flew to New York, a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one.
After a weekend of public contrition over his affair with Ms Lewinsky, Mr Clinton made only one oblique reference to his troubles on Monday. His wife introduced him warmly at a fund-raising event.
Approval ratings still strong
Opinion polls taken over the weekend suggest more than half of Americans believe Mr Clinton deserves some form of censure.
One poll found that - even if all the allegations in the Starr report are presumed true - 63% of those asked think the president should remain in power. A similar number also expressed the view that the
independent prosecutor may have weakened his hand by including too many graphic sexual details in his report.
But the senior Republican Bob Dole, who was Clinton's challenger in 1996 said: "you can't let polls tell you how to proceed." |
