Dems want to limit impeachment inquiry to Monica, because they know there's a lot of there there:
Congress Mulls Impeachment Process
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senior Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee today welcomed a Republican proposal to use
Watergate-style rules to govern an impeachment inquiry of President
Clinton but said he wanted limits on the subjects that will be considered.
''We've been advocating a Watergate model and I support it,'' Rep. John
Conyers, D-Mich., said. ''But the Watergate model had a set of facts
and circumstances that could never validate an open end to a matter of
an affair, of a personal relationship with one person.''
Conyers' comments came as the two sides on the Judiciary Committee
remained unable to agree on the outlines of an impeachment inquiry,
which GOP leaders hope to bring to the House floor for a vote in the
next few weeks.
Republicans are pushing to give the Judiciary Committee authority to
expand its investigation beyond the Monica Lewinsky affair to other
questions of conduct surrounding Clinton.
While the two sides disagreed on whether the inquiry should be open-
ended, Democrats appeared willing to accept many of the other technical
rules used during the Watergate impeachment inquiry, such as how
witnesses could be subpoenaed.
One Democratic committee source, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the Democrats would accept a Watergate model in which either
Conyers, as the ranking Democrat, or Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill.,
could summon witnesses on their own if both agree. If one objected, the
issue of a subpoena would be put up to a vote before the full committee.
The White House said today that Republicans were making an ''utterly
ridiculous'' attempt to model the impeachment proceedings after the
House investigation of Richard Nixon a quarter-century ago.
''The notion that there is any parallel is laughable,'' presidential
spokesman Mike McCurry said. ''Look at the sorry and wrong list of
crimes committed, Constitution subverted, that was Watergate. Come
on. That is just nonsense.''
The White House attack came as details began emerging about
soon-to-be-released testimony on Clinton's affair with Lewinsky,
including transcripts of secret grand jury testimony from high-level
Clinton aides and taped conversations between the former intern and
Linda Tripp.
In one instance, White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal says he raised
a question about Ms. Lewinsky with Hillary Rodham Clinton and was
told not to worry, that the president was ''ministering to a troubled young
person.''
McCurry, in a briefing with reporters, accused Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, a member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, of
changing his tune dramatically about what constitutes an impeachable
offense. Lott said Tuesday that even ''bad conduct'' could warrant
impeachment.
Accusing Lott of a double standard, McCurry said, ''In 1974, Trent Lott
signed a minority report for the committee that was quite clear. It was
the kinds of crimes that subvert the Constitution and damage the country.
And the question before the House is: Does the president's conduct in
this instance rise to that level. And we argue strenuously that it does
not.''
Lott's spokesman, John Czwartacki, responded that ''Lott has not only
withheld final judgment on this matter but has been very careful to
review all the documents and materials to maintain his consistency.''
The 1974 minority report said the framers of the Constitution ''intended
that the president should be removable by the legislative branch only for
serious misconduct dangerous to the system of government ... .''
McCurry said the Judiciary Committee's proceedings, run by Chairman
Henry Hyde, R-Ill., lack the focus and discipline of the 1974
proceedings. ''They're just kind of running around,'' McCurry said.
''They want to bring back (Rep.) Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and (Sen.) Al
D'Amato (R-N.Y.) for a reprise of their greatest hits of the last several
years.'' The two lawmakers led investigations of the Clinton
administration.
The grand jury testimony soon to be released includes testimony by
Secret Service agents, Clinton friend Vernon Jordan and White House
secretary Betty Currie, according to sources.
Officials familiar with the material, speaking on condition of anonymity,
described some of it:
--Former Clinton adviser Dick Morris testified that presidential allies had
mounted a ''secret police operation to go around and intimidate women''
who may have been involved with the president. But in an interview
Tuesday, Morris said his testimony was based on no firsthand
information and was a supposition based on his reading of affidavits and
published accounts. ''I had no personal knowledge of the operation,''
Morris said.
--Mrs. Tripp's taped telephone conversations with Ms. Lewinsky depict
a mentoring relationship that changed once Mrs. Tripp was secretly
wearing an FBI recording device. At one point on a recording, Ms.
Lewinsky says, ''I wouldn't cross these people for fear of my life.''
--Clinton's personal secretary, Betty Currie, by her third appearance
before the grand jury, was taking notes in the grand jury room and was
reminded that those notes could be subpoenaed.
The White House objected strongly to Tuesday's leaks. ''The
unprecedented wholesale release of secret grand jury testimony is
clearly motivated by a partisan determination to damage the president,''
White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said.
The material is among thousands of pages of supporting documents that
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr submitted to Congress along with his
report on possible impeachable offenses committed by Clinton. The
material could be key to any congressional inquiry of Clinton since they
apply to questions of possible witness tampering and obstruction of
justice -- charges that many lawmakers of both parties have said would
amount to impeachable offenses.
Defining the standard for impeachment and establishing the House
Judiciary Committee's authority has become a hurdle for the highly
polarized panel as it prepares to release the testimony this week and vote
next week on whether to open a full-blown inquiry into Clinton's actions
in the Lewinsky matter.
nytimes.com
Amazing. The Dems say there is nothing to Clinton's other crimes, so why are they so afraid to see them aired?
|
