WHAT A COMEDY!
December 4, 1998
House Republicans Drop Probe
Into Fund-Raising Allegations
By DAVID ROGERS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans narrowed their impeachment inquiry,
dropping alleged campaign-finance abuses and trying to put the focus back on
the Monica Lewinsky affair.
After winning unprecedented access to
confidential Justice Department memos,
Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R.,
Ill.) advised Republicans that the evidence didn't
warrant inclusion in the impeachment
proceedings. As recently as Monday night, the GOP had suggested it might
find allegations of "criminal wrongdoing by the president," and the reversal
ends what has been an embarrassment for the GOP this week.
"Their actions have been chaotic, partisan and irresponsible," White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday night. "We still don't know what the
committee is charging, or for that matter, who is in charge."
Mr. Hyde insisted the panel had pursued the documents at the urging of
unnamed "Justice Department sources" -- something his own lead counsel,
David Schippers, had denied earlier this week. "We are far from satisfied that
existing campaign-finance laws have not been violated," the chairman said, but
that topic will now wait until committee oversight hearings in the new
Congress.
By clearing the decks, the chairman hopes the committee can begin voting on
articles of impeachment late next week. But committee attorneys and the White
House are still waging a battle over ground rules that will govern the remaining
proceedings. Under the current setup, the president's legal team must present
its case on Tuesday, even before Mr. Schippers lays out the case for
impeachment. Moreover, White House lawyers would be barred from taking
notes when they review depositions of recent witnesses or still-secret files
from independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation.
Mr. Starr's report, which is devoted to the Lewinsky affair, charges Mr.
Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice in his efforts to conceal his
relations with the former intern. Mr. Schippers's case is based on the same
allegations, but he has repeatedly tried to expand it by pursuing other instances
when the president might be accused of obstruction of justice.
That was part of the lure of the Justice Department memos dealing with illegal
foreign contributions to the president's 1996 re-election campaign. In the same
vein, Mr. Schippers, a former organized-crime prosecutor, has tried, without
success, to mine allegations that the White House tried to tamper with a
potential witness in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment suit against the
president.
But pursuing such leads cost the committee time and energy that could have
been devoted to calling witnesses in the Lewinsky affair. While virtually all of
the panel's 21 Republicans seem prepared to charge the president with perjury,
some have misgivings about the obstruction charge, given the lack of a hearing
record.
Meanwhile, Mr. Clinton was described as being increasingly anxious about the
proceedings, and as weighing the pros and cons of pushing the matter into the
next Congress, when Democrats will have five more votes in the House.
The strong Republican preference is to resolve the matter this year. But the
incoming speaker, Robert Livingston (R., La.), warned Wednesday that if the
Judiciary Committee "doesn't complete its work next week, it would be pretty
certain that it would have to be carried over." And top advisers to the current
speaker, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R., Ga.), are resisting the idea of calling back
the full House for a lame-duck session for such a historically important vote,
especially since the vote is expected to be very close.
If the GOP were perceived as using a lame-duck session to punish the
president, it could backfire on the party. The fact that members are currently
scattered around the country adds to the uncertainty. But after conference calls
this week, Republicans described an almost visceral desire among many of
their members to strike back at the president for his handling of the Lewinsky
affair.
Mr. Clinton is pressing Democratic leaders who visit the White House on
which defections he should expect in his own party. He is also demanding a
more accurate count of where moderate Republicans will come down on the
issue. There was a flurry of interest Wednesday in a fledgling effort, led by
Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), to craft a GOP censure alternative to
impeachment. But conservatives are using talk shows and phone calls to corral
any perceived defectors from the impeachment ranks.
A case in point is the recent experience of Rep. Billy Tauzin (R., La.), whose
spokesman had told the media that the congressman hadn't closed the door on
censure. The conservative journal Human Events then featured Mr. Tauzin as
part of the "GOP's Pro-Perjury Caucus" in its Nov. 27 edition, copies of which
were faxed to radio talk shows and helped generate thousands of calls to Mr.
Tauzin's office.
"He has absolutely not made up his mind, but the word on the street is that
Tauzin is squishy or soft," said Ken Johnson, the Republican's press secretary.
"This is one of the reasons you're not hearing from a lot of members. If you're
seen as being pro-censure, you get smoked." |
