"No Fair" cries Gephardt, "This was only supposed to be about sex!!"
Roll Call
Sept 24, 1998 Jim VandeHei
Ignoring demands from Democrats to render a final verdict in 30 days, House Republicans are girding for a lengthy, wide-ranging impeachment investigation that may include a close look at allegations of shady land deals and illegal fundraising schemes masterminded by President Clinton.
At a closed-door, bipartisan meeting yesterday, Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) infuriated Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Judiciary ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.) by suggesting the impeachment inquiry may include evidence unearthed by Congressional investigators.
"There were even suggestions that we would go off into other areas [such as] campaign fundraising," Gephardt said about his conversation with Gingrich.
Gingrich pointed specifically to Rep. Christopher Cox's (R-Calif.) investigation into whether the Clinton administration traded military technology for campaign donations and other allegations of illegal fundraising by Clinton, according to sources inside the room.
Gingrich believes Gephardt and Democrats want to rush through the impeachment report from independent counsel Kenneth Starr to dodge a bombshell the Speaker believes will be dropped on Capitol Hill in the next few weeks: another report from Starr, GOP leadership sources said.
Gingrich told a separate closed-door meeting of GOP leaders yesterday afternoon that the Judiciary Committee must be prepared to deal with everything from Whitewater to Filegate to establish a pattern of perjury and obstruction of justice, the sources said. Gingrich said he will not be bullied into wrapping up the Starr report expeditiously and that no decisions will be made on impeachment until witnesses like White House aide Bruce Lindsey are forced to testify before the Judiciary Committee.
Such rhetoric does not sit well with Democrats.
"Our point is Judge Starr has sent one referral after five years," Gephardt said. "That's what we have in front of us under the statute. We do not believe this referral of one matter, which he thinks may contain impeachable offenses, launches a fishing expedition into every possible wrong that's gone on anywhere in the world over the last six years."
If Gingrich and Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) expand the investigation beyond the first Starr report, Democrats may unite to try to sink a resolution initiating a formal impeachment inquiry, according to a senior Democratic leadership source. The resolution is expected to pass the Judiciary Committee in early October and hit the House floor soon thereafter.
Gingrich spokeswoman Christina Martin insisted that the Speaker's remarks reflect his belief that Starr may send another impeachment report to Congress in coming weeks. GOP leadership sources said Gingrich appears quite certain that Starr will send another impeachment report that deals with Whitewater, Filegate and Travelgate.
If Starr does, "It opens the door for Congressional investigators to fire off their evidence to Hyde," a senior Republican leadership source said. Gingrich, Gephardt, Conyers and Hyde plan to meet again tomorrow to discuss the status of the negotiations.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday stepped up his campaign to convince GOP leaders to short-circuit the normal impeachment process and come up with an alternative sanction imposed against Clinton.
"It's in the overwhelming national interest, not in the interest of my party, not the interest of the Republican Party, not in the interest of the President of the United States or any individual, but in the overwhelming interest of our country," Kerry said, for GOP leaders to "streamline the legitimate constitutional process and to avoid a partisan circus."
Kerry has already spoken to Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) about his proposal. But Gingrich was cool to the idea of cutting a deal with Clinton now, saying that it would be putting "the cart before the horse."
In fact, GOP sources said Gingrich wants Congressional investigators to file reports of possible impeachable offenses to Hyde, but not until Starr sends another report on Whitewater and related transgressions.
Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) is writing a final report on his investigation into illegal fundraising by Clinton during the 1996 election cycle and he plans to forward that report to the Judiciary Committee this year. "We do have some information that we think bears upon the whole issue of a possible impeachment inquiry," Burton said last week.
Committee sources said Burton's report will focus extensively on stonewalling by Clinton and his allies as well as misuse of executive privilege claims. One source close to the investigation said the report will not be damaging to the President unless it is used to augment evidence uncovered by the Justice Department and Starr.
Rep. David McIntosh (R-Ind.), who is investigating allegations that the Clinton administration illegally shared confidential information on political donors with the Democratic National Committee, is finalizing his own report, and he may forward his findings to Hyde as well. A committee source said McIntosh has uncovered evidence of "theft of government property" that stretches to the highest levels of the White House.
"We are drafting a report that could include evidence for the Judiciary Committee," the committee source said.
But Gingrich seems most interested in Cox's China investigation, according to leadership sources. Gingrich has told GOP leadership operatives that the China investigation could be part of the impeachment inquiry.
But Cox has refused to discuss details of his top secret investigation and has denied that he has damaging evidence that he plans to hand Hyde.
Spin Cycle
Gingrich and top GOP leaders are growing increasingly nervous that Hyde and committee Republicans are getting pummeled by Democrats in the press. They're happy with Hyde's performance, but they worry that he can't win partisan media brawls when he is so preoccupied with the details of the investigation.
At yesterday's leadership meeting, Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and others raised concerns that Democrats were beating Republicans bloody on the weekend talk shows and that the Judiciary Committee appears ill-prepared to wage war.
"DeLay raised concerns about playing defense. He said we shouldn't being playing defense," said one participant. "We should be telling people what we are doing and why we are doing it."
GOP Conference Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Dunn (Wash.) and others added that Republicans were getting "outspun" and were coming off as too partisan, the sources add.
Gingrich suggested that the leadership could ask another committee Republican to work hand-in-hand with Hyde and handle the spin. Gingrich suggested Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), one source said.
Gingrich is particularly worried that Democrats were able to slam Republicans for releasing Clinton's videotaped testimony despite the fact that two-thirds of House Democrats voted to release all documents and evidence.
At a press conference yesterday, Gingrich punched back, hitting Judiciary Democrats for being out of sync with the Democratic Caucus.
"Remember that the Judiciary Democrats are even apart from the rest of the Democrats," said Gingrich. "I mean, this is the most anti-openness group in the House -- legitimately. And that's their view, and I am not attacking them. I'm just saying if you look at the vote patterns, there is a very dramatic difference."
Setting the Rules
While Gingrich and Gephardt continue to haggle over the direction of the increasingly partisan impeachment investigation, the Judiciary Committee plans to meet this morning to decide how much of the remaining 16 boxes of material will be released publicly.
After spending weeks working on rules for the impeachment inquiry which would hand Hyde unilateral authority to subpoena and depose witnesses, Gingrich yesterday apparently capitulated to Democratic demands and vowed to follow the Watergate precedent.
"Chairman Hyde indicated a very strong commitment to trying to follow [former Judiciary Chairman] Peter Rodino's [D-N.J.] processes and rules in the way in which the Rodino-led Watergate process went forward," Gingrich said. "And I think that there will be an effort to draft proposed rules for an inquiry that clearly will follow the Rodino model from 1973-74."
A senior Rules Committee source said that GOP leaders are leaning toward offering Watergate-style rules as part of resolution that will authorize a formal impeachment inquiry. But he did not rule out a complete meltdown in bipartisan negotiations that would require Rules Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.) to step in and offer tougher rules to give Hyde and Republicans far more power.
In private negotiations, Hyde and his staff have demanded everything from the power to detain uncooperative witnesses to the unilateral authority to pick and choose who will testify and when. Conyers wants equal power to call and depose witnesses, or, at the very least, the authority to demand a vote of the full committee to protest these decisions by Republicans.
At press time, Democrats and Republicans on Judiciary planned to meet to discuss the rules that will govern the impeachment inquiry. But, regardless of what rules they agree upon, Gingrich and Hyde plan to pass a resolution in early October and to begin public hearings shortly after November's elections.
GOP leadership sources said there is no chance that Republicans will set a firm date for completion, and top GOP leaders are hunkering down for a long, partisan battle over Clinton's future.
Democratic Strategy
While some other Democrats had earlier split with Judiciary Democrats over the speedy and complete release of documents, the factions appeared to unite behind Gephardt's call yesterday for a 30-day deadline for House action on impeachment.
"This is where the public is. They want this to be over," said an aide to a senior Democrat.
Emboldened by the public's reaction to Clinton's videotaped testimony and omissions by Starr of exculpatory information in his report, Democrats decided "to try to push the wedge a little further in the cracks" the aide said.
The drumbeat grew for Starr to release not only withheld material related to the Monica Lewinsky investigation, but also any reports related to the other scandals that have plagued the White House.
"Any effort by Mr. Gephardt to try to put a timetable to bring this thing to a close is, I think, productive," said Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif), a conservative who last week led a push to release all of the evidence despite committee Democrats' efforts to hold back some material.
Condit added, "I don't know why anyone, including Republicans, would be opposed to a timetable. I mean this thing has been going on for five years."
Echoing some of the comments by Republicans about the need to look at other pieces of the scandal like Whitewater, Condit said he would go further "to force Mr. Starr to connect the original investigation with the report, so we can proceed and move on."
Condit added, "Mr. Starr says he has additional information. He should get it to us so he can make the connections between the report he submitted. We know what's in that. We want to make the connection between that and the original investigation and any of those that involve Whitewater, Travelgate or anything else. It is time for us to produce. It is time for us to put up or shut up."
Committee Democrats were on board with Gephardt's call for a timetable, according to several sources, but did not know if a 30-day target was reasonable. The upcoming election is also a major wild card.
"The next and only vote before the election in November is on whether to proceed to an impeachment inquiry," said a Democratic leadership aide. "The question everyone is going to have to ask is, is it better to go into the election with a partisan proceeding where we say it is clear what the Republicans are doing? Or do we take the stand with the public, which is saying they are sick of this and want it over?"
Democrats are predicting the time limit strategy may gain momentum next week when the Judiciary Committee dumps another huge amount of documents on the public.
But it is far from certain at this point if the Democrats can carry off a united approach. While the liberal wing, led by the Congressional Black Caucus, has been the vocal vanguard in attacking the process, moderate and conservative Democrats have remained relatively silent.
But whether that silence translates into unity on votes later on is an open question.
"Our Members are playing this day by day and we are simply asking people not to box themselves into a position," said a Democratic leadership aide.
Damon Chappie and John Bresnahan contributed to this report.
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