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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dougjn who wrote (7126)	10/4/1998 4:32:00 PM
From: Who, me?	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

Quick! Put on C-Span! They're replaying Perot from this morning!!! newsday.com Hyde Says Clinton Probe Might Widen By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- On the eve of House Judiciary hearings into possible impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, chairman Henry Hyde said Sunday the Senate so far does not have the two-third majority necessary to remove the president from office. Hyde also said he hopes to finish his impeachment inquiry by year's end but won't accept Democratic demands for limits on the investigation. ''You know how New Year's resolutions sometimes get broken, but it's my hope and prayer that we could finish by New Year's,'' the Illinois Republican said. Hyde's committee meets Monday to take up a GOP resolution recommending an open-ended inquiry into whether Clinton's behavior merits impeachment. The Democrats will offer a separate version that would put a deadline on the inquiry and limit it to the Monica Lewinsky affair, but it is likely to be defeated. On Sunday Hyde again rejected the Democratic demands. He even said he might if necessary be willing to expand the inquiry beyond Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report to Congress on the president's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky when she was a White House intern and later. The Judiciary Committee anticipates no more material from Starr, Hyde said, and ''we are not seeking that. We're not out trolling for additional issues. But if they come to our attention we will deal with them.'' Hyde, who appeared on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' and ''Fox News Sunday,'' added: ''We don't feel bound by Ken Starr.'' Hyde mentioned as possible extensions Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate and Clinton's relationship with former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey and said his committee will look at a report being put out this week by a different House committee on alleged White House campaign fund-raising violations. ''We don't want to shut our eyes or use tunnel vision,'' he said. At the same time, Hyde admitted that if the House votes to impeach, or indict, the president, the 67 votes required in the Senate to remove him from office are not there. ''They won't do that until the American people move, and they have to move from where they apparently are if the polls are true,'' Hyde said. The ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers of Michigan, said on NBC the Democrats want a Thanksgiving deadline on the probe, but he was receptive to Hyde's year-end proposal. ''We may be able to work that out,'' Conyers said. Democrats generally were skeptical the inquiry could end this year so long as Republicans can introduce additional issues damaging to the president. ''If all you do is Lewinsky, you can't make that last more than a couple of months,'' Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a committee member, said on ABC's ''This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts.'' ''What I am afraid we are going to get is an impeachment in search of a high crime.'' House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri indicated he will vote against the GOP inquiry resolution when it gets to the floor this week. ''I don't want to authorize a two-year, open-ended fishing expedition into everything under the sun,'' Gephardt said. Lawmakers generally discounted the proposal former President Ford made Sunday in The New York Times that the Clinton scandal could be ended by having the president appear on the House floor to be publicly rebuked for his behavior. ''You don't want to come up with a punishment that may not be adequate for the action that may have happened,'' Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said on ABC. ''I can't see the president standing in the well taking the arrows of disaffected congressmen,'' Hyde said. Hyde said it is possible that after the House ends its investigation the Senate could move to end the matter by censuring the president. ''Everything is possible,'' he said. ''I wouldn't rule anything out.'' He said Starr would have to be involved in any censure negotiations to deal with the issue of whether Clinton could still be indicted for charges in the Starr report, such as perjury and obstruction of justice, after he leaves office. Conyers said that if impeachment hearings are held, the Democrats might call Starr to testify. ''Kenneth Starr has more explaining to do than any independent counsel in history,'' Conyers said. AP-NY-10-04-98 1436EDT