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

To: one_less who wrote (32949)	2/9/1999 1:39:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Opposition Seems to Bar Open Session nytimes.com You may or may not find this interesting in your quest for honesty in politics, brees. But Republicans were far from unified in their views on the deliberations. One of the most vocal and persistent advocates for opening the discussion was a Republican, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who maintained that the trial was simply too important to be concluded in secrecy. "This is historic," Mrs. Hutchison said today after leaving a two-hour Republican caucus devoted almost entirely to a discussion of the issue. "I cannot imagine that we would impeach or not impeach the President of the United States in a closed session." Some Republicans are concerned that open deliberations will assure that each senator takes the maximum time allotted for remarks. Mrs. Hutchison said that she had tried to allay those fears by suggesting that the limit be reduced to 5 or 10 minutes from 15. But she said that, according to her arithmetic, she still had just 60 supporters among Democrats and Republicans. Because opening the debate would require suspending Senate rules, a two-thirds majority, or 67 senators, would have to vote for it. "I think it's going to be a high hurdle," Mrs. Hutchison said. Twice in the impeachment trial senators have moved to open internal debates that were supposed to be closed, and twice they have failed, with most Republicans favoring closed sessions and most Democrats favoring open ones. Several Republicans said today that it was partly because those closed sessions were so productive -- and so free of the posturing and preening that occur when reporters and television cameras are in attendance -- that they did not want to open this final phase. They also noted that opening it would violate tradition and create a precedent. "What I want to do is maintain the sanctity of the interplay and the discussion," said Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho. But Democrats and some Republicans like Mrs. Hutchison said that most, if not all, senators know how they are going to vote, so the remarks they make are less important for one another than for the public.