Impeachment inquiry lurching toward a vote (DEC 12 YRS AGO)

AP | Dec 3, 1998 | AP

[cd jones]

Impeachment inquiry lurching toward a vote

AP December 3, 1998 David Espo

Impeachment inquiry lurching toward a vote 1.24 a.m. ET (625 GMT) December 3, 1998 By David Espo, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) To hear Democrats tell it, the House impeachment panel is careening chaotically out of control as it pokes into campaign fund-raising issues in the twilight of an inquiry into President Clinton's conduct. Republicans counter they're doggedly doing their constitutional duty.

Either way, barring an evidentiary bombshell contained in secret Justice Department memos, the House Judiciary Committee will likely debate and vote on GOP-drafted articles of impeachment against Clinton late next week.

That will set the stage for a vote in the full House, probably the following week, in which Republicans try to muster the votes for at least one article of impeachment. Democrats will try to craft an alternative, a formal censure of the president, that can command majority support.

Partisanship is ascendant.

"Chaos is reining'' in the Republican-led impeachment probe, House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt charged on Tuesday, as Republicans forced approval of subpoenas for secret Justice Department memos relating to campaign fund-raising issues.

"Partisanship, not statesmanship appears to be ruling the day in the Judiciary proceedings,'' Gephardt added in a letter sent to Speaker Newt Gingrich.

But Republicans have fumed while two previous investigations into alleged campaign fund-raising abuses ran into implacable White opposition from the White House and Democrats, one in the House and one in the Senate. Their frustration compounded by Attorney General Janet Reno's refusal to turn the issue over to an independent counsel, they resolved to use their authority under an impeachment inquiry to make one final stab at an issue they have been after for two years.

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, responded tartly that Gephardt's real fear "is not the lack of direction, but rather the fact that we are moving in the right direction, getting to the facts.''

Hyde renewed his commitment to wrapping up the issue by year's end, but added, "I won't look away from any substantial and credible allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the president.''

Committee aides were granted access to the memos on Wednesday by a federal judge's order, and officials said FBI Director Louis Freeh and Charles LaBella, formerly head of the Justice Department's campaign finance task force, had been served with subpobenas demanding their testimony.

Gephardt's comments were part of a long-term, well-executed Democratic plan to undermine the GOP-led impeachment inquiry as wholly partisan, and turn the focus away from Clinton's actions. Neither his letter to Gingrich nor his public comments addressed the issue of the memos that Justice Department officials wrote Reno recommending she appoint an independent counsel, or whether impeachment investigators should have access to them.

Nor did Hyde or any other Republican defender address their own weakness the perception that the voters spoke on the issue in November, and they want Clinton to stay in office, and Congress to move onto other matters.

Clinton himself took an opportunity to make that point subtly during the day.

Appearing with Democratic congressional leaders outside the White House during the day, he said he hoped there could be a "season of achievement'' ahead on pressing national issues then ignored questions about whether he would personally appear before the Judiciary Committee to defend himself.

In one way or another, the disparity between the Republican view of the impeachment inquiry and the Democratic view has been present from the outset.

It surfaced in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, in a tempestuous exchange between Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., Clinton's fiercest critic on the Judiciary Committee, and Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor opposed to the president's impeachment.

When Dershowitz said Clinton's behavior did not warrant impeachment, Barr observed that "the real America out there, understands that there ought to be a very high standard for our public officials.''

Dershowitz responded heatedly: First of all, whenever I hear the word "real Americans,'' that sounds to me like a code word for racism a code word for bigotry, a code word ...''

Barr interrupted: "That's absurd, professor, you ought to be ashamed. That is the silliest thing I have ever heard. ...''

Said Dershowitz: "When I hear you describe me as something other than a real American shame on you. We may have a disagreement about the merits of these issues, but I would no more impugn your Americanism than you should impugn mine, sir.''

Barr said Dershowitz was being "absolutely silly.''

[reefdiver]

I just love it when they snap over the term Real Americans.
It worked then and it works now.

They know - they ain’t it.