Both Sides Urge Clinton to Tell All on Lewinsky

Reflecting a growing sentiment in both political parties, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday that if President Clinton did have an intimate relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, he could avoid impeachment if he candidly acknowledged the facts.

Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of Utah said he believes Clinton could retract his repeated denials of intimacy with former White House intern Lewinsky and still survive in office, provided there is no evidence of larger transgressions such as perjury or obstruction of justice.

“If he comes forth and tells it and does it in the right way and there aren’t a lot of other factors to cause the Congress to say this man is unfit for the presidency and should be impeached, then I think the president would have a reasonable chance of getting through this,” Hatch said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

Leon E. Panetta, Clinton’s former chief of staff, agreed, declaring that a full disclosure of the president’s relationship with the 25-year-old woman might result in admonishment from Congress but not an impeachment resolution.

“This issue is going to dominate his presidency if he doesn’t resolve it quickly,” Panetta warned on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Such comments reflected a growing belief in Washington that Clinton, who has denied having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky in public statements and in a sworn deposition, may not be able to sustain that position when he gives testimony to a grand jury on Aug. 17.

Lewinsky, who also had denied having sex with the president but last week received immunity from prosecution, is understood to be prepared to testify that she was intimate with Clinton, and independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has gathered circumstantial evidence meant to support her claim.

If DNA tests now underway on a dress Lewinsky has given to prosecutors show semen stains matching the president’s genetic profile, as she has suggested in the past, Starr would have direct physical evidence as well.

The president has agreed to provide voluntary testimony via a live videotape feed to the grand jury. If he repeats his blanket denial then, he might lay himself open to a clear-cut perjury charge, analysts say.

As a result, Hatch and others are suggesting the president could avoid impeachment--though not great embarrassment and further political damage--if he presented a mea culpa, perhaps acknowledging he had sex with Lewinsky but denied it in an attempt to shield his family.

“I hope the president has told the truth. If he has, then that’s going to be his greatest defense,” Hatch said. “If he hasn’t told the truth, then he really needs to come forth and tell it.

“We’re a very forgiving people. Our people out there, they want the president to finish” his term, he said.

Some Democrats expressed similar thoughts, although they were not unanimous.

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George Stephanopoulos, one of Clinton’s top aides during his first term in office, said it is “unlikely” the president will continue to deny he had a sexual relationship with the former White House intern. “There’s a lot of evidence out there,” Stephanopoulos said on ABC-TV’s “This Week.”

With Hatch heading the Senate panel that would accept any articles of impeachment voted by the House, the former Democratic chairman of the committee, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, echoed the sentiment that Clinton should ask for forgiveness if he has not told the truth to date.

“I would make peace with my wife, and I’d stand up and say ‘Here’s the deal,’ ” Biden said in a Time magazine interview. “Even though it might make Starr’s case, no Congress would ever impeach him.”

Hatch said an FBI test revealing semen stains from the president would be “very critical” to the investigation. There was no further word Sunday on results of the tests.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of Clinton’s staunchest defenders, was asked on the CBS News show if the president should furnish a blood or saliva sample to Starr.

“I’m inclined to think there are times when the president might have volunteered to give Mr. Starr a saliva sample,” Frank said with a grin, referring to long-standing animosity between the White House and Starr.

“But I would have to look at the particular circumstances. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we are here talking about an allegation of a private sex act between consenting adults, if in fact it happened.”

Both Frank and Lanny J. Davis, a former White House lawyer who is still an informal advisor to Clinton, said the press and public should not jump to the conclusion that the president has been lying.

“Let’s wait for the facts to come out before we come to conclusions about mea culpas or apologies when, so far as I know, he’s told the truth,” Davis said on NBC.

Legal experts contend that whereas an apology might not save an ordinary citizen from being prosecuted for lying under oath, the president’s situation is far different--assuming he lied in denying a sexual relationship with Lewinsky in his sworn statement to lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones.

Because an incumbent president cannot be criminally charged in a court proceeding, any evidence of past lying under oath would be referred by Starr to Congress and would be judged largely in the court of public opinion, where his job ratings are still high.

Hatch said such a report could be sent to Congress by late September, but congressional sources said there might be too little time for Congress to conduct its own inquiry before the November elections.

Some lawyers sympathetic to the president are arguing his wisest course might be to acknowledge he perjured himself in the Jones civil case--if he did--and ask for the public’s understanding, rather than aggravate matters by repeating such perjury before a grand jury.

“He’s got a date--Aug. 17. If he’s going to change his story, he’d better do it then. If he doesn’t, he is in serious trouble,” said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on NBC.

“It may become a choice between choosing between his legacy and his presidency, but he’ll have to make the choice then. After the 17th, there’ll be no excuses. He speaks truthfully or he does not. And if he does not, his presidency could be in danger.”

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Far from the political heat in Washington, Clinton joined the super rich and celebrities from the world of fashion and entertainment for a weekend fund-raising spree in East Hampton, N.Y., that netted almost $2 million for the Democratic Party. Clinton and his wife, Hillary, were house guests of movie director Steven Spielberg and his actress wife, Kate Capshaw. Among the events were a $25,000-a-couple fund-raiser Friday at the home of millionaire financier Bruce Wasserstein, a gathering with New York conductor Jonathan Sheffer that carried a $5,000 entrance fee and a raucous reception hosted by actress Kim Basinger and her actor husband, Alec Baldwin, that featured Hootie & the Blowfish.

The Clintons returned to Washington on Sunday after strolling down East Hampton’s main street greeting vacationers.

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Reuters news service contributed to this story.