War Discreetly Rages for House Hearts, Minds

While much of official Washington has struck a pose of dignified detachment toward the impending vote on President Clinton’s future, the Capitol is consumed by an intense--though delicate--power struggle to shape the outcome of next week’s anticipated impeachment debate.

No one wants to call it lobbying, because everyone insists that the decision reached by the 435 House members would be a vote of conscience. But both sides are working hard to make sure their conscience wins.

The White House has mobilized staff, outside lobbyists and other allies to sound out wavering moderate Republicans. House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) is combing his troops for potential defectors. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has canvassed his vast network of deputies for intelligence. And House GOP leaders intend to issue a stern warning to their members not to stray from the party line on crucial procedural votes.

Both sides are working hard to make sure all their members show up for what currently shapes up as a too-close-to-call vote. Democrats are even making special travel arrangements for a member from Northern California recovering from surgery.

But precisely because many fence-sitting lawmakers, in fact, do view the question of impeachment as a vote of conscience, advocates on both sides are being forced to devise more genteel means of persuasion than usually are found on Capitol Hill.

“It is the most unusual and unique issue,” said Michael Lux, political director of People for the American Way, a liberal group quietly working with the White House to fight impeachment. “We are not doing conventional or traditional lobbying. We are encouraging the grass roots to speak their minds.”

Head-Counter DeLay Minimizes Role

Even DeLay, known as a tenacious head-counter, is trying to minimize his current role. “I haven’t counted the votes,” he insisted in an interview on CNBC Thursday night. “I don’t know who’s leading anything.”

For now, Clinton himself is not personally engaged in the campaign to corral support, his aides said. Some advisors fear that anything he did would be counterproductive because lawmakers want to avoid any appearance of having their arms twisted by him.

At the heart of the White House effort is a campaign to encourage undecided House members to meet with Charles F.C. Ruff, the White House counsel, or Gregory B. Craig, Clinton’s special counsel for impeachment matters, to review the facts as presented by the president’s team.

“This is an issue where twisting arms isn’t appropriate but bending ears is,” said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

On Thursday, Susan Brophy, a former White House aide who came back from living in Portugal to help with the ear-bending, called Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego), one of the band of undecided moderate Republicans likely to tip the vote’s balance.

Bilbray, who has been agonizing over how to vote, missed the call because he was touring Washington with his family. To make sure he could get any questions answered over the weekend, Brophy left her pager number.

The White House also has been going after swing votes, lobbying by proxy. One Cabinet member on Wednesday called a corporate leader and asked him to call a handful of moderate Republicans from his home state on behalf of the president, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

People for the American Way has set up a toll-free number that connects callers to their representative in Congress. The group has also established anti-impeachment phone banks in the districts of undecided members, including Bilbray and Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose).

White House aides are coordinating their efforts with House Democrats. Top strategists met Monday in Gephardt’s Capitol suite to identify persuadable Republicans and devise different lobbying strategies. For instance, they asked the mayor of one city to lobby the local congressman while sending home-state House colleagues to talk to others.

Gephardt is closely monitoring his own troops. He has been calling each of the 31 House Democrats who in September voted with Republicans to approve an open-ended impeachment inquiry. According to the Democratic count, only a handful are potential pro-impeachment votes.

Republicans, meanwhile, have moved firmly but diplomatically to stem defections. House Judiciary Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) on Wednesday circulated a letter urging lawmakers to refrain from taking a position until his panel finishes its work on proposed articles of impeachment. He has invited colleagues to call him with questions.

DeLay is walking a fine line between being the party’s most outspoken senior leader in favor of impeachment and seeming not to force fellow Republicans to come his way.

“The message from the members is to be very, very, very hands off,” said DeLay spokesman Michael Scanlon.

But DeLay’s operatives have been actively trying to gather intelligence--through his network of dozens of deputy whips and other sources--without conducting a formal head count.

“We’re keeping an ear to the ground,” said Scanlon. “We are listening, no doubt about it.”

GOP allies outside Congress have not been so hands-off. The Christian Coalition this week delivered more than 250,000 pro-impeachment petitions to House members.

And Republican House leaders may step out early next week, when they are expected to make a pitch to their rank and file about the importance of sticking together on crucial procedural votes. That could effect the outcome of the debate because the only way Democrats may be able to force a vote on censure or some other lesser alternative to impeachment will be through a procedural challenge.

Military Flight for Lawmaker

“Members need to be aware of the critical importance of these procedural votes,” said a senior GOP aide, who suggested that House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston (R-La.), who has been largely silent on impeachment, may weigh in on this point.

Demonstrating the widespread belief that every vote counts on the impeachment issue, Democratic leaders are putting together special plans to transport Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) from California, where he is recovering from hip surgery.

“He’s not allowed to fly sitting up, so he may need a military or private plane,” said Daniel Weiss, Miller’s spokesman. “We expect him to be here. It’s probably the most important vote he’ll ever cast.”

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Times staff writers Faye Fiore and Marc Lacey contributed to this story.

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PARTY MAVERICKS

Some conservative Democrats may not help Clinton. A26

* CHARGE IN DOUBT

Experts say a perjury charge against Clinton is vague. A28