After Much Thought, Bilbray Sides With Impeachment

In the end, after he had read the articles of impeachment, watched President Clinton’s videotaped testimony, engaged in a “frank discussion” with a White House lawyer and perused the writings of Alexander Hamilton, impeachment became a family matter for Rep. Brian P. Bilbray of San Diego--one of the last undecided Republicans.

“I wanted to give the president the benefit of the doubt,” Bilbray said Wednesday at an early morning news conference just before boarding a flight to Washington. “I wanted to be able to tell my children--Patrick, Briana, Scott, Shannon and Kristen--’This is why I think the president did not commit perjury.’ I couldn’t do that.”

With that, the two-term moderate from a mid-city district nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats announced that he will vote in favor of impeachment.

He conceded that his vote for impeachment--and against the apparent majority will of his constituents--could hurt him in the next election. In November, he narrowly beat a Democratic opponent who blasted the GOP for being too fixated on the White House scandal.

“My son told me, ‘Dad, don’t do it [vote for impeachment]. It may cost you the election.’ But I said, ‘Patrick, how would you explain to your children how your dad voted a certain way when he knew it was wrong?’ ” Bilbray said.

The 47-year-old Bilbray even turned to his wife, Karen, to try to understand Clinton’s insistence that he did not commit perjury when he denied having had “sexual relations” with Monica S. Lewinsky.

“I thought maybe it was a cultural thing,” Bilbray said. “I talked to my wife, she’s from the South, to see if somehow what is said in California is different from Louisiana or Arkansas.”

His eyes glistening slightly, Bilbray explained that the decision to vote for impeachment was the third most momentous of his life, behind only his decision to get married and the decision he and his wife made to “turn off the life support on our 3-month-old son.” The couple lost their first child, Brian, to sudden infant death syndrome in 1984. The child was rushed to a hospital and resuscitated but was brain-dead.

Bilbray said he also feels a duty to safeguard the Constitution because his mother is a naturalized American from Australia. “Our system says no one is above the law; there is no king. My mother came from a place that once had a monarch, and we don’t want that here.”

The news conference capped an intense four-day trip to his district in which Bilbray was besieged by constituents and dogged by the local and national press. One reporter offered to go surfing with Bilbray in hopes of getting an exclusive. Bilbray opted to skip two Christmas parades because he felt the media horde would be disruptive.

Phone lines to his office were jammed, with sentiment running 60% to 40% against impeachment. A pro-impeachment group linked to the John Birch Society ran radio ads telling listeners to pressure Bilbray.

On the other end of the political spectrum, Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) appealed repeatedly on radio and television for Bilbray to push for censure rather than impeachment “and spare the country the agony of a trial.” Filner and San Diego Councilwoman Christine Kehoe, who came close to unseating Bilbray in November, sponsored a “stop impeachment” rally.

“If I had my druthers,” Bilbray said Monday as the pressure mounted, “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Kehoe lost no time in criticizing Bilbray for his decision. “I think he’s turned a blind eye to the people in his district. I think he’s caved in to the right wing of his party.”