Southland Seems to Favor TV Soaps Over the One in the House

If Watergate once transfixed America, many Southern Californians ignored or went out of their way not to watch the House debate on impeachment Friday, reacting with disgust and anger that something they thought should have ended months ago was still the Capitol’s central focus.

As holiday shopping collided with the U.S. bombing of Iraq, the spectacle of a U.S. Capitol still obsessed with sex, lies and Linda Tripp’s tapes seemed to put Southern Californians not just outside the Beltway, but across the Great Divide.

From Santa Monica to East Los Angeles, television sets at many crowded stores were tuned to the Martha Stewart show, the latest Batman movie, football, soap operas, even Iraq--anything but the impeachment debate.

To some, the admissions that Republican House leaders--most recently Speaker-elect Bob Livingston--had been unfaithful to their wives gave the event a farcical touch. The majority, like other Americans polled this week, said they opposed impeachment. Calls to the office of a San Diego Republican congressman, Brian P. Bilbray, ran 60-40 against it. Even those who said they want President Clinton out still seemed irritated that the House had not wrapped up the matter.

“Let’s do what we’re going to do and get it over with,” said impeachment proponent Angella Janis, 35, as she lugged her 2-year-old, Robert, through a crowded mall in the predominantly whi1952787488generally Republican community of Calabasas. She was, she said, trying to avoid television and radio coverage of the event.

Minds Made Up Months Ago

At Carson Senior High School, some students and teachers listened to the radio, but “I got so mad and bored with it, I just turned it off,” said Principal Anne Schwab, who opposes impeachment. “I know he lied, and I know that’s wrong. But to me, it’s such a human frailty thing, not high crimes and treason.”

World history teacher Tricia Churchill agreed that “the whole thing has gotten out of hand. I’d like to impeach Congress.”

Most people seemed to have made up their minds about the affair months ago, giving the debate an anti-climactic feel, an event more likely to polarize opinions than change them.

“Guys mess around on their wives,” said John Cruz, a house painter, as he ate a chili burger at Tommy’s hamburger stand in the Rampart district. “Guys who talk about it are creeps. I don’t care about this crap. I voted for Clinton, and I work all the time now. I’m buying a new truck.”

“I’ll tell you one thing, though,” said Cruz, whose rolled-up sleeves revealed a Marine Corps tattoo on his biceps. “My sister’s kid is in the Marines. If something happens to him, we aren’t to forget that.”

Raul Acebedo, 59, of Montebello, barely glanced at the mall television set as he complained that he was “sick of what’s going on” in Washington. He said censure would be “fine,” but impeachment is “too much.”

Some schools tried to turn the event into a civics lesson.

Jacqui Heiland, a history teacher at Garfield Senior High School in East Los Angeles, said her students had compared the current crisis with the Watergate scandal and the McCarthy era.

“The general feeling of the kids is, it’s a big bunch of baloney,” Heiland said. “I just haven’t heard any kids say that they think what he [Clinton] did is worth impeachment.”

Many Critical of Partisan Politics

The perception that partisan politics were driving the affair was endemic.

“He lied under oath. OK. But it is turning into a big ugly witch hunt,” said Anne Catherine Winant, a USC freshman from Los Altos, Calif., majoring in broadcast journalism. “It’s all because Congress has all these other issues with him and they are using this as an excuse just to get him out of office.”

Even many of those who believed Clinton’s actions legally justify impeachment worried aloud about U.S. stability.

“Legally, they are doing the right thing. But they have to question if it’s the best thing for the country. I don’t think so,” said Chrysta Wilson, a USC freshman majoring in public policy from Danville, Calif.

“I think he’s guilty, but the process has been politicized,” said Tom West, 48, of Sherman Oaks. “There’s a lot of vengeance from the Republicans because of Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal. It’s taking too much of Congress’ time. I’m concerned about what the process is doing to Congress and the American people.”

Few Listeners at Ladera Heights Cafe

Few listened or looked up as the televised debate droned on in the background at Jordan’s Cafe in the middle-class community of Ladera Heights.

“We’re spending millions of dollars on this mess,” said Nathaniel Sullivan, 52, a sales representative from Baldwin Vista. “What difference is there between what the president did and what the new speaker did?”

His wife, Annette, her eyes brimming with tears, said she believed “some right-wing Republicans are out to get the president at all costs.”

Opinions were divided at South Coast Plaza shopping center in more conservative Orange County.

“The public doesn’t understand that it’s not just about trying to oust the president. He lied under oath and something should be done about it,” said Costa Mesa resident Ted Nehrenberg, 68, who favors impeachment.

Democrat Carole Hansen, 59, disagreed.

“The Democrats got Nixon. Now the Republicans are going after Clinton,” Hansen said.

Too Busy to Worry in San Diego

But in San Diego, which also has a conservative reputation, many Christmas shoppers at Horton Plaza said they were too busy to worry about moment-by-moment developments in the impeachment process and had not bothered to watch the proceedings on television.

“I know it’s happening but I don’t really plug into it on a daily basis,” said Leland Spar, 43, a business consultant. “I don’t want him kicked out, but if he is, I’ll deal with it. I think most people are like that.”

Though most interviewed in Los Angeles seemed to oppose impeachment, they were anything but united.

Sam Wolfson, a 71-year-old self-described “staunch Republican” from Agoura Hills, said “I don’t think censure would do anything to this guy. He’s an inveterate liar. They need to throw that bum out.”

But to Topanga Canyon resident Abbas Daneshvari, “the Republican Party has become this party of angry old men.”

“Livingston violated the oath to his own wife,” he said. “So did Henry Hyde and Dan Burton. These oaths are as important to me as the oath Clinton violated, and for these morally bankrupt men to pass judgment sickens me.”

Robert Kimball, 54, the owner of two Chinese herbal stores in Beverly Hills, worried that, in the Geraldo era, American political culture has moved away from issues toward empty scandal--with frightening implications.

“It’s the Puritanical self-righteousness that angers me,” he said. “That the presidency could fall on Paula Jones just boggles the mind. No one cared about Livingston’s private life until now.”

“We’ll survive this,” he said. “The country runs pretty well without Washington.”

Times staff writers Art Marroquin, Miguel Bustillo, Nick Anderson, Tony Perry, Tina Nguyen and Agnes Diggs contributed to this story.