Senators Start to Air Negotiating Stances, as Does White House

The White House and leading Democratic and Republican senators began publicly staking out negotiating positions Monday that could determine whether the impeachment of President Clinton will end in a compromise punishment or a long, bitter and politically destructive legal war.

At a time when it usually might be winding down for the Christmas holiday, the nation’s capital was awash Monday in rumor, political spin and behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

Vice President Al Gore called for the Senate to be “the voice of reason” and encouraged the search for a bipartisan compromise. White House lawyers--operating on a separate track--began building their defense against the two articles of impeachment charging Clinton with lying under oath and obstructing justice.

‘People Are Sick and Tired’

Anxious senators grappled on the nation’s airwaves over how to handle the contentious issue, which until the House voted Saturday had been an abstraction on their side of the Capitol. And they expressed a desire to be rid of it quickly.

“People are sick and tired,” said Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.). “They want us to get it over with.”

So does the White House. But it faces a particularly treacherous course:

It cannot appear to pressure the Senate, always sensitive to maintaining its prerogatives and the constitutional distance between the executive and legislative branches. But the administration is achingly anxious to avoid a trial. It wants to build as tight a legal defense of the president as possible, while heeding senators’ advice not to appear overly litigious.

“We’re preparing, leaving no stone unturned, for a tough battle. But that isn’t our preference,” a senior White House official said.

The president’s political aides worked to develop a course that would place him in as many public settings as possible in the coming month, portraying him as highly focused on the policy side of his job.

They said that he would make an unusual trip Wednesday, just two days before Christmas, to draw attention to a grant program promoted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Baltimore. Other policy-related events are contemplated for next week before Clinton embarks on an abbreviated New Year’s holiday in South Carolina.

On Monday, the president visited a soup kitchen in a downtrodden quarter of the District of Columbia and then traveled across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery for a memorial service for the 270 victims of Pan American Airlines Flight 103, on the 10th anniversary of its bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Last year, officials said, they found little competition for the public’s attention in January before the unveiling of the federal budget and the president’s State of the Union address at the end of the month. During the same period this year, presidential aides hope, Clinton will be able to leave a strong public impression of a president working attentively on policy issues.

Approval Ratings Reach 70%-Range

The president is starting from a high plateau. Public opinion polls suggest little room for his standing to climb higher, despite impeachment. His approval rating reached into the 70%-range over the weekend and two-thirds of those polled said that he should not resign.

But Clinton emerged from the congressional elections in November with stunning demonstrations of public support and still could not fend off impeachment. His advisors, therefore, are wary of banking too heavily on popular support--or promises of fairness, bipartisanship and a speedy resolution--as a Senate trial looms.

“The president’s lawyers . . . are looking at a whole series of legal and constitutional issues,” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said, making clear that preparations are moving forward for a vigorous defense, if necessary.

There appeared to be general agreement among senators that Clinton’s fate should be resolved quickly. And the idea that the White House would be making a serious mistake if it engages in an overly litigious defense found wide support.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned the White House that it would be “very unwise” to launch a long legal procedure to try to spare the president. Also warning against a settlement based on “legalese,” Breaux said: “Anything that is perceived as parliamentary maneuvering to get out of this is not going to be accepted by the American public.”

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) discussed the case by telephone with Democratic senators. And a Democratic leadership aide said:

“It appears that the process will have to start, but hopefully it won’t have to get much beyond that. We want to proceed in a nonpartisan, expeditious manner. What course we take, however, depends on the other side.”

One possible course around which some support coalesced would have a trial get underway in the Senate, with presentation of the case against Clinton and an outline of his defense.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), a stickler for Senate procedures, expressed no interest in the White House brokering a deal with the Senate to avoid a trial. But he did not oppose a deal initiated in the Senate.

“Whether there is a trial or whether there is some other solution, that decision must be made by senators and it must be bipartisan or it will have absolutely no credibility with the public,” he said.

Suggesting that it is time to step back, Byrd said: “After the politically partisan sideshows we have just witnessed, I think the best thing for now is for all of us, including the media, to go home, take the telephone off the hook, stop speculating and focus instead on the true spirit and meaning of this holy season of Christmas.”

In the House, Judiciary Committee staff members planned to work through the holidays preparing the case that they will present at a Senate trial.

An essay that appeared Monday on the opinion page of the New York Times by former Presidents Ford and Carter caused a stir with the suggestion that the Senate pass a bipartisan resolution of censure, under which Clinton would acknowledge wrongdoing and accept rebuke. At the same time, the resolution would stipulate that a public acknowledgment by the president that he did not tell the truth under oath could not be used against him in “any future criminal trial to which he may be subject.”

Democratic sources said that Gore had spoken with Carter last week to encourage him to get involved in resolving the matter.

Lockhart was cool to the proposal by the two former presidents, neither dismissing it nor embracing it. Others familiar with Clinton’s thinking referred to his insistence that, although his statements to the grand jury investigating his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky may have been misleading, they were not lies.

In another development, four Republicans who voted to impeach Clinton said Monday that the Senate should consider censure of the president as an alternative to a lengthy trial.

“We are not convinced and do not want our votes interpreted to mean that we view removal from office as the only reasonable conclusion of this case,” wrote Reps. Sherwood L. Boehlert of New York, Michael N. Castle of Delaware, Benjamin A. Gilman of New York and James C. Greenwood of Pennsylvania.

JACKSON WEIGHS IN: The Rev. Jesse Jackson urges Clinton to remain in office. B3