Democrats in House Seeking Limited Inquiry

House Democrats revealed plans Thursday designed to cut their losses on an impeachment inquiry of President Clinton by imposing a deadline on the review and restricting its focus to Clinton’s involvement with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

The Democrats also discussed whether Clinton should be censured by the House as a compromise for ending any lengthy impeachment process that Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said could become a “never-ending fishing expedition.”

“This prospect could mire the country into a protracted and partisan inquiry which could last for years and drag down the country,” Conyers warned.

The Democrats, realizing that they do not have the votes to stop the Republican-dominated House from opening a formal impeachment inquiry next week, now are seeking to establish political cover for their likely votes against the GOP-sponsored motion for a full-blown impeachment inquiry.

Their own alternatives, which have little chance of passage in the Judiciary Committee on Monday or the full House next Friday, also give Democrats a chance to suggest that the Republicans’ insistence on a lengthy impeachment process is unreasonable given that national polls show the public wants the process over quickly.

Starr’s report to Congress cited 11 grounds for an impeachment of Clinton: five counts of perjury, five counts of obstruction of justice and one count of abuse of power.

Issue Not Partisan, Gingrich Says

Republicans remain deeply committed to pushing ahead.

In Kettering, Ohio, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) insisted that the impeachment of a president is not an issue that should be decided along party lines.

“It has to be approached not as Republicans, not as Democrats, not as liberals and not as conservatives,” Gingrich said. “It has to be approached as a constitutional issue, which is a matter of conscience. It has to be approached as Americans.”

And Sam Stratman, spokesman for Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), who chairs the Judiciary panel, predicted that Republicans will never buy into the Democratic alternatives.

“If the House approves an inquiry, Chairman Hyde intends to move expeditiously and will avoid fishing expeditions by the committee,” Stratman said.

House Democrats, led by Conyers and Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, will formally unveil their alternatives this morning--about the same time a new batch of documents from independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation is being released.

They said Thursday that their plan includes asking for a timetable that goes no further than four to six weeks. “We’re talking about a reasonable amount of time,” Conyers said.

Democrats also want a mandate that keeps the investigation focused on the Lewinsky scandal and not other investigations into Clinton’s activities, such as the Whitewater real estate deal.

“I am pleased by the Republican program for Watergate-like rules as we move into the inquiry,” Conyers said of Hyde’s proposal to give the White House a role in any hearings.

But Conyers, who also sat on the Judiciary Committee that investigated President Nixon in 1974, said that the Clinton-Lewinsky controversy is nowhere near as complicated as Watergate and does not require an open-ended investigation with extraneous evidence.

“This is not an investigation of wholesale subversion of government,” he said.

Democrats also see censure as a quick fix for getting the nation beyond the Clinton-Lewinsky matter, even though Republicans have maintained that it is far too early to begin discussing any kind of final punishment for the president.

Republican members of the Judiciary Committee charged that the Democrats were switching signals on what procedures they want as part of a partisan effort to discredit the process.

They said that complaints about GOP procedures run counter to Democrats’ past demands that the committee follow the Watergate model to ensure fair handling of the case.

“There’s a moving target here,” said Rep. Charles T. Canady (R-Fla.). “I have a growing suspicion that no matter what we do . . . they will criticize us.”

“There is a tremendous amount of doublespeak,” said Rep. Stephen E. Buyer (R-Ind.). “It’s a diversionary tactic to confuse.”

The Republican members argued against any kind of limit on the time or scope of the inquiry. “We must follow the truth wherever it may lead,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

Much of the partisan sniping carried over to the Senate on Thursday, where Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said that the Republicans’ proposal for a broad investigation is an indication that they are trying to get maximum political advantage with an extended review.

“What they’re saying is that the sky is the limit,” Daschle complained. “They’ll do anything and everything to extend this out to the year 2000. I’m sure that Speaker Gingrich would love to see this matter closed the day before the Democratic Convention in the year 2000. That’s his goal.”

But Canady disputed Daschle’s claim. “This should not be allowed to drag on month after month. My goal is to conclude our work by the end of the year.”

A party-line vote is expected Monday in the Judiciary Committee, whose Democrats are from safe seats and pro-Clinton constituencies.

But when the measure gets to the full House, where as many as 50 or 60 Democrats face tough reelection campaigns, it could be much tougher to hold the party in line for Clinton.

That is why Democratic leaders hope to draft alternatives and give defecting Democrats a political cushion in voting against the Republican inquiry.

“It’ll be helpful. It’ll keep our people together,” said House Minority Whip David E. Bonior (D-Mich.).

Vote Is Not Seen as Simple Choice

What Democrats are trying to do is derail the notion that the vote is a simple choice between going forward with an inquiry or not.

“It’s a false choice,” said a party strategist. “The real question for us is, are there ways to make it more fair and more expeditious?”

At the White House, outgoing spokesman Mike McCurry said that the Clinton administration does not expect all House Democrats to rally around the president.

“We will not get everybody,” he conceded. “We don’t pretend that we will.”

The new documents from the Starr report to be released today reportedly include transcripts of Linda Tripp’s secret tapes of her telephone conversations with Lewinsky, as well as grand jury testimony from Tripp, Clinton friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr., presidential secretary Betty Currie and others.

Times staff writer Marc Lacey contributed to this story.

The full text of the Starr investigation documents released by the House Judiciary Committee will be available today on the The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/scandal