Clinton Says Vote Is a Matter of Conscience

On the eve of the House vote to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton, the only major question left was how many Democrats would stand by him.

Today’s vote is by far the most politically important of Clinton’s presidency. And while congressional Democrats complained that Republicans have stacked the process against him, the president remained philosophical in public on Wednesday.

“Everybody should cast a vote of principle and conscience,” Clinton said during a picture-taking session with the prime minister of Hungary.

“It’s up to others to decide what happens to me, and, ultimately, it’s going to be up to the American people to make a clear statement there,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore continued their restrained behind-the-scenes lobbying.

Under more normal circumstances, Clinton and White House officials would have been summoning wavering representatives for Oval Office arm-twisting and sending emissaries to the Capitol to sway a crucial vote their way.

But the outcome of this vote--bitter for the president--is a foregone conclusion.

There was little Clinton could do to head off the inquiry that would authorize an open-ended investigation to determine whether he should be impeached for lying about his affair with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky and allegedly attempting to cover it up.

The Republican plan also would authorize the House to consider the impeachment of Clinton for other alleged offenses. Those could include matters that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has been investigating for several years, along with any role Clinton might have played in Democratic Party fund-raising abuses.

Starr May Offer More Evidence

On Wednesday, Starr told leading members of the House Judiciary Committee that he could not “foreclose the possibility” that he would submit to Congress evidence of additional wrongdoing by Clinton.

“I can confirm at this time that matters continue to be under active investigation and review,” he said in a letter.

Clinton and his allies were trying to keep Democrats from voting for the resolution so they could portray the decision largely as a partisan matter in which the Republican majority in Congress is not giving the Democratic president a fair hearing.

“Anywhere from 30 to 80,” one Democratic operative said of his party’s likely crossovers against the president.

The higher number could be reached, he said, if a few bellwether representatives vote for the impeachment inquiry early in the balloting and set off a stampede against Clinton.

As for Clinton’s last-hour effort, the Democrat said, “I don’t think it’s playing very well” because wavering House members, many facing close reelection races in districts where support for Clinton is weak, think the president’s appeal “is pretty selfish.”

From within the White House and the corridors of the Capitol, the image was of a president working with determination--but little hope--as the vote neared. The House has reached such a juncture only twice before in the nation’s history, most recently on Feb. 6, 1974, when it authorized its Judiciary Committee to investigate whether President Nixon should be impeached.

“You know what it’s like when this building gears up to run an aggressive campaign, whether it be the Brady [gun-control] bill, whether it be NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], whether it be fast-track [trade negotiating authority],” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart told reporters, mentioning three of the most controversial issues the Clinton White House has lobbied for in the past.

“That is not what this is,” Lockhart said. “This is, whether it be staffers here or the president, reaching out and talking to members, listening to their concerns. I think of the last couple of days there’s been, you know, three, four, five calls that he’s generated and probably about the same amount of calls that he’s returned.”

“There’s no arm-twisting going on,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento).

The Clintons and their allies, said a House Democratic leadership aide, were “not offering people fund-raisers or bridges. They understand that . . . would be counterproductive.”

Indeed, the president’s phone calls began to irk some of the recipients. One Democrat likely to vote for the inquiry told a visitor Clinton had portrayed the vote as one of conscience.

But, he said, the president also said the vote was important to him and to the country. Offering a final argument, Clinton suggested that the House member look at the opinion polls showing a large reservoir of public support for the president.

Poll Finds More Risk in Voting for Inquiry

Two Democratic pollsters, Stanley B. Greenberg and Celinda Lake, released a national survey that found party lawmakers could incur greater political risk by voting for the Republican-sponsored impeachment inquiry resolution than by voting against it.

When voters were asked if they preferred a Republican who supported such an inquiry or a Democrat who called for a 30-day limit on the probe, 55% picked the Democrat and 37% chose the Republican, the poll found.

A study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press of five recent polls found no evidence that the Lewinsky affair would depress Democratic turnout in the Nov. 3 elections, a concern Democratic partisans have voiced. The study also found that public opinion on whether to impeach Clinton--one-third in favor, two-thirds against--was stable.

A Republican lobbyist with close ties to the congressional majority said more intensive lobbying by the White House could have backfired.

“The members don’t want to have their photos taken with the president right now. The sentiment up there is: ‘We don’t want to hear from the president,’ ” he said.

A California Democrat in a tight reelection race said White House lobbying would have little effect because party lawmakers generally are voting to help their chances for political survival.

“They don’t have to grab our arms and twist slowly,” the Democrat, who asked not to be identified by name, said of the White House. “Some of us are going to vote for this inquiry. Some of us have to. We fully expect those of our constituents who love Clinton to throw things at us.”

Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, met with a group of House Democratic freshmen, asking what she, the president, the vice president and Tipper Gore could do for their reelection campaigns.

But Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) said the first lady also said she and the president would work for the reelection of the members regardless of how they vote on the impeachment inquiry.

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said he objected to White House efforts to influence the vote, saying it was as objectionable as if House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) had tried to lobby his colleagues to vote against the motion in January 1997 that reprimanded him for ethics infractions.

The Republican leadership of the House has set aside an hour today for debate on the vote, but that could be expanded. The Democrats have asked for eight hours. As an alternative to the measure proposed by Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats have proposed authorizing an impeachment investigation limited in scope and length.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) complained that an open-ended investigation could equal in cost the $23 million House and Senate committees have spent investigating Democratic campaign-finance irregularities.

“We have accomplished almost nothing except spending the taxpayers’ dollars on investigation after investigation after investigation,” he said.

Times staff writers Janet Hook and Ronald Brownstein contributed to this story.

Live audio coverage of today’s House debate and vote to launch an impeachment inquiry will be on The Times’ Web site. Go to: https://www.latimes.com/scandal

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S VOTE IN THE HOUSE

The full House will now decide whether to proceed with the impeachment process. Although both parties emphasize the importance of bipartisanship, the vote is expected to go along party lines.

Vote necessary to move ahead on impeachment

Yes: 218

****

Party breakdown in the House

GOP: 228

Dem.: 206

Independent: 1