Lott Treads Lightly on Lewinsky Scandal

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) had every opportunity Monday to call for President Clinton’s resignation. After blasting the president’s affair with Monica S. Lewinsky as “disgusting” at a news conference that drew a dozen television cameras, one journalist put the question to Lott directly: Should Clinton step down?

He refused to take the bait.

True, Lott declared himself offended--”as a husband and a father”--by Clinton’s conduct. He said mere censure of the president--an idea some lawmakers have broached--may be an inadequate sanction. And he predicted the “situation”--as he termed the president’s troubles--would cast a shadow over the year’s remaining legislative business.

Still, Lott’s bottom-line message on Clinton’s future had to be music to the ears of presidential aides: Wait and see.

Some Republican lawmakers are clamoring for Clinton to step down or face impeachment in the wake of his confession of inappropriate behavior with Lewinsky. But, like Lott, most of the party’s top congressional leaders have adopted a more restrained approach that takes into consideration the president’s continued strength in the polls and the uncertainty over what evidence independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr will present.

“I think it’s a smart strategy,” said John J. Pitney, a professor at Claremont McKenna College who studies Congress. “This incident is going to do damage to Clinton and the Democrats no matter what. Why step all over the story?”

GOP strategists point to a practical benefit to the seemingly moderate tones taken by the party bosses: By staying above the fray, they may be able to gain negotiating strength with the White House.

Lott’s tone at his news conference, which marked the Senate’s return from its summer recess, was in sharp contrast to the rhetoric of Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). “For the past eight months, I have consistently stated that if the allegations against the president were true, then he has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the presidency and he should resign,” Ashcroft said last week. “Now that the president has admitted the allegations are true, the honorable act is to resign the presidency so the nation can properly heal from the wounds he has inflicted.”

Other senators who have called on Clinton to resign are Republicans Bob Smith of New Hampshire, Dan Coats of Indiana and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

In the House, which returns from its summer recess next week, the anti-Clinton forces are even more vociferous. But House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has recommended that Americans avoid coming to conclusions until Starr’s report arrives.

The one defector among the leadership ranks--Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas)--has been organizing lawmakers who believe Clinton should resign.

So far, at least 20 Republican House members (including Californians George P. Radanovich of Mariposa and Frank Riggs of Windsor) and one Democrat (Paul McHale of Pennsylvania, who is not seeking reelection) have called for the president’s resignation.

“This president no longer has the moral authority to lead, either here at home or in the world,” said DeLay, the third-ranking House Republican, over the weekend.

Lott, at his news conference, said he hopes the president’s troubles do not interfere with the pending legislative conflicts--including divisions over spending priorities in the appropriations bills that fund the federal government.

But the Lewinsky controversy provides a subtext even to the formulation of the budget.

In 1995 and into 1996, Republican conflicts with Clinton over spending led to government shutdowns--which the president successfully depicted as the consequence of GOP intransigence. Now, however, congressional Republicans doubt Clinton has the political capital to pin the blame for a similar standoff on them. Thus, they are likely to be bolder in pressing their agenda, even if another shutdown results.

“This time it will be harder for the Democrats to fool the American people as to who is really doing that,” Lott said.

The White House took issue with Lott’s calculations.

“It’s laughable for Senator Lott to blame the president or anybody else for Congress’ failure to get its work done,” said White House spokesman Barry Toiv. “They’ve gone eight months without passing a budget or a single appropriations bill. He ought to stop trying to shift the blame or make excuses.”

Meanwhile, in a floor speech Monday, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) inaugurated his party’s battle to draw attention to its policy agenda. As he called for legislation to regulate managed health care, increase the minimum wage and overhaul campaign finance law, he implicitly acknowledged the problems the Clinton controversy raises.

“Time is short,” he said. “Distractions are many.”

Times staff writers Janet Hook and Edwin Chen contributed to this story.