Tension Builds as Starr Report Nears Release

Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s report is likely to be made public today, even as President Clinton tried Thursday to delay its release and assure his political supporters that he still can govern.

As the question of impeachment hung ever heavier over Clinton’s presidency, the House Rules Committee voted Thursday evening to release the report. The full House is expected to adopt that plan this morning.

With the White House and Congress caught up in a historic constitutional clash, and the nation eager to learn what Starr has concluded in his investigation of the Bill Clinton-Monica S. Lewinsky affair, tension boiled at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

On Capitol Hill, the spirit of bipartisanship that initially met the reception of Starr’s report a day earlier imploded into bickering as Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on when or how the report should be made public.

At the White House, Clinton spent much of the day on yet another round of apologies--to Senate Democrats, his Cabinet and others. And he dispatched to the Capitol a team of lawyers who, scrambling to come up with their own report defending the president, were unable to forestall the release of the Starr documents.

The House GOP leadership, unwilling to budge, remained determined to post the 445-page report on the Internet by midday today, an event that could create another set of consequences for the Clinton presidency.

“We’re going to make it available to the American people,” pledged House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). “Anyone in the country, anyone in the world, will be able to access it.”

Also Thursday:

* With the federal grand jury continuing to meet, a source close to the independent counsel suggested that the public may be put off by the contents of Starr’s report. “I don’t know how a newspaper like yours will be able to handle some of this material,” he warned. “It’s pretty graphic.”

* First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a White House East Room address on cancer research, alluded to families in turmoil but did not specifically mention her own. “Whenever you face any crisis in your life, it is your family you often turn to,” she said.

* Vice President Al Gore stepped up his defense of Clinton, saying at a Democratic National Committee business meeting: “He is my friend and he is our president, and his policies have been good for America.”

* Clinton’s job approval rating remained strong, although two television network polls taken when the Starr report arrived Wednesday on Capitol Hill showed that his approval rating had slipped slightly to just under 60%.

The tone of distrust was sounded early in the day.

The House Democratic Caucus met for the first time since the House returned from summer recess in an exceptionally long session that began at 9 a.m. and lasted for two hours. Many members who spoke called for Democrats to stick with Clinton and be suspicious of Republicans’ handling of the matter.

Most came from politically safe seats, such as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), and so had the political latitude to stick with the troubled president.

Matter of Fairness, Democrats Say

The Democrats emerging from the meeting said that they want Clinton to get a fair shake, saying that he needs time to review the report and formulate a response before it is released to the public.

They cited as precedent the fact that in 1997, Gingrich was given an early copy of the House Ethics Committee report that called for a reprimand of the speaker.

“There’s a general feeling that what we really need to talk about is fairness,” said Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.). “The idea of rushing to release boxes of documents . . . is not the American way.”

Their talk was for naught.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said that Republicans would not give Clinton an early copy of the records, still locked away in sealed cardboard boxes and under armed guard at a House annex building.

“The report is made to the Congress of the United States,” Armey declared. “It is the responsibility of the Congress to make it available to all interested parties.”

But strategists in both parties predicted that, despite Democratic complaints, the procedures for handling the report will pass overwhelmingly today. “No one wants to vote against making this public,” said Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for Armey.

Still, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) urged caution. Hoping to slow down the process, he asked that the White House be allowed to see the report first.

“I think we’ve all got to take a deep breath and we’ve got to be patient, even after the report comes out, and wait until the proper evidence is in front of us,” he said.

“This is not a process where we just go with whims or rumors or half-facts or innuendo.”

But Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), who chairs the Judiciary Committee where any initial impeachment inquiry would be conducted, said that the investigation must move with dispatch. “We’re going to go with all deliberate speed.”

Gingrich then announced in a live, late-morning interview on Cable News Network that the report in all likelihood would be posted between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT on four Web sites:

https://www.house.gov/icreport

https://thomas.loc.gov/icreport

https://www.access.gpo.gov/

congress/icreport

https://www.house.gov/judiciary.

In a sign of the cyberspace traffic jam likely to hit today, House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) said that the main Web site had received 10,000 “hits,” or inquiries, 90 minutes after it was announced.

The material to be released includes about 445 pages consisting of the report’s introduction, a narrative and a statement of grounds for impeachment.

Warning About Personal Potshots

The speaker also spoke to the House, reminding all members of a special “Standards of Decorum” that he wants followed when the full House takes up the matter of the report today. He warned members that they should not take personal potshots against the president.

“That is not to say that the president is beyond criticism in debate or that members are prohibited from expressing opinions about executive policy or competence to hold office,” the speaker said.

“It is permissible in debate to challenge the president on matters of policy. The difference is one between political criticism and personally offensive criticism,” he said.

Around noon Thursday, Senate Democratic leaders emerged from a meeting with the president at the White House.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), appearing somber and strikingly subdued in his support for the president, said that Clinton told them there would be no new “surprises” when the report is released.

Daschle said that, while the president was contrite in the session, there was no talk about impeachment or resignation. “We didn’t talk about any of the options or any of the scenarios,” Daschle said.

Asked repeatedly by reporters whether he still trusts the president, Daschle finally shot back with a simple: “Of course.”

Clinton Lawyers Meet Panel Leaders

Soon after the Senate Democrats departed, two Clinton lawyers--private attorney David E. Kendall and White House Counsel Charles F.C. Ruff--arrived at the Capitol and met with House Judiciary Committee leaders in what was billed as a “get-acquainted” session to discuss procedures.

Afterward, they stressed that the Starr report is just “one side of the story.” Kendall referred to the Starr conclusions as “simply a collection of their contentions and claims and allegations, and we look forward to the chance to rebut.”

Back at the White House, Clinton spoke to a gathering for the presentation of the Presidential Science and Technology awards in the Roosevelt Room.

This Apology Is for Arriving Late

He began with an apology for being late. “I was in an extended meeting with the senators from my own party,” he said.

“It was a part of this process I am going through of talking to people with whom I work and with whom I must work in your behalf,” he said, “to ask for their understanding, their forgiveness and their commitment not to let the events of the moment in Washington deter us from doing the people’s work here and building the future of this country.”

After more than three hours of statements and debate, the House Rules Committee passed by party-line vote its resolution recommending that the full House release the report today. The report’s accompanying documents tentatively will be released in a couple of weeks, after House leaders have reviewed that material.

In a comment echoing the solemnity of the occasion, Rules Chairman Solomon told Hyde, the Judiciary Committee chairman: “We wish you Godspeed and courage in your duties.”

While that vote was being taken, Clinton conducted another unusual gathering, huddling with his Cabinet in the residential quarters of the White House.

Since he came to the White House in 1993, Clinton has convened only a handful of meetings of his entire Cabinet each year. Aides said that such meetings are an inefficient way to do business because the members’ agendas are so disparate.

When the Cabinet members emerged from the hourlong session, they spoke as though they had been to a religious revival.

A participant in the meeting said in an interview that Clinton pledged he would never hurt his family like this again. When Cabinet members asked the president for advice on how to handle media inquiries, this participant said that Clinton refused, telling them only to say what was in their hearts.

This source described the meeting as spiritual and said the president and Cabinet members talked about redemption and forgiveness.

Facing reporters outside the White House, James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, noted that he is a Christian and that “we should forgive.” Dan Glickman, secretary of Agriculture, said he is a Jew, and, noting that the “high holy days” are approaching, said that “this is a time for atonement.”

“He apologized, he is deeply sorry for what has happened,” Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said of Clinton’s remarks to the Cabinet. “He did take the time to listen to people who wanted to speak and people spoke about their sorrow.”

The president later attended a Democratic Party dinner at the Mayflower Hotel and a reception for major party donors at a private residence.

Times staff writer Marc Lacey contributed to this story.