House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, today set a House vote Thursday on authorizing impeachment hearings by the Judiciary Committee-and suggested the panel broaden its inquiry to include aspects of the Whitewater affair that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr originally was chartered to investigate.
Insisting that he was not being partisan, Armey said he would say "no" to any Democratic requests for equal time to present an alternative to the GOP plan for hearings and get a straight up or down vote on it.
Meanwhile, Democrats huddled in an exceptionally long caucus to discuss what would be contained in an alternative they plan to offer, given the limited opportunity Republicans will allow them. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., an advocate of impeachment hearings, said, "Members are all over the place." Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said, "I'll support the Democratic alternative," although exactly what the alternative would be was up in the air after the meeting.
Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, said he was leaning toward supporting the proposal of Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., for unrestricted hearings but was considering trying to amend it by imposing a Jan. 1 deadline.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., was sticking by the resolution he helped draft that would set a Thanksgiving deadline and limit the inquiry to Starr's referral on President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Boucher also urged the Republican leadership to be more generous with floor time for Democrats. As it stands now, Boucher noted, Democrats would be given only a vote on procedural motions and insufficient time to make their case on hearings.
Asked what he would like Hyde's committee to take up in addition to Clinton's affair, Armey cited two issues. "Has there been a pattern of obstruction of justice?" Armey said, citing Susan MacDougal's decision "to go to jail rather than answering significant questions. Did the President lie in the Whitewater investigation?"
Armey also said the committee should take up the case of Deputy Counsel to the President Bruce Lindsey. "We're still not getting him to testify," Armey said, adding that he sees a pattern of "stonewalling, evasiveness, obstruction."
Meanwhile, at least three House Democrats-Ralph Hall of Texas, Paul McHale of Pennsylvania and Taylor-confirmed today that they will vote for the Republican impeachment inquiry resolution when it comes to the floor. McHale and Taylor have called on Clinton to resign, while Hall has stopped just short of a formal resignation call.
Declaring the Judiciary Committee vote neither "fair nor bipartisan," White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart today accused Republicans of parlaying the impeachment proceedings into a "strategy for electoral advantage" this fall.
"Last night's vote was the culmination of a month- long, preconceived political strategy by the Republicans in Congress," Lockhart said. "From the day they dumped out the Starr report to subsequent document dumps with salacious and gratuitous material, they had a political strategy to try to embarrass the President."
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