Attempting to finish the deliberations over impeachment of President Clinton, sources said this afternoon that House Republican leaders are proposing to start at 10 a.m. Friday and to allot 16 hours for the historic debate.
The plan is to debate the four articles of impeachment adopted last week by the House Judiciary Committee all day and into the night Friday, going as late as 2 a.m., and then resume at 10 a.m. Saturday for closing statements and a series of votes that House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., said the GOP leadership hopes to conclude by 2 p.m. Saturday.
But a spokesman for House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said this afternon that Democrats would not agree to the GOP plan. Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., earlier had cautioned Republican leaders that Democrats "would look down upon any activity in this body to go forward with impeachment while American men and women are engaged in combat."
Although Democrats could employ a variety of procedural and parliamentary delaying tactics as protest measures, they are instead expected to concentrate their efforts on offering a motion to recommit the impeachment articles after the main debate is over.
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., tapped by Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, R-La., to preside over the impeachment debate, said he has been meeting with the House parliamentarian and will again prior to the floor debate-and that he is not concerned that Democrats may use dilatory motions to snarl up the debate. "I don't think there will be a lot of surprises" from the Democrats, he said.
At the end of the debate Saturday, Democrats will offer a motion to recommit the impeachment resolution and substitute a motion to censure the president instead. Because the censure language is not germane to the impeachment resolution, the Democratic recommittal motion would then be subject to a point of order. Democrats are expected to then call for a vote to appeal the ruling of the chair that essentially would serve as a proxy vote on censure.
If that attempt fails, as is expected, Democrats could offer a germane recommittal motion, on which they would get 10 minutes of debate time. A series of votes would then follow on each of the four articles of impeachment-that Clinton perjured himself in his Aug. 17 testimony before a federal grand jury, that he perjured himself in his Jan. 17 deposition in the Paula Jones case, that he obstructed justice and that he abused the power of his office.
Solomon said that should even one article of impeachment be passed, Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., would offer either a single privileged resolution or separate resolutions to do three things: appoint House managers to present the case in a Senate impeachment trial, officially inform the Senate that the House has voted to impeach the president and that managers have been appointed, and authorize certain House actions to prepare for a Senate trial-such as provide funding and authority for managers to make subsequent pleadings in the case.
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