Pro-Impeachment Chorus Hopes to Change Tune of Lawmakers

WASHINGTON — The capital’s raging debate on impeachment is spawning a lively array of lobbying efforts, tapping a subculture of Americans fired up about an issue that others want to forget about.

The forces nudging Congress on impeachment run the gamut from college students in Glendale to Christian Coalition activists, from conservative radio hosts to history professors to rabble-rousers on the Internet.

In that clamor to sway lawmakers, the loudest, most powerful voices are those of social conservatives and religious activists--the political and financial base of the Republican Party--who are pushing for President Clinton’s impeachment by conducting rallies, piling up petitions and making life miserable for any GOP lawmakers seen as a potential turncoat.

Fearing that the result will be a lopsided battle for the votes of the handful of moderate Republicans and relatively conservative Democrats expected to determine the outcome of any vote by the full House on impeachment, anti-impeachment forces such as the liberal People for the American Way are trying to generate some grass-roots pressure of their own.

As the White House began its defense Tuesday of Clinton before the House Judiciary Committee, lawmakers from both parties dismissed the sound and fury, insisting that their votes will be based of conscience, influenced by law, not lobbying.

“Nobody pulls my chain but my constituents,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray of San Diego, a moderate Republican who has caught flak from conservatives for wavering on impeachment.

But many Republicans acknowledge that the heavy pressure from the GOP’s right flank helps explain why the party has pressed relentlessly for impeachment, despite broad public opposition to removing Clinton from office. Any Republican who shows signs of straying from the pro-impeachment camp is quickly reminded of the potential political price.

After Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale) was briefly mentioned--incorrectly he says--by Time magazine as a potential vote against impeachment, his office was swamped with complaints, including a call from the Orange County Young Republicans warning against defection.

When Human Events, a conservative magazine, recently mentioned nine Republicans who were opposed to or leaning against impeachment, the feature was picked up by conservative talk radio hosts around the country. The targeted lawmakers--including Bilbray--saw switchboards light up, e-mail baskets fill and fax machines jam in response.

An aide to one House member said that kind of response is part of the reason why, after a flurry of moderate Republicans had announced their opposition to impeachment, public defections essentially halted.

“People started diving under their desks,” the aide said.

Some Keep Distance From Impeachment

As the committee--and likely the full House--prepares to vote on whether to impeach Clinton on charges stemming from his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, many lawmakers agree their constituents seem to care more about ending the matter than anything else. But there are pockets of people around the country who care vehemently about how the matter ends.

Conspicuously absent from the scene are the typical, well-heeled influence peddlers--corporate lobbyists, trade association officials and the like--who crowd the halls of Congress when major legislation like a tax cut is up for a vote. They are keeping their distance from impeachment, a highly charged issue that could make enemies no matter which position they take.

“What good is it going to do you?” asked Tom Korologos, a veteran of Washington’s so-called “K Street” lobbying community. “That’s something that K Street would run and hide from.”

Supplanting the establishment is a more populist, ad hoc collection of voices that lawmakers say seem more spontaneous than usual.

“This is not like the balanced budget or term limits or anything else,” said Kevin Bishop, press secretary for Rep. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “It’s more personal and heartfelt.”

When Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee, was in a parade in his hometown recently, his cries of “Merry Christmas” drew a less cheerful crowd response: “Impeach him! Impeach him!”

While much of what lawmakers hear seems not to be an orchestrated lobbying campaign, some of the grass-roots response has been heavily fertilized by national groups.

The Christian Coalition in October mounted a pro-impeachment petition drive. “The coalition will use every grass-roots tool we have at hand to rally Christians to this cause and awaken Congress to this demand,” said Pat Robertson, a founder of the group, in a letter announcing the petition drive. The group, which solicited supporters via its Web site, said that it has collected more than 200,000 petitions and is delivering them to congressional offices in advance of the Judiciary Committee vote.

Pro-impeachment forces also gathered for a rally on the steps of the Capitol on Saturday to urge the Judiciary Committee to approve articles of impeachment. The rally was called by Free Republic, an anti-Clinton group that has organized through an Internet site. Rally organizers estimated that 500 to 1,000 people showed up to hear a parade of longtime Clinton critics speak.

Mike Collins, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, praised the group’s efforts, saying, “These people are concerned that the committee and the administration not assume from the polls that nobody cares.”

The anti-impeachment forces have been less vocal. Although People for the American Way ran pro-Clinton ads during the fall’s congressional campaign, the group is taking a lower profile now. “When the key to this is the votes of [moderate] Republicans, to have a liberal advocacy organization lobbying--is that going to be effective?” asked Catherine LeRoy, public policy director for the group.

Instead, it is working with other local organizations that contacted them during the campaign season and helping them mount anti-impeachment efforts.

The biggest is a group called Censure and Move On, spawned from a Web site created by Wes and Joan Blades, software entrepreneurs in Berkeley. Their Web site invites people to send petitions calling on Congress to censure Clinton and end the investigation of him. The group’s leaders said they have collected more than 300,000 petitions.

The biggest challenge to mobilizing the anti-impeachment side, LeRoy said, is that many people thought the whole dump-Clinton effort ended on election day, when the Republicans’ poor showing was widely viewed as a repudiation of their impeachment drive.

Those From Outside Beltway Join Debate

Some of the people trying to gin up opposition to impeachment have no link to the Washington establishment. Andrew Medina, a 19-year-old student at Glendale Community College in Rogan’s district, is trying to organize an anti-impeachment fax campaign among his friends and colleagues.

Two University of Iowa professors--Steve M. Collins and his wife, Leslea Haravon Collins--used e-mail to establish a group called Mad as Hell that is sending bright red post cards to Congress opposing impeachment.

The desire to shape the debate has drawn other scholars into the hurly-burly of politics. About 400 historians published a letter in the New York Times deploring the impeachment effort. And 430 constitutional law professors signed a letter to Congress against impeachment.

“We had to come out of our comfortable law review role to make a point,” Yale law professor Jeb Rubenfeld said.

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Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story.

Jim Mann’s International Outlook column will run in this space on Thursday.