Panel OKs 4th Article, Rejects Censure Option

WASHINGTON —  The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth and final article of impeachment Saturday urging that President Clinton be removed from office for abusing his power, capping the panel’s historic but temper-tossed inquiry into Clinton’s attempts to conceal his secret extramarital affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

The GOP-run committee, again voting along party lines, also rejected a Democratic proposal that offered censure as an alternative to ousting Clinton in what his defenders argued otherwise would be tantamount to a coup d’etat or lynching of the highest elected official in the country.

Completing its work on the scandal, the panel will report to the full House the four articles of impeachment. The other articles charge Clinton with perjuring himself before the grand jury and in a deposition in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit and obstructing justice by trying to conceal his behavior.

Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) announced that the impeachment articles will reach the fullHouse at midnight Tuesday. The 435 members are likely to begin debating the matter Thursday.

The vote there is expected to be extremely close. But Republicans have a narrow majority, and approval of any of the articles automatically would mandate a Senate trial of the president.

With the Clinton presidency at stake, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill continued to scramble for a dwindling number of undecided votes. New York’s Republican Gov. George Pataki came out against impeachment and for censure--a move putting additional pressure on Republican lawmakers from his state, including five who have yet to declare their intentions.

The committee members, fully aware that history was hanging over their shoulders, were moved to recall their deep soul-searching on a duty surpassed in gravity only by a declaration of war.

Some of the Republicans spoke eloquently.

Rep. Steven E. Buyer (R-Ind.), a Persian Gulf War veteran, described a 2 a.m. jog around the National Mall, passing monuments to America’s war dead. Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) talked about the “knots” that tied up his stomach as he grappled with voting his conscience.

But Democrats were full of anger at a process that they consider a politically charged attempt to overturn the 1996 election, which gave Clinton a second term in office.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat, called it a coup. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) mocked the Republicans for acting like Minnesota Gov.-elect Jesse Ventura, saying: “It’s not right to treat impeachment like professional wrestling. We’re twisting impeachment out of shape.”

White House Sees a Country Divided

At the White House, special counsel Gregory B. Craig said that impeaching the president would “divide the country, gridlock the government and defy the will of the people.”

“Nothing about this process,” he added, “has been fair. Nothing about this process has been bipartisan and nothing about this process has won the confidence of the American people.”

And he warned lawmakers of the consequences of forsaking the wishes of their constituents, who oppose removing Clinton by margins of 2 to 1, according to opinion polls.

“In the end,” he said, “the American people will make the final judgment about whether the impeachment of this president is in the national interest.”

Other White House officials were more blunt.

“The notion that they can just vote for impeachment and it will become the Senate’s problem is ludicrous,” said Maria Echaveste, deputy chief of staff.

Paul J. McNulty, GOP spokesman for the committee, reacted by noting that the tough words from the White House were markedly different from the tersely framed apology Clinton read Friday.

“Today, the White House strategy is confrontation, not contrition,” McNulty said. “By returning to the war-room politics of partisan attacks, the White House undermines the sincerity and credibility of the president’s words.”

The shrinking number of undecided GOP moderates, perhaps a dozen to 15 votes, kept their own counsel, although several were rumored on Saturday to be on the verge of declaring for impeachment.

Among them are Reps. Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey, Richard H. Baker of Louisiana and Joe Skeen of New Mexico, all deemed by House Democratic operatives as potential no votes.

Late last week, five other Republicans being courted by the White House and Democrats announced in favor of impeachment.

A Democrat Shifts, Opposes Impeachment

On Saturday, a moderate Southern Democrat who had backed the open-ended GOP impeachment inquiry declared his opposition to impeachment. At a news conference outside his Beaumont, Texas, home, Rep. Nick Lampson said that Clinton should be censured for his “deplorable” actions in the Lewinsky affair.

“We need to get this painful chapter in our American history behind us as quickly as possible.”

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) sent a letter to House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston (R-La.), urging him to allow “censure to be voted on with ample debate time” on the floor of the House.

“This first most important decision for you as a leader will mark more than the fate of impeachment,” Gephardt told Livingston. “It will surely mark the kind of leader you will be and thereby the kind of Congress we can expect under your speakership.”

But Livingston, who is to become speaker next month, told reporters in Louisiana: “I am not going to make any decisions about my recommendations for procedure until they’ve completed voting and until I’ve had a chance to speak with Chairman Hyde.”

Hyde declined to say what advice on censure he would give Livingston, except to say: “I’m sure the subject will come up.”

Hyde Against Censure as Replacement Vote

However, in a letter Saturday to Livingston, Hyde said that he believes any censure resolution offered “in lieu of” impeachment on the House floor “violates the rules of the House, threatens the separation of powers and fails to meet constitutional muster.”

“This underscores how partisan and unfair the process has become,” White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said in reaction. “How can people vote their conscience if they won’t be allowed to speak their mind?”

Before taking up committee debate on censure, panel members finished their work on the fourth article of impeachment. In a marathon session Friday, they had passed two impeachment articles charging Clinton with perjury and one alleging that he obstructed justice.

Saturday’s debate dealt with the broader allegation that Clinton abused his presidential power. It is considered the least likely to clear the full House.

As originally drafted, the article contended that Clinton improperly invoked executive privilege to keep his aides from having to testify before the grand jury.

But in an amendment offered by Republicans that ultimately passed on a bipartisan count of 29 to 5, the executive privilege allegation and similar charges that Clinton deceived the American people and misled his staff were dropped. Three members voted present.

Instead, language that said Clinton made “perjurious, false and misleading sworn statements” when he responded last month to 81 questions about his conduct posed by the committee was inserted.

Among Clinton’s responses, the president maintained that he did not recall discussing with his secretary, Betty Currie, gifts he had given the former White House intern and that he had not seen the affidavit Lewinsky submitted in the Jones case.

Debate Is a Time of Reflection

After passing the amendment, panel members retreated to their respective camps and approved the article by a 21-16 party-line vote.

The debate over the last of the four impeachment articles prompted many lawmakers to reflect. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) said that as he was walking to the Rayburn House Office Building on Saturday morning, a man suddenly stopped his car, jumped out and declared himself a Democrat who was going to tear up his party registration card and become a Republican.

“He was upset over the way these hearings have gone,” Cannon said.

One of the more dramatic reflections came when Buyer recalled how, when he could not sleep the night before, he went out for a middle-of-the-night jog, running past the memorials to the veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The sights reminded him of a story of another American soldier who, dying alone on the battlefield, pinned a note to his body for those who would find him later. The note said: “Tell them when you go home I gave this day for their tomorrow.”

With that in mind, Buyer said, Congress should impeach Clinton today so that future generations would not wonder why lawmakers are “leaving a perjurious president in office.”

His colleague, Coble, talked about “the knots I had in my gut when we” were voting for impeachment in committee. “I don’t take this lightly.”

Neither did the Democrats, who warned that the GOP was mounting a lynch mob or an ambush.

“This does begin to take on the appearance of a coup,” said Conyers. “This is frightening. This is staggering.”

The debate over censure was equally passionate, and the resolution was defeated on a 22-14 vote in which one Democrat joined the Republicans. The measure called for a public rebuke of Clinton, accepted with the president’s signature, but did not mandate a fine or other penalty.

Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Va.) voted against censure and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) voted present. Both lawmakers said that they did not believe there was sufficient evidence that Clinton committed any violations.

Rep. Martin T. Meehan of Massachusetts, one of the Democrats’ greatest censure proponents, said: “If you want to punish the president or brand the president or scarlet letter or stamp him on his forehead, censure is the way to do that.”

But while Meehan suggested censure as a compromise to heal the country’s divisiveness over the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) responded: “We’re not in group therapy. We’re in the Congress of the United States.”

Cannon held up an orange “Get Out of Jail Free” card from a Monopoly game, comparing it to the censure resolution. And Hyde, the chairman, said that censure is simply not enough punishment.

“It’s similar to yelling at a teenager,” he said. “It purges you, but I don’t know what it accomplishes.”

The proceeding lasted into the evening before Hyde adjourned the committee and ended its impeachment inquiry. Members from the two sides shook hands and scattered.

“I feel emotionally depleted and exhausted,” said Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs). “I don’t know how else to describe the feeling. I’ve never felt it before.”

Staff writers Edwin Chen and Elizabeth Shogren contributed to this story.

Times on the Web: On The Times’ internet site you can join an online discussion about the impeachment proceedings and send your views to your congressional representatives:

http://161.35.110.226/scandal

* TENSIONS INSIDE GOP: GOP moderates may pay price for conservatives’ push. A48

* REBUTTAL ON LEWINSKY: Independent counsel denies witness was bullied. A47

* STATE GOP WORRIES: Many in Republican ranks fear impeachment steamroller. A49