Clinton turns to voters for support

WASHINGTON - Embroiled in a budget fight with an impeachment-minded Congress, President Clinton yesterday urged voters to turn the upcoming midterm election into a national referendum on his presidency, clearly hoping they will send Washington the message that they care more about pocketbook issues than the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.

With just 22 days to go before the Nov. 3 elections, Clinton's comments significantly elevated the stakes. Most analysts believe, and polls suggest, that Republicans could make broad gains in both houses of Congress in part because outrage over the president's adulterous affair with a young intern could energize Republicans to vote in greater numbers than Democrats.

AP PHOTO President Clinton makes a statement before meeting with Democratic

But Clinton expressed confidence that voters will reject a Republican-led impeachment drive against him. "That is a decision for Americans. I trust them. I think they'll make the right decision," he said.

The president made his remarks at the start of an afternoon White House strategy session with Capitol Hill Democrats on the budget negotiations with the GOP majority in Congress.

Although the new fiscal year is nearly two weeks old, Clinton and the Republicans have yet to agree to a comprehensive spending plan for fiscal 1999. With little progress yesterday, negotiations to resolve their many differences may well keep Congress in town for several more days, preventing them from going home to campaign.

Clinton also seemed eager to join that fray. He is scheduled to hit the campaign trail to raise money and stump for Democratic candidates in New York and Florida. The plan drew fire over the weekend from GOP leaders who complained that Clinton should remain in town until a new federal budget is completed.

But the president was unapologetic.

"What I intend to do is to bring the issues to the American people," he told reporters at the White House.

"What I'd like to see this election be about is the American people and their future, not about Washington, D.C.," he said, alluding to the impeachment inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee over allegations that he committed perjury and obstructed justice while attempting to conceal an affair with the former White House intern.

The president's remarks seem to be a calculated, but nonetheless high-risk, strategy.

If Republicans score major gains on Nov. 3, they will surely portray the results as a public rebuke of the president, thus complicating his legislative agenda and his hopes of avoiding impeachment.

To be sure, his job-approval ratings remain high, and poll after poll shows that most Americans want an expeditious resolution to the Lewinsky matter short of impeachment.

and the president stayed in town in hopes of settling an array of policy differences and completing a federal budget for fiscal year 1999, which began Oct. 1.

Already, Clinton and Congress have agreed to two stop-gap funding bills to avert a government shutdown. The second "continuing resolution" to keep government running will expire at midnight tonight, and GOP leaders said yesterday that a third extension might be needed.

"I think we probably will have another," House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), said on ABC's "This Week." He added: "We've got some big problems ahead of us."

So far, work has been completed on less than half of the 13 appropriations bills that fund government operations.

Among the differences in the budget negotiations are education spending, abortion policies, the 2000 census and funding for the International Monetary Fund.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), expressed optimism that eventually "cooler heads will prevail" and a budget deal will be worked out. But he said the White House seems "distracted" by Thursday's House vote to launch an impeachment inquiry.

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A major point of contention is Clinton's proposal for 100,000 new elementary school teachers and a $5 billion school renovation program, initiatives that Clinton promoted yesterday for the second straight day.

But Lott said Republicans basically share in those goals.

"The difference is, they want it to be controlled and run, they want all the money in Washington, and they want it to dribble down, dribble down, eventually get to the local community and schools," he said. "We want the money to get to the parents, the teachers, and the administrators at the local level."

Several GOP leaders yesterday also echoed Lott's criticisms of Clinton for not being more personally involved in the budget talks.

"The president, quite frankly, has been AWOL all year long," Armey said. "He's about to take tomorrow his 100th campaign trip, to go up to New York for a million-dollar fund-raiser for (Senate candidate) Chuck Schumer, a member of the (House) Judiciary Committee, which I think is a rather interesting thing."

Clinton seemed unfazed by such criticism, focusing instead of issues that he said he intends to promote in the coming days, such as preserving the Social Security trust fund and enacting a patients' "bill of rights" to empower consumers enrolled in managed care systems.

congressional leaders yesterday about the overdue federal budget.

10-12-98