Clinton ratings rise in polls

WASHINGTON - Buoyed by initial reaction supporting President Clinton, the White House and congressional Democrats expressed hope yesterday that the public's general disinterest after viewing the president's videotaped grand jury testimony will help stall any impeachment drive on Capitol Hill.

Opinion polls showed that the president's job approval rating rose six points after his four hours of testimony was aired Monday, and his defenders now believe that this kind of sustained support could throw water on Republican attempts to remove Clinton from office.

Even several GOP members of the crucial House Judiciary Committee conceded that the edge may have shifted to the Democrats, noting that constituents in their districts did not come away angry after watching Clinton defend himself in the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-perjury scandal.

One of them, Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) suggested that the panel should be mindful of public opinion before it releases the rest of the report from Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

"The Judiciary Committee needs to always consider public opinion,'' Hutchinson said. "There's a possibility of backlash against anyone who is not handling this fairly.''

Clinton's lawyers took advantage of his unexpectedly good showing by taking the offensive for the first time in weeks, saying in a letter to Judiciary Committee members that Starr had left out of his report information that would bolster his defense.

Hyde acknowledged receiving the letter from Clinton's lawyers, but disagreed that any information was purposely excluded to be unfair to the president. He also shooed away Democrat complaints that his committee is not acting in a partisan spirit,the material - which includes testimony by former Lewinsky friend Linda Tripp, Clinton secretary Betty Currie and presidential friend Vernon Jordan - is set to be made public no later than next Monday.

"We're doing our job,'' said Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) "We're following our mandate.''

Hyde said he expects a recommendation from his panel soon, and then a full House vote by early October, on whether to move to the next step - a formal impeachment inquiry.

He also signaled that he would like to begin preliminary hearings on the controversy after the Nov. 3 elections but before the current 105th Congress expires at year's end.

But after all the pre-release hype that Clinton's position would sink with the airing of his testimony, the opposite appeared to be happening. Instead of Republican leaders marshaling more momentum toward a vote on impeachment, the public's approval of Clinton's performance as president not only continued to hold strong, but actually was building.

A Gallup poll conducted yesterday for CNN and USA Today showed that 66 percent of respondents still approved of the job Clinton is doing, six points higher than the figure Sunday, the day before the broadcast.

Clinton, in New York attending a meeting on the global economy with the Japanese prime minister, declined to discuss the uneasy balance between the public's approval of his work as president and the House Republicans' desire to push on toward impeachment.

"I don't have anything to add to whatever the White House is saying about all this,'' he said during a brief appearance at a New York hotel.

"Believe it or not, I haven't read the reports,'' he added. "I think it's important that I focus on what I'm doing for the American people.''

Behind the scenes, his staff and legal team were indeed maneuvering to bolster Clinton's position. Their main complaint Tuesday came in the form of a letter from Clinton's private attorney and the White House counsel's office, charging that Starr had excluded from his 445-page report evidence beneficial to Clinton.

In a letter to Hyde, they complained that Lewinsky's testimony that "no one ever asked me to lie and I was never promised a job for my silence'' was left out of Starr's report.

Although that statement does appear in Lewinsky's written proffer made public Monday, White House Counsel Charles Ruff and David Kendall, the president's personal attorney, said that not including it "raises grave questions about the fundamental fairness of the Starr referral.''

"I think their strategy is to look for arguments,'' Hyde said. "My strategy is to smile.''

09-23-98