House inquiry may expand

WASHINGTON - The House Republican who will preside over any hearings on the fate of President Clinton set a speedy timetable yesterday for opening a formal impeachment inquiry and announced that he may broaden his investigation to include matters beyond the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) said he expects his House Judiciary Committee to vote Oct. 5 or 6 and the full House to vote by Oct. 9 on whether to convene hearings to determine if Clinton committed perjury or obstructed justice in concealing his sexual liaisons with the former White House intern and, if so, whether he should be impeached.

But whether the House inquiry will expand beyond the Lewinsky matter depends on what the committee receives from the office of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, Hyde said. It could encompass other White House controversies - such as the Clintons' involvement in the Whitewater real estate development in Arkansas before his presidency, irregularities with confidential FBI files and the firing of the White House travel office staff.

"We want to hear anything and everything - good, bad, indifferent, exculpatory, accusatory - that bears on the main question," Hyde said. "There may be other matters that we feel bear on the main question of the fitness of the president for this office."

At the White House, presidential spokesperson Mike McCurry cautioned that the public may chastise Hyde for moving too quickly and unfairly and he warned that the committee's work so far has raised "quite legitimate concerns about the way in which politics intersects with these proceedings."

And House Democrats, who prefer public hearings before any inquiry is launched, decried the Hyde committee for not seeking testimony from Starr or Lewinsky before moving ahead with a full House vote.

"This is an effort to run out the clock before the (Nov. 3) election," charged Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) a leading Judiciary panel member. "They're trying to make the president look bad and their side good. The Republican position is totally hypocritical."

Hyde announced the House timetable at a news conference in the Judiciary Committee room, flanked by two large portraits - one of himself, the other of former Rep. Peter Rodino (D-N.J.) who chaired the committee during the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration. Hyde's portrait had been unveiled only a day earlier.

"The reason I have called this meeting is for you all to admire the picture up there," he joked to reporters, a finger aimed at the painting of himself.

But the allusion was not lost on anyone. Republicans and Democrats have continually pointed to the Watergate hearings as a model for bipartisan action during an impeachment process.

Hyde and his boss, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) realize they need Democratic support for an impeachment review to overcome public opinion polls that give high ratings to Clinton's job performance and low performance ratings to GOP leaders in Congress.

Yesterday, Hyde vowed that he is his own man and that he is not operating under the directions of Gingrich or other Republican leaders.

"As to whether I am in charge of the investigation," he said, "all I know is, every time I give advice to Newt he nods his head affirmatively."

But the chair also echoed Gingrich's comment Wednesday that Republicans will be led by the Constitution rather than public sentiment.

"Our guide is deliberate speed, not too fast that people can accuse us of rushing to judgment and not too slow so people can accuse us of deliberately stretching it out for political purposes," Hyde said. "This is one of those 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'" situations.

Sometime after the vote on whether to conduct impeachment hearings, which is expected to pass, the House would set a timetable for those proceedings. Lawmakers could decide to start the hearings sometime later this year or wait until the new Congress convenes in January. Because the 105th Congress ends this year and impeachment proceedings are expected to last several months, information from hearings begun this year would be reported to the 106th Congress, which then could resume the process.

When Starr sent his referral on the Clinton-Lewinsky case to Capitol Hill on Sept. 9, he noted that there were other matters he was continuing to investigate.

These include his original mandate to review the Whitewater land transactions made by Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton before they moved to Washington.

09-25-98