The Impeachment Scenario
BARNES, FRED
The Impeachment Scenario by Fred Barnes There's growing impatience among Republican partisans and conservative activists with the seeming timidity of their congressmen in going after president...
...The Impeachment Scenario by Fred Barnes There's growing impatience among Republican partisans and conservative activists with the seeming timidity of their congressmen in going after president Clinton...
...And Democrats will turn against Clinton only if the hearings are perceived as credible and thus persuade the public to turn against the president...
...i am being pressured, both inside and outside the House, to begin impeachment hearings now," Hyde says, choosing his words carefully...
...Neither Hyde nor House speaker Newt Gingrich has any intention of dragging out the impeachment process to keep Clinton in office and deny Vice President Al Gore the opportunity to run for election in 2000 as an incumbent...
...Lewinsky and many others would be called to testify...
...The committee would not conduct its own field investigation, duplicating Starr's work...
...Those three sets of hearings were concerned with matters less weighty than impeachment, so the bar will be even higher for Hyde...
...But if there's evidence of possible perjury, suborning of perjury, tampering with witnesses, or obstruction of justice—and Hyde and other GOP leaders expect there will be—the committee will move ahead with a public inquiry...
...Actually, the next step is clear...
...Al D'Amato and Fred Thompson and Rep...
...The reason: He believes hearings at this stage would have little credibility with the public and could easily be tagged as partisan...
...if it is, they're ready to authorize hearings as early as this summer on a straight party-line vote, with no Democrats voting in favor of hearings...
...Dan Burton...
...Hyde says: "You won't get bipartisan support [for impeachment] until the people move in that direction...
...But here's their scenario for a full-scale inquiry into charges that Clinton broke the law in his dealings with Monica Lewinsky, in campaign fund-raising, and possibly in other activities...
...Any effort to remove a president from office must be bipartisan, Hyde feels...
...That's why Hyde will wait until Starr finishes his investigation and hands over his evidence...
...Hyde is eager for his hearings to be regarded as believable and fair...
...But Gop leaders are far closer to moving forcefully against the president than is widely realized...
...If passed, they would be sent to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to remove a president from office...
...But it might go beyond the evidence accumulated by Starr and take up campaign-finance abuses uncovered in last year's hearings by Thompson, along with other matters...
...Judiciary chairman Henry Hyde will merely consult with Democrats over the witness list, then decide on his own who should be subpoenaed...
...Unless the evidence from Starr is unexpectedly weak, Hyde himself would introduce a bill of impeachment, which would quickly be referred to his committee...
...Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard...
...Impeachment counts approved by the committee would be voted in the House...
...He wants his inquest to be taken far more seriously by the press and public than were the hearings into Clinton wrongdoing by Sens...
...They assume that evidence against the president to be handed over to Congress by independent counsel Kenneth Starr will be strong enough to justify an impeachment probe...
...Then, Hyde would hire staff—the Judiciary Committee added 90 staffers when it took up President Nixon's impeachment in 1974—and schedule hearings...
...We'll take care of Gore when we get to him," insists a GOP leader...
...If the only compelling evidence against Clinton is that he lied in denying a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, the committee might not hold hearings at all...
...Hyde has not talked to Starr about the evidence the independent counsel is gathering or about anything else...
...it's true Hyde usually shies away from uttering the word "impeachment...
...And Republicans won't give Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee any veto over subpoenas either...
...Once that's completed, a judgment will be made, in which I would anticipate leadership participation, concerning the next step...
...The problem now is Clinton...
...And the GOP plan is to move cautiously against the president—but definitely to move...
...Indeed, planning is underway to subject Clinton to weeks, maybe months, of impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee— whether Democrats approve or not...
...Once that occurs, I expect the material from Judge Starr to be referred to the Judiciary Committee, at which time an intense analysis of it will be undertaken with bipartisan participation...
...And the people won't move in that direction unless the hearings are credible and not partisan...
...For one, Republican Bob Barr of Georgia, a Judiciary Committee member, has called for hearings to start quickly...
...But it is my judgment that we should wait until Judge Starr, as he is required by law, turns over to the House of Representatives whatever evidence he's developed, if any, that is substantive and credible relating to any impeachable offense...
...Few Republican leaders are willing to be quoted by name...
...While Republicans are willing to proceed with hearings with only GOP votes, Hyde doesn't intend to seek approval of any impeachment counts against the president unless some Democrats vote for them...
Vol. 3 • March 1998 • No. 25
