-Caveat Lector-
As Impeachment Looms, Clinton Seems In Denial
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To hear White House aides tell it Friday, President
Clinton is dealing with the gravest moment of his presidency his
all-but-certain impeachment -- with near total denial.
As the House of Representatives began to debate impeaching Clinton, the
political equivalent of an indictment that will put his fate in the hands of a
Senate trial, aides painted him as almost too busy with other matters to pay
attention.
Clinton began his day with a mid-morning briefing on the continuing air
strikes he launched against Iraq Wednesday, plunging the United States into a
dual crisis of military action and only the second House vote in its history
on impeaching a president.
He was to stay closeted in meetings, including a working lunch with European
Union officials, until well past sunset discussing such matters as the
minutiae of the federal budget, the spread of AIDS and the coming monetary
union in Europe.
In between, the White House said Clinton had just one meeting that touched
on his probable impeachment a session with wavering Connecticut
Republican Congressman Christopher Shays that the president did not even
request.
Asked if Clinton had a message for Shays, who is having second thoughts
about his plans to vote against impeachment, White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart said: ``No ... Shays says he had some things he wants to talk to the
president about. The president will be glad to listen and make his case.''
Lockhart said he did not know whether Clinton would have time to watch the
impeachment debate being broadcast live on television, saying that if he did
it would only be in passing.
But the portrait of studied unconcern painted by the White House was
undermined at mid-morning when first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton broke her
recent silence about the Republican drive to impeach her husband for his
efforts to conceal his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Walking to the White House South Lawn, where she tied a red ribbon to a Ford
Explorer to remind people not to drive drunk during the holidays, Mrs. Clinton
made an appeal for the country to find a way out of the mess.
``In this holiday season, as we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah and Ramadan
and it's time for reflection and reconciliation among people, we in our
country ought to practice reconciliation and we ought to bring our country
together,'' she said.
``We ought to end divisiveness, because we can do so much more together,''
she said in response to a reporter's question.
Lockhart continued to argue that Clinton, who faces charges of perjury,
obstruction of justice and abuse of power, had done nothing that warranted his
impeachment.
But he could not deflect growing certainty that the Republicans have the votes
in the House to force an impeachment and prolong the crisis into next year,
when the Senate would be expected to hold a trial presided over by Chief
Justice William Rehnquist.
``If members can put the politics, the cynicism, the partisanship aside, then
I think that they will come to the same conclusion that we do,'' Lockhart
said. ``If they can't, then we may have a different result.''
=================================
Robert F. Tatman
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