Clinton Denies Perjury Charges, Will Not Resign

WASHINGTON —  With House Democrats sounding increasingly gloomy about blocking impeachment, President Clinton on Sunday flatly denied that he lied under oath about his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky and brushed aside appeals that he resign.

“I did not commit perjury,” Clinton told reporters while traveling in the Middle East.

That may hurt his chances of winning over enough votes to avoid the ignominy of impeachment because several uncommitted Republicans have said an admission of guilt is the price for their support.

“Those of us that are looking for a way to get through this constitutional crisis really are looking to Bill Clinton to help us in this quest,” Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego) said Sunday on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

Even as Clinton was saying it “never crossed my mind” to resign, a top Republican urged him to do just that to spare the nation the “turmoil and tumult” of a crippling fight over his future.

“I think the president should step down,” said Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has sent four articles of impeachment to the full House. “I think he could really be heroic if he did that.”

The Democrats’ best chance for derailing impeachment was lost after Republican leaders made clear that they would not allow the House to vote on any alternative, such as censure.

“The odds are quite strong that the House will vote for impeachment,” said Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

“I just hope the American people--this is almost a plea--will make their views known to their representatives, because the American people are the only thing that stand between the nation and impeachment.”

But even Republican vote counters admit the outlook is clouded by the uncertainty about many lawmakers’ votes.

“He’s still got some room to maneuver,” said Mike Scanlon, spokesman for House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), of Clinton’s prospects. “It’s a question of whether that room to maneuver closes off in the next 24 to 48 hours. Even then, he has one last shot.”

Those assessments came in the aftermath of the Judiciary Committee’s votes Friday and Saturday to recommend impeaching Clinton on four grounds: two charges that he committed perjury about his relationship with Lewinsky, one charge that he obstructed justice by trying to conceal his affair and one charge that he abused his presidential power in the process.

The committee action has forced other House members scattered around the country in their home districts to confront the reality that they can no longer sit on the sidelines of this debate. This week every House member will have to take a stand on whether Clinton should become the second president in history to be impeached.

Members have been summoned back to Washington for Wednesday, when the Judiciary Committee’s report will be available and both parties are expected to have closed-door briefings on the impeachment question.

Floor debate on the four articles of impeachment is scheduled to begin Thursday. Separate votes will be held on each article. GOP leaders have not yet decided exactly how much time to allot for the debate, but Republican aides say it may be at least Friday before all the debating and voting is over.

If any of the articles are approved, they will be sent to the Senate, which is responsible for holding a trial to determine whether Clinton should be removed from office. Removal is considered unlikely because two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to convict Clinton and the Senate includes 45 Democrats, who are unlikely to oust a president of their own party.

Still, the House votes on impeachment are momentous ones that many lawmakers had hoped to avoid--including many Republicans who fear political fallout whichever way they vote. But GOP leaders are refusing to allow the House to sidestep impeachment and approve a lesser alternative. In the wake of the committee vote, Speaker-designate Bob Livingston (R-La.) broke his silence on impeachment and said he agrees with Hyde that GOP leaders should block efforts by Democrats to have a vote on a censure alternative on the House floor. Outgoing Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has concurred.

Censure Is Seen as Toothless Gimmick

Republicans argue that censuring the president would be an unconstitutional evasion of their responsibility to vote up or down on impeachment. Political strategists also fear that allowing a vote on a censure alternative could kill chances for impeaching Clinton because it would ease pressure on wavering Republicans to vote for the harsher outcome. DeLay, an ardent proponent of impeachment, says censure is a toothless gimmick designed to give Democrats “political cover.”

Democrats hope to ratchet up political pressure on Republicans to allow a censure vote. They are planning to demand procedural votes that would force the GOP to address the issue, but they acknowledge that the effort will fall flat if the public does not respond quickly and fervently in reaction to the prospect of impeachment.

Asked in his Jerusalem press conference about Republicans’ refusal to allow a censure vote, Clinton said: “Ask them whether they’re opposed to it because they think that it might pass, since, apparently, somewhere around three-quarters of the American people think that’s the right thing to do.”

Clinton’s remarks in Jerusalem were his first in public on the subject since the Judiciary Committee finished its work and were his most extensive to date on the specific subject of impeachment.

They framed a long day in which Washington and Jerusalem were fixated by the suddenly twinned, vexing problems seemingly consuming the Clinton presidency at the end of its sixth year: his grip on his office and on the reins of the tenuous search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

And they set off a new round of debate as the nation’s capital awoke to the videotaped image of the president struggling from afar to maintain his office.

Asked specifically whether Clinton should step aside to save the country from the ordeal of impeachment, Hyde for the first time said he should. “It certainly would be a quick and radical solution to the dilemma that we have,” he said Sunday on the CBS-TV program “Face the Nation.”

But an ocean and continent away, Clinton said flatly: “I have no intention of resigning.”

Throughout the day, Clinton appeared fatigued, and by the end of the day, appearing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they delivered toasts at a dinner, his eyes had narrowed to slits, the puffiness often seen beneath them growing more pronounced.

The president’s most-senior aides had to fend off rumors throughout the day that he would end the trip early to return to Washington to directly tackle impeachment questions. He is now scheduled to leave Israel late Tuesday afternoon and land at Andrews Air Force Base late that night.

Questions about impeachment dominated the news conference Clinton held after spending much of the morning in private meetings with Netanyahu and aides. The focus of the meetings--the centerpiece of a trip set seven weeks ago when the Wye Plantation agreement was reached--was the derailed state of the peace process that Clinton had thought was on track after the pact was reached in Maryland.

Asked to predict the outcome of the House impeachment vote, Clinton portrayed himself as almost powerless to shape his own destiny.

“That’s up to them. It’s out of my hands,” the president said. He offered to speak with any member who wants to hear from him or his aides, but said, otherwise, “I think it’s important that they be free to make this decision and that they not be put under any undue pressure from any quarter.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be personally calling people.”

Clinton’s fate rests largely in the hands of a small group of Republicans, most of them moderates, who have not announced how they will vote on impeachment.

Two Republicans considered uncommitted, Rep. Rick Lazio of New York and Jon D. Fox of Pennsylvania, joined Clinton on the Middle East trip.

Lazio said in a television interview Sunday that he had not yet discussed impeachment with the president. But he indicated he was disappointed in Clinton’s comments denying he committed perjury.

“Two simple words--’I lied’--would have gone a long way,” Lazio said on “Late Edition.”

*

You can let your congressional representative know your views of the impeachment proceedings with the Write to Congress service provided by The Times’ Web site: http://ukobiw.net/scandal