Democrats draft short impeachment inquiry

Published: Friday, October 02, 1998

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats are drafting a proposal for a brief impeachment inquiry restricted to President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, officials said Thursday, effectively dropping an attempt to head off a formal investigation with a swift censure.

Several officials said the Democratic proposal, designed as an alternative to the open-ended inquiry envisioned by Republicans, may refer to censure as an eventual resolution of the case against Clinton.

But this would come into play only after a formal investigation.

These officials declined to say how long an investigation Democrats might propose, although the party's leader in the House, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, has suggested timetables of 30 or 60 days.

They added that no final decisions have been made.

Republicans are certain to prevail, both in the Judiciary Committee as well as in the entire House, when they seek passage next week of an open-ended inquiry based on precedents established during the Watergate investigation a quarter-century ago.

But Gephardt and other Democratic leaders have been laboring in recent days to craft an alternative that their rank-and-file could rally behind, thus it would enable many of them to vote in opposition to the Republican proposal without exposing themselves to election-year charges that they sought to ignore evidence against the president.

"This cannot be a never-ending fishing expedition," Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters at a news conference.

"The American people should know that when the Republicans vote for an open-ended inquiry next week, that they are committing all of the country to a process that could last for months, for years - who knows."

Republicans responded swiftly in what has become a staple of the impeachment drama unfolding in the Capitol - one side troops before the television cameras to level a charge, followed a few moments later by the other side offering a rebuttal.

In this case, Rep. Charles Canady of Florida was one of several of the Republicans responding.

"I have a growing suspicion that no matter what we do ... they will criticize it," he said.