Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- March 26, 1998
House funds path to impeachment
By Mary Ann Akers
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
House Republicans, over bitter objections from Democrats, yesterday approved an additional $1.3 million for the House Judiciary Committee to prepare for possible impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.
The funding request was approved on a day featuring intensified rhetoric over Republicans' behind-the-scenes planning for the possibility that Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr may soon send to the House of Representatives impeachable evidence against the president. Mr. Starr is expected to forward a final report detailing the findings of his nearly four-year investigation this spring.
Democrats said the $1.3 million allotment came from a "slush fund" and was intended to carry out a "partisan witch hunt" against Mr. Clinton. At yesterday's meeting of a House Oversight Committee -- which approves funding for the House's committees -- Republicans also pushed through another $1.8 million for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's campaign-finance probe.
The money came from a special reserve fund overseen by House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said yesterday's action was "nothing more than a backdoor way to increase committee funding without a House vote" in an effort to "further partisan political agendas."
House Judiciary Committee Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican, has insisted he plans to use the additional money to oversee the Justice Department and its handling of various scandals that have plagued the White House, including campaign fund-raising irregularities. At the same time, however, he has said he would be "ready" for whatever evidence Mr. Starr sends his way and acknowledged yesterday that oversight of the Justice Department would include Mr. Starr's office.
Democrats said yesterday it was not Mr. Hyde they distrusted, but Mr. Gingrich, who has maintained a tight grip over the congressional probes of the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party on several fronts.
"We're more worried about Dr. Jekyll" than Mr. Hyde, joked Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat.
"It's a dictatorship of one," Mr. Hoyer added.
Mr. Frank and Mr. Hoyer complained that top Judiciary Committee Democrats, including ranking minority member John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, have been shut out of private discussions involving funding for the committee and the process by which the House would handle any material forwarded from the independent counsel.
But a spokesman for Mr. Hyde insisted there were two "face-to-face" meetings this week between Mr. Conyers and the chairman.
"We have kept the ranking member and his staff fully informed, and any assertion to the contrary is just wrong," the spokesman said.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, California Republican, insisted the $1.3 million was meant for Mr. Hyde's oversight of the Justice Department. Even if impeachment hearings were conducted, the House would need to approve "supplemental" funding to cover the costs, Mr. Thomas added.
Even Democrats acknowledged they had no way of knowing whether the funding was expressly approved for impeachment preparations. "There's just no way to know or to control the situation," Mr. Frank said.
Mr. Hyde, meanwhile, said yesterday he has selected a chief counsel if his committee does, in fact, hold impeachment proceedings against Mr. Clinton based on Mr. Starr's findings.
He would not name the candidate, but said he would be someone from the Chicago area who has prosecutorial experience.
"It's someone I have great confidence in," Mr. Hyde said.
He said he would name the counsel once it is clear whether the House will proceed with impeachment hearings.
Mr. Hyde and GOP leaders have gone out of their way not to predict whether Mr. Starr will ever forward impeachable evidence, but House Majority Leader Dick Armey sent a clear signal that Republicans were getting ready for just such an eventuality.
"We know that Judge Starr will be sending us a report," he told reporters yesterday, before quickly amending his remarks: "I have the expectation we will receive a report from him ... and we should be prepared to deal with it in a professional manner."
Asked about Mr. Armey's comments, Mr. Hyde said it was more of an assumption among Republicans that Mr. Starr will forward evidence. "One assumes he isn't working for four years to come up with nothing."
Mr. Hyde insisted there have been no talks between his staff and Mr. Starr's office and said he doubted Mr. Starr had been talking to senior GOP House leaders.
The chairman also continued to float the idea of creating a special, bipartisan task force to receive any documents from Mr. Starr, a panel, he said, that would contain "as many members of the Judiciary Committee as possible."
Such a group would sift through the materials and determine whether enough evidence exists to impeach the president.
Mr. Hyde also insisted he would not allow political considerations to color his handling of whatever evidence is ultimately forwarded to him.
For example, he said, Republicans should not base their decision about whether to proceed with impeachment hearings on the political fortune of Vice President Al Gore.
Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
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