BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- Taking pains to reserve judgment, lawmakers' immediate reactions to Kenneth Starr's report on President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and attempts to hide it were shock and disgust.
Some members of Congress said the contents did not portend well for the president and renewed calls for him to resign.
Democrats and Republicans alike were troubled by the detailed descriptions in the independent counsel's report of Clinton's and Lewinsky's encounters.
"It's disgusting, it's not the way normal people act," said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, one of Clinton's staunchest Democratic allies, denounced the president's "reckless behavior."
"We are all poorer because of the mistake of a man who has squandered an historic opportunity, disgracing himself in the eyes of the world and his family," McKinney, D-Ga., said in a statement, breaking her months-long silence on the matter. "Bill Clinton's greatest punishment will be that he has to face that reality every morning for the rest of his life."
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a House International Relations Committee member who recently went to Russia and Ireland with Clinton, said it was a critical time for the president.
"This could be a make-or-break weekend for the president," he said, adding that Clinton must "provide more detailed answers to this. It's a tragedy."
Members of both parties continued, however, to urge a measured approach to the monumental task that now lies ahead for the House, and possibly the Senate if the House voted articles of impeachment. Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., said he found no evidence of obstruction of justice or other crimes warranting impeachment in the portions of the sexually explicit 445-page report that he had read.
"I don't think juicy tidbits should be the determining factor," he said.
Rep. Darlene Hooley, a Democrat who was headed home to Oregon, said she glanced at the report after its release and found its contents "very shocking." But she, too, cautioned against arriving at "snap judgments."
"We have a constitutional duty to be pretty calm about this," Hooley said.
Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., who sits on the House Judiciary Committee that will have to decide if pursuing impeachment is warranted, said it was important to reserve judgment.
"If we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, the president should have an opportunity to present his case," he said. "Fairness requires that and I know the Judiciary Committee is committed to conducting any proceedings with respect to this matter in a way that is fair and balanced and focuses on getting to the truth." House members weren't the only ones with the independent counsel's report occupying their attention.
"This is very serious stuff," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "What I've read so far, it's not good."
Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., a potential presidential candidate who called for Clinton's resignation after the matter became public last January, said the report "will reinforce the strong case for the president's departure made by Bill Clinton's own words." "The decent and honorable thing for the president would be to resign. His refusal to do so forces the country to make a terrible decision," Ashcroft said.
Sen. Dale Bumpers, a Democrat from Clinton's home state of Arkansas, reminded lawmakers about work that remains on issues such as health care, the environment and education, and suggested they return after the election, if necessary, to deal with them.
"Morality is often like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder," he said. "Allowing children to go without health care is immoral, too."
