BY Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton led a restrained campaign Wednesday against today's vote to launch an impeachment inquiry, while congressional Democrats complained that Republicans have stacked the process against him.
The vote in the House of Representatives is by far the most politically important of Mr. Clinton's presidency. In public, he projected an aura of laissez-faire. But the president, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore continued their behind-the-scenes lobbying.
"Everybody should cast a vote of principle and conscience," Mr. Clinton said during a picture-taking session with the prime minister of Hungary. "It's up to others to decide what happens to me, and ultimately it's going to be up to the American people to make a clear statement there."
Under more normal circumstances, Mr. Clinton and White House officials would have been summoning wavering representatives for Oval Office arm-twisting and sending emissaries to the Capitol to sway a crucial vote their way.
But the outcome of this vote -- bitter for the president -- is a foregone conclusion. There was little Mr. Clinton could do to head off the impeachment inquiry.
The only unanswered question was how many Democrats would vote for the Republican-sponsored measure. It would authorize an open-ended investigation to determine whether the president should be impeached for lying about his affair with former intern Monica Lewinsky and allegedly trying to cover it up.
The Republican plan also would authorize the House to consider impeachment of Mr. Clinton for offenses related to other matters independent counsel Kenneth Starr has been investigating for several years.
On Wednesday, Mr. Starr told leading members of the House Judiciary Committee he could not "foreclose the possibility" that he would submit to Congress evidence of additional wrongdoing by Mr. Clinton. "I can confirm at this time that matters continue to be under active investigation and review," he said in a letter.
Some Democrats say they fear Republicans would expand the inquiry to include material compiled by Rep. Dan Burton about alleged violation of fund-raising laws during Mr. Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. "Of course we'll look at it," said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Hyde, however, did not say whether the campaign finance probe would be folded into his investigation.
Mr. Clinton and his allies were trying to keep Democrats from voting for the resolution so they could portray the decision as largely a partisan matter in which the Republican majority in Congress is not giving the Democratic president a fair hearing.
"Anywhere from 30 to 80," one Democratic operative said of his party's likely crossovers against the president. The Clintons and their allies, said a House Democratic leadership aide, were "not offering people fund-raisers or bridges. They understand that . . . would be counterproductive."
Indeed, Mr. Clinton's phone calls began to irk some of the recipients. One Democrat likely to vote for the inquiry told a visitor Mr. Clinton had portrayed the vote as one of conscience.
But, he said, Mr. Clinton also said the vote was important to him and to the country. Offering a final argument, Mr. Clinton suggested that the House member look at the opinion polls showing a large reservoir of public support for the president.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, met with a group of House Democratic freshmen, asking what she, the president, the vice president and Tipper Gore could do for their re-election campaigns.
But Rep. Victor Snyder, D-Ark., said the first lady also said she and the president would work for re-election of the members regardless of how they vote on the impeachment inquiry.
The Republican leadership of the House has set aside an hour today for debate on the vote, but that could be expanded. The Democrats have asked for eight hours. As an alternative to the measure proposed by Mr. Hyde, Democrats have proposed authorizing an impeachment investigation limited in scope and length.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., complained that an open-ended investigation could equal in cost the $23 million House and Senate committees have spent investigating Democratic campaign-finance irregularities.
"We have accomplished almost nothing except spending the taxpayers' dollars on investigation after investigation after investigation," he said.
One Democrat advocating a fundamental change in strategy, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia, told reporters during the day that if the vote breaks down along partisan lines, "then the November election is likely to be a referendum on the president's conduct." That, he added, is not in the "long-term best interests of the Democratic Party."
