BY DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Henry Hyde, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, hopes the panel can complete its work on impeachment the week of Dec. 7 and the House can convene the following week to vote if necessary on President Clinton's fate, Republican sources said Monday.
But Mr. Hyde's timetable, as virtually everything else in the final stages of the nation's third presidential impeachment inquiry, is subject to numerous unsettled issues, ranging from constitutional matters to logistics.
As an example, before adjourning last month for the elections, lawmakers gave Speaker Newt Gingrich the authority to call the House back into session "whenever, in his opinion, the public interest shall warrant it."
That provision was crafted with impeachment proceedings in mind. Now, though, Mr. Gingrich is a lame duck, and as a practical matter, has ceded power to Rep. Bob Livingston, tapped by Republicans to succeed him.
Christina Martin, Mr. Gingrich's press secretary, declined to say how the outgoing speaker would respond. Other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he probably would yield to Mr. Livingston's wishes. At the same time, Mr. Gingrich could also appoint Mr. Livingston to preside over the House for any such proceedings.
Nor is it clear whether House approval of censure - an alternative to impeachment suggested by many lawmakers - would advance to the Senate for a vote there. That depends on how the measure is drafted. That is not the only perceived problem with censure. "I don't think there is any constitutional authority for us to do anything other than impeachment," Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla, a Judiciary Committee member, said recently on CNN.
Some lawmakers have said recently that while the GOP-controlled committee is likely to approve at least one article of impeachment on a party-line vote, the House would reject it.
Mr. Livingston has said he, like Mr. Hyde, is eager to have the entire issue resolved by the end of the year. "If it requires a vote in the House of Representatives, I'd be prepared to ask Newt Gingrich, as the current speaker of the House, to call us in," he said in an appearance Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press."
Apart from the committee, little effort has gone into planning the final stages of the impeachment drama.
Mr. Livingston says he has not discussed the issue with Mr. Hyde. Nor has House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt had any discussions with Mr. Livingston on the subject, Democratic officials say. The White House has been checking the impeachment landscape in the wake of an unexpected gain of seats by Democrats in the Nov. 3 election.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a former lawmaker, has been asked to contact members of the House to gauge the sentiment, officials said.
Mr. Clinton's response to written questions from Mr. Hyde will also have an impact.
Aides close to Mr. Clinton expect that material to be shipped to Congress on Wednesday or Friday, when many Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving and paying scant attention to news reports.
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