Impeachment reopens the party divides

PRESIDENT UNDER SIEGE

THE BIPARTISAN robes that Congress donned as the Starr report was released already look frayed. Democrats and Republicans are squabbling over the terms of any inquiry into President Bill Clinton, an ugly sign of what may be worse fights to come.

The path that could lead to impeachment will start to be mapped today, but it could be months before any inquiry formally opens and next year before any decision on impeachment is reached. The two sides are arguing over the timetable, procedures and appropriate punishment.

There is a formidable array of detail that has yet to be agreed. The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives meets today to establish rules under which it would conduct an initial probe, and that should be agreed by the full House tomorrow.

The committee will examine the Starr report and all the evidence that goes with it until 28 September, when it must report back to Congress. Full impeachment hearings would require another resolution and, while that may come in the next few weeks, it is uncertain whether these would begin this year. Congress adjourns on 9 October to prepare for elections on 3 November and, although representatives could be called back, the elections blow a hole in the timetable for hearings.

Strategically, the Republicans have an interest in dragging out proceedings, since every day they are under way is another day the President is under attack. The Democrats will want to close things as rapidly as possible, if for no other reason than to contain the damage in the elections.

That ensures a battle as the the two sides seek to extract tactical advantage. What makes it worse is that the Judiciary Committee contains some of the most ideologically zealous members of Congress, each only too aware that they are in the limelight.

There is already a battle between Democrats and Republicans over terms of the initial inquiry, with Henry Hyde, committee chairman, pressing for extensive and draconian powers, including the right to arrest witnesses who refuse to testify. He also reportedly wants to be able to brush aside claims of executive privilege, which the Clinton administration has repeatedly used in its defence.

John Conyers, the senior Democrat on the committee, is furious that Mr Hyde wants to ignore Watergate precedents - Mr Conyers is the only remaining person on the panel to have been through the hearings on Richard Nixon's impeachment - and negotiations stalled completely last week.

The Democrats have started to propose congressional censure, a slap on the wrist and a fine, rather than impeachment as the appropriate way to discipline Mr Clinton. The Republicans repudiate this, saying that the impeachment process must take its course.

Large, expensive teams of lawyers are being assembled. On the Judiciary Committee, the leading officials behind the Republican Congressmen are Thomas Mooney, 55, the chief of staff and a 30-year committee veteran, and David Schippers, 38, who arrived four months ago. Mr Schippers, as a Chicago prosecutor, helped to jail the mobster Sam Giancana. A devoted Democrat, his presence is intended to confirm the impartiality of any inquiry.

Their Democrat counterparts are Julian Epstein, 37, who worked for Mr Conyers for 14 years, and Abe Lowell, 46, who will be chief advocate for the defence. Mr Lowell previously defended such tarnished figures as former House speaker Jim Wright and former congressman Dan Rostenkowski.