A L S O+T O D A Y Impeachment hearing voices A round-up of the most quotable moments from Tuesday's hearing (12/09/98) Clinton defense who's who A roster of the witnesses for the president (12/09/98) The full-text of the White House defense report (12/09/98)   T A B L E+T A L K Dan Rather tells Larry King that Hillary is the Democrats' strongest bet for 2000. Does America need another Clinton in the Oval Office? Join the discussion in Table Talk's Politics area ___________________ Search BarnesandNoble.com for more on impeachment ___________________   R E C E N T L Y Gentleman's agreement By Christopher Hitchens Why Clinton gets to stay mum on Pinochet (12/08/98) Nappy and proud? By Earl Ofari Hutchinson Black women haven't come a long way, baby, when it comes to their hair (12/07/98) The uneasy death of Florence Griffith Joyner By Kristina Rebelo Anderson When the superstar former athlete died suddenly in her bedroom, a Pandora's box of dark rumors and murky explanations was let loose (12/04/98) Hello Oprah, good-bye Constitution By Lori Leibovich An impeachment scholar bemoans the spectacle that has invaded the House of Representatives (12/04/98) Impeachment diary Compiled by Daryl Lindsey It was a busy week at Henry Hyde's Theater of the Absurd on Capitol Hill (12/04/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		CLINTON: TV OR NOT TV? | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - But so far the prospect of such a spectacle isn't daunting many congressional Republicans. A month after a resounding election defeat led to House Speaker Newt Gingrich's departure and seemed to doom impeachment, leading Democrats and Republicans say there may now be enough votes in the House to send articles of impeachment to the Senate later this month. Clinton and his advisors are deliberating about whether the president should do more to mollify congressional moderate Republicans, who have expressed anger at the tone of his answers to 81 questions posed by the House Judiciary Committee. The president is said to be considering another televised address to the nation to elaborate on his previous explanations and apologies. Administration sources said they'll likely wait until next week, after the Judiciary Committee vote, to decide whether the president needs to mount a last-ditch personal defense. "There is no game plan at the moment," a White House aide told Salon. "It's more that we'll see how things are playing and make the important decisions then." But the aide confirmed that the White House has no accurate count of how many Republicans plan to vote for impeachment. "There's great uncertainty about the vote count," the White House source said. In fact, there never seemed to be a serious basis for the estimates that "15 to 20" House Republicans might vote against impeachment, which were being bandied about two weeks ago. An aide to Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., a moderate who opposes impeachment, says his boss was the source of the 15-to-20 figure. Pressed by reporters to estimate the number of anti-impeachment Republicans, Shays guessed at 15 or 20, then saw his guestimate enter an "echo chamber" of media repetition, the aide told Salon, which turned it into fact. With three Democrats (Gene Taylor of Mississippi, Virgil Goode of Virginia and Ralph Bell of Texas) expected to vote for impeachment, Clinton will need 14 Republicans to oppose impeachment in order to avoid a Senate trial. But it's clear the president's defense was intended to play to moderate Republicans. Clinton's lawyer, Gregory Craig, opened the day with a much more low-key and deferential tone than that exhibited by David Kendall when he grilled independent counsel Kenneth Starr three weeks ago. "The president wants everyone to know -- the committee, the Congress and the country -- that he is genuinely sorry for the pain and the damage he has caused," Craig told the committee. The combative Kendall made no appearance before the committee, which some said was evidence of tension within Clinton's own legal team about how contrite and accommodating the president should appear. There was plenty of evidence of tension within the committee, as its members resumed the partisan wrangling that marked Kenneth Starr's appearance Nov. 19. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a staunch impeachment opponent, derided committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., for defending Oliver North's lies during the 1987 Iran-contra hearings, but supporting impeaching the president for perjury today. Hyde was combatively unrepentant. "I'm glad you brought that up," he told Waters. "Trying to save Central America from a Castro takeover required clandestine operations. People's lives were at stake." But he cut off the discussion, telling Waters, "This isn't gonna be the Henry and Maxine show." Back in suburban Seattle, the spectacle was disturbing to Rep.-elect Jay Inslee. "It'll be appalling to go to Washington and sit there on ice while the nation's problems fester and Congress fiddles with this," Inslee says. He held out some hope that the outgoing White would "see the light" and vote for censure, not impeachment, since "that's the will of the people." "Congressman White doesn't govern by polls," counters White chief of staff Pepple. "He'll take into account the opinions of the constituents and the information he has when he goes back to Washington to vote on this." SALON | Dec. 9, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - R E L A T E D_.S A L O N_.S T O R I E S Backlash '98? After dreading November's elections, some Democrats now believe they will benefit from an anti-impeachment voter rebellion. By Joan Walsh Oct. 22, 1998