The House Judiciary Committee fought a long, partisan battle Thursday over whether to release explicit sexual material in Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s impeachment report, putting off a final decision on making President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony public.
The 37-member panel is expected to vote Friday along party lines to release the videotape, heavily edited material from Monica Lewinsky’s grand jury testimony, and other evidence gathered by Starr against the president.
According to sources, the committee wrangled over how much detail of the alleged sex acts involving the president and Lewinsky to make public as it took up a report of redactions–or material to be excluded– recommended by the staff. Examining one sex act after another in the staff report made for an almost surreal discussion among committee members, sources said.
“It’s just an intense debate,” said Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.). Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) called it “laborious.”
As the committee met, House Republican leaders called for an FBI investigation into whether the White House may have been involved in disclosure by an Internet magazine of an affair between Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and a married woman 30 years ago.
White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles sent a letter to Hyde pledging to fire anyone involved in prying into the personal lives of lawmakers. “In addition, we have made clear to persons outside the White House that we will not tolerate such conduct,” Bowles said.
In the committee, Democrats fought unsuccessfully to prevent release of sexual material that they considered embarrassing to the president, with one Clinton defender, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), saying that the Republicans’ “purpose is to make the president look bad” and weaken him politically so that he will be easier to impeach.
How much of the graphic material to make public is a potentially explosive issue for both sides, with Republicans favoring more detail than Democrats. Still, the GOP is concerned about the public reaction from too much explicit material being put in the public domain.
“We don’t need to put out every graphic detail,” said Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who fears a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.
Hutchinson said that “there was much more agreement than disagreement on what should be redacted” despite an often contentious debate on some of the material.
Referring to Starr’s report, which has been made public, he said, “I look back and blanch when I see Congress’ stamp of approval on all that stuff already out there.”
Rep. Charles Canady (R-Fla.) talked of achieving a proper balance of evidence, removing gratuitous references to sexual encounters while keeping evidence of the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship that could shed light on whether the president committed perjury or obstruction of justice.
Democrats are fighting the release of the videotape on the ground that it is unfair to Clinton. The tape reportedly shows the president responding in anger to sensitive questions about his sexual relationship with Lewinsky. But Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) said his party lost all key votes Thursday and is apt to lose again Friday.
The committee’s first meeting since Starr filed his report last week signaled that the impeachment battle will be extremely partisan–exactly the opposite of what the House leadership had pledged when the process began.
Hyde called the session “strongly partisan, vigorously partisan, but I think everyone is civil and we’re all trying to do the best we can.”
He said that even if the committee approves release of the Clinton tape, it will not be released Friday for logistical reasons, with Saturday the earliest release date.
There is the possibility that the tape and other materials will not be made public until Tuesday if the committee fails to finish its work Friday because Monday is a Jewish holiday. The panel’s Republican majority plans to release simultaneously the president’s grand jury tape and most of the 2,600 pages of backup evidence that Starr sent to Congress.
Debate over releasing the material came in a heated political environment that turned nasty when the Internet magazine Salon revealed that Hyde had a five-year affair with a married woman during the 1960s.
Members on both sides of the aisle come to Hyde’s defense on Thursday, and House Republican leaders wrote a letter urging the FBI to launch an investigation into what they suggested was a campaign of intimidation directed at the Judiciary Committee.
“Clearly, there is credible evidence that an organized campaign of slander and intimidation may exist,” said the letter, signed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and seven other top GOP leaders.
The letter cited a report on ABC News that two unnamed journalists had been approached by a White House official, Sidney Blumenthal, suggesting they look into a report Hyde once had an affair.
“This is not politics as usual,” House GOP Whip Tom DeLay said. “This is an assault on the very foundations of our democracy.”
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The FBI said that it is “currently reviewing these allegations, and appropriate steps will be taken to determine if a violation of federal law has occurred.”
Hyde told a caucus of House Republicans on Wednesday morning that the White House had hired two firms to investigate the private lives of 100 House members. A Hyde spokesman acknowledged the statement, but said the chairman was not going to elaborate on his information.
The Hyde story caused the chief fundraisers for congressional campaigns in both parties to take the House floor and pledge that they would not tolerate personal attacks by candidates for House races.
Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), head of the National Republican Campaign Committee, said they would deny party funds to candidates who engaged in personal attack.
“The climate is very bad right now,” Frost said. “We want to do something to alter the poisonous climate in this country.” The party has the ability to deny candidates up to $70,000 in campaign funds for violations, he said.
The Hyde revelations intensified the already sharp partisan atmosphere generated by the expected release of more material from the Starr report.
“It’s important that the American people get access to all the facts,” Canady said. “They’re entitled to all the facts.”
But Democrats said the GOP majority is rushing ahead with release of the material with little regard for traditional grand jury secrecy. Frank and Meehan said they were particularly concerned that the committee’s actions will set a precedent that will enable prosecutors in the future to make more grand jury evidence public.
Democrats fear that support for the president will weaken when they see him answer prosecutors’ questions during his Aug. 17 testimony before the grand jury. According to sources, the president was angry, combative and at one point stormed out of the room. He also gave what the source said were hairsplitting answers to questions.
Republicans said that the president’s demeanor in answering questions is important for Congress to see as it passes judgment on whether he lied under oath and possibly committed perjury.
Release of the material will enable the House to decide whether to launch a formal impeachment inquiry–in effect another investigation–that will determine whether formal articles of impeachment will be filed against the president. A vote on the inquiry is the next step for the Judiciary Committee, which would conduct any investigation.