Lawmaker: 'Time Has Come' To Consider Clinton Impeachment

Democratic National Committee

Republicans Saying 'Independent Counsel,' 'Impeachment'

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 16) -- Congressional Republicans questioned motives as they renewed their call for an independent counsel to investigate alleged wrongdoing involving White House fund-raising practices.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he has ordered a study of impeachment procedures, though he admitted impeachment would be "a drastic, draconian remedy."

Regarding the question about an independent counsel, Republicans want to see what Attorney General Janet Reno has discovered in her investigation of White House fund-raising practices, according to Sen. Arlen Specter. Reno has refused to appoint an independent counsel, saying her own findings indicate there is no need for one.

"She has had a grand jury investigate it. She has had a big group of FBI agents investigate it," Specter (R-Penn.) said on ABC's "This Week." "I'd like to know what they know."

"If there is sufficient evidence that the public doesn't know about, she may well be in a situation of dereliction."

A number of Republicans have suggested Reno has not appointed an independent counsel because her department has a conflict of interest, as she is appointed by the president.

But some Democrats counter that Republicans are putting political pressure on Reno.

"What you have is a major effort on the Republican side to do what the statute itself is set up to avoid," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said on ABC. He denounced efforts to "politicize the process."

The statute gives the attorney general a certain amount of time before making her decision, Kerry said, and Reno may yet decide on an independent prosecutor.

A separate call for an independent counsel came on CBS's "Face the Nation" from Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee that is investigating the affair.

Hatch said the FBI first sounded a warning about Chinese donations as early as 1995, and suggested the 1996 FBI warning to the National Security Council staff was never passed on to Clinton because people in the administration were already aware of it. Clinton has said he never got the warning.

"There are just too many things going on here that may reach the highest levels of the White House and the DNC, and that being the case, that's why you've got to have an independent counsel," Hatch said.

DNC Chairman vs. RNC Chairman On Soft Money

Meantime, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee challenged the chairman of the Republican National Committee to shake hands on ending future soft money contributions.

"I want to put it on the table, that as of 9 o'clock tomorrow morning there will be no more soft money received by either political party," Colorado Gov. Roy Romer said on Fox News Sunday.

Romer put the challenge to Jim Nicholson, who declined to accept the offer.

"We can help move this country out of this morass of soft money in one fell swoop," Romer said on Fox. "Let's just do it right now. We don't have to wait for a law."

Jim Nicholson	Gov. Roy Romer
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Nicholson instead aimed criticism instead at White House fund-raising practices, involving coffees, guests in the Lincoln bedroom and Vice President Al Gore's fund raising phone calls.

"What we are dealing with here is a major scandal," Nicholson said. "A major violation of the law."

Republicans Brushing Up On Impeachment Law

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said on Fox that his aides are investigating the procedure of impeachment if stronger evidence, what he termed a "smoking gun" -- turns up against the president.

"We are studying the law of impeachment, the procedures of impeachment. We'll be ready when the time comes, when we have the credible evidence to go ahead," Hyde said.

"That doesn't mean anything is imminent," he added.

The White House did not respond publicly to Hyde's remarks.