WASHINGTON – The country’s first presidential impeachment trial since 1868 stalled yesterday – just minutes after it started – when Republicans and Democrats couldn’t agree on how to run it.
The thorniest sticking point, among several, remains whether to call witnesses and if so, how many.
That question may be hashed out today when all 100 senators attend a rare closed-door strategy meeting, which could be followed by a vote in open session on a trial plan.
At issue: Senate Republicans would like to hear from five key witnesses. House Republican prosecutors want to question at least 10. The White House and Senate Democrats don’t want any.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who is already taking heat for the trial’s seemingly disorganized start, promises a plan that is fair.
“All we want to try to do is to make sure we have a process that is understood, that is as fair as we can make it to all parties, and we’re able to get to the truth and get to a vote in a reasonable period of time,” Lott said at a joint news conference with Tom Daschle, the Senate’s top Democrat.
Lott had been floating an idea of a trial beginning next Thursday – with witnesses approved by a majority of the Senate – and ending between Feb. 5 and 12.
Daschle and the Democrats wanted a trial with prosecutors and defense lawyers each getting three days, followed by a day of questions from senators and a vote to convict or acquit Clinton. The Democrats’ plan allows for zero witnesses.
Although most Democrats have been critical of the GOP trial plan, Daschle said he was “hopeful” an agreement could be reached at today’s rare bipartisan meeting in the old Senate chamber. Daschle even praised Lott for what he called an “extraordinary bipartisan effort” to strike a deal.
Lott yesterday was considering ramming his trial plan through the Senate on a probable party-line vote but fellow Republicans persuaded him to give diplomacy one more chance.
“We are jurors now, and we ought to keep politics out of this,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). “We cannot handle impeachment on a partisan basis.”
With Senators about to weigh throwing President Clinton out of office for perjury and obstruction of justice, the lack of a firm trial blueprint left many frustrated.
“It’s an awful signal to send to the rest of the country if we can’t determine the procedures,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.).
Yesterday’s historic events began when the 13 prosecutors from the House – led by Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde – came to the Senate chamber to read the articles of impeachment that the House passed on Dec. 19.
Then at 1:21 p.m., Senate President Strom Thurmond, the 96-year-old South Carolina Republican with a thick drawl, swore in Rehnquist as the presiding judge.
“Do you solemnly swear that in all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton, now pending, that you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you God?” Thurmond asked the chief judge.
“I do,” replied Rehnquist, who was driven to the Capitol in an armored black Cadillac Fleetwood.
Rehnquist, wearing a dark robe with four gold bars on his sleeves, then swore in all 100 senators simultaneously.
Each lawmaker strode to the front of the Senate floor and signed the official green leather “oath book.”
Besides the millions of viewers who tuned in to the proceedings via television, the impeachment trial was watched by a packed gallery of tourists, congressional staffers and reporters, all of whom were lucky enough to receive special “impeachment tickets” giving them access.
Clinton is the first president since Andrew Johnson to be impeached by the House.
While Johnson was impeached in the wake of the murder of Abraham Lincoln, Clinton was impeached over his messy and kinky affair with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr charged Clinton with lying repeatedly to cover up the fling, with using the power of his office to resist investigators and with convincing Lewinsky – among others – to lie about whether there was any hanky-panky between him and Lewinsky.
Clinton, who at first denied an affair with Lewinsky, is planning a two-part defense in the Senate. First, his lawyers will question Lewinsky’s credibility and second, they’ll argue that even if they did fool around, his actions don’t merit being thrown out of office.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said that calling witnesses “will significantly extend and delay this process – and all bets are off.”
As an alternative, Lockhart said Clinton would stipulate to “7,000 or so pages” of grand jury testimony and other evidence from Starr – an offer meant to avoid having the public hear Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan, Betty Currie and even possibly Dick Morris testify about what the president told them.
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee accused New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, of having a conflict as a juror in the president’s trial. Schumer publicly admitted in the House that he believes Clinton lied under oath to a federal grand jury, but Schumer said the crime is not impeachable.