WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, October 9) -- Following House action Thursday to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee is now laying the groundwork for hearings which are expected to begin after the November election.

The White House plans to take an active role in that process. Clinton's legal defense team spoke briefly by phone after the vote with the panel's lead investigator, David Schippers, and are now scheduled to meet with the GOP counsel next Tuesday to discuss the procedures and protocol of the inquiry.

House Judiciary Chair Henry Hyde

The first step in mapping out that course is for Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and Schippers to sit down and decide on witnesses and scope.

"We don't want to be accused of politicizing this ... but we will be doing a lot of planning and interviewing and whatever's necessary to have hearings after the election," Hyde said.

Issues Hyde and his committee must settle include whether to rely solely on the evidence from Independent Counsel Ken Starr. In another key area, the panel must also decide who will testify in public. Potential headliners include Starr or former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Another possible star witness is the president himself though Clinton isn't ready to say whether he will volunteer to testify or if he will challenge Lewinsky's account of their relationship.

The president did promise to cooperate with the inquiry, but suggested Thursday that he's largely a bystander in the impeachment debate: "It is not in my hands, it is in the hands of Congress and the people of this country ... There is nothing I can do."

"What I can do is to do my job for the American people," Clinton continued. To that end, the president tried to project an image of business as usual Friday as he hosted a White House law enforcement event, announcing additional funds to hire 428 police officer reinforcements and help states enforce the Brady law.

GOP chief investigator David Schippers

White House attorneys anticipate the committee will next issue written interrogatories to the president, the White House counsel's office and perhaps other administration officials to explore factual disputes stemming from Starr's report.

The White House on Friday also served notice that it would frequently remind the American people of Hyde's expressed intention to try to wrap up the inquiry by year's end.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) suggested Friday, the "length and intensity" of the House impeachment hearings scheduled after the November 3 elections will depend on the outcome of those elections.

Another element of the emerging White House political strategy is to suggest Republicans overreached in their effort for an open-ended impeachment inquiry -- and could have had broad bipartisan support for an inquiry had they agreed to limit the scope to the Lewinsky matter and set a time limit for the investigation.

CNN's John King contributed to this report.

Friday, October 9, 1998

• Battle lines drawn in budget showdown
• Next step: laying the groundwork for impeachment hearings
• Prosecutors and defense spar over Espy's gift-giving friend
• House Ethics Committee releases report on Rep. Kim
• Senate Democrats try to revive health-care debate
• Hyde: GOP won't object to inquiry calling Starr
• California base closing hits 1,600 jobs
• Paralyzed California candidate has own agenda
• House passes bankruptcy bill
• Roll call: House bankruptcy bill
• Supreme Court to expand study of census
• Nutrition bill passes House
• Senate approves religious freedom bill
• Tipper Gore injures leg jogging
• Designs finalized for new quarters
• New York parole board member indicted over Pataki fund-raising
• House readies $9B tax package

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