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- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday
there was not enough bipartisan consensus to impeach President Clinton,
even though he believed there was enough evidence. Orrin Hatch, chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that based on the evidence submitted
by independent counsel Kenneth Starr the House of Representatives would
vote for impeachment, but that there would not be enough votes in the Senate
to convict Clinton. ``I'd like to resolve it in the best interests of the
American people. That may be impeachment, it may not be. But you cannot
have impeachment without a huge bipartisan consensus and right now there
is no bipartisan consensus on impeachment that you consider significant
enough to do it,'' Hatch, a Utah Republican, said on ``Fox News Sunday''.
Earlier this month the House voted 258-176 to launch an impeachment inquiry,
which will focus on three core charges of lying under oath, witness tampering
and obstruction of justice stemming from the investigation of Clinton's
relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Hatch said the evidence
pointed to impeachable offenses by Clinton. ``I do believe that he will
be impeached by the House of Representatives.
The question is will the Senate do it ... but based upon what we have currently
I cannot name one Democrat who is going to vote for impeachment.'' Impeachment
requires a two-thirds Senate majority. ``If you look at the totality of
the evidence that Ken Starr put forward there's enough here to impeach.
You do have what appears to be perjury; you do have certainly lying to
the court; you have (evidence of) witness tampering; you have evidence
of obstruction of justice. Any one of those is an impeachable offense.''
House judiciary committee members said on the same program they wanted
Starr to give evidence before the House inquiry. Tom Barrett, a Wisconsin
Democrat, said it was crucial Starr be called to give evidence because
allegations coming out of his office were being challenged. Barrett also
said he was curious about the relationship between Starr's office, Lewinsky's
former friend Linda Tripp and Paula Jones. ``That's a fact-pattern that
has to be explored to see whether Linda Tripp was working as an agent for
him (Starr) and as an agent for Paula Jones at same time,'' he said. ``There
are some unanswered concerns. If we are moving toward impeachment we have
to have all the questions answered.'' Jones alleges Clinton exposed himself
to her and asked her for oral sex inside a Little Rock hotel room in 1991.
Clinton denies the allegations. On Saturday, Jones attorneys offered to
settle her sexual harassment suit for $2 million. Tripp triggered the scandal
investigation by providing Starr with tape recordings of her conversations
with Lewinsky. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said: ``For
the sake of history Kenneth Starr needs to come before the committee. Let's
have the guy come up and tell us what he did and why. A lot of the accusations
against Mr. Starr, once he gets a chance to speak, will make a little more
sense.''
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