Clinton may face Congressional rap

WASHINGTON, Aug 29: Even before Kenneth Starr has written his report to Congress, some politicians and pollsters are reviving a historica...

WASHINGTON, Aug 29: Even before Kenneth Starr has written his report to Congress, some politicians and pollsters are reviving a historical option for condemning President Bill Clinton’s behaviour: Congressional censure.Far less severe than impeachment, a censure resolution would simply scold the President. It’s only been used once, 164 years ago.

There’s more public support for that sort of symbolic action than for impeachment or for Congress doing nothing to chastise Clinton, recent polls suggest.

One recent poll found 41 per cent of Americans favoured a Congressional resolution scolding Clinton, while 24 per cent favoured impeachment and 32 per cent wanted no formal action at all. That CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, was taken on Friday through Sunday.

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In an ABC news survey taken on Sunday, 55 per cent favoured censuring or reprimanding Clinton, while 40 per cent opposed such a step. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The only President ever censured was Andrew Jackson. In 1834, the Senate approved a censure resolution after Jackson removed the nation’s money from a private bank in defiance of the Whig Party, which controlled the Senate.

The resolution, which had no legal impact, was expunged from the Senate record in 1837 after Jackson’s party, the Democrats, regained a majority in the chamber. Robert Remini, a University of Illinois historian and Jackson biographer, said the policy dispute that led to Jackson’s censure was far different from the allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice being investigated by Starr, the independent counsel.

If Congress does find evidence of crimes, Remini said, a censure vote would be “kind of a fake response.” The constitution is clear: If this man has committed high crimes and misdemeanours, then the resolution is impeachment,” he said. Censure would be “like sending a child to his room rather than giving him a sound licking.”

Starr is investigating whether Clinton lied about his relationship with Lewinsky in a sworn deposition for a sexual harassment lawsuit or took other steps to cover it up. Starr is expected to detail his evidence with a report to the House, perhaps in a few weeks.Impeachment is the only sanction outl

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ined in the constitution for a President. But the constitution says the House and Senate can punish their own members through censure. The Senate has done so nine times and the House 36 times, according to their historians. Senate majority leader Trent Lott raised the possibility in March of a Presidential censure as a “lesser option” to condemn Clinton’s conduct if “it’s not serious enough for impeachment.”

Congressional aides say some Republicans are reluctant to embrace censure before they know how serious any offences Starr uncovers are.

Muammar Gaddafi offers to send a lawyer

CAIRO: President Clinton got an offer of help yesterday in handling his domestic problems from an unlikely source: Muammar Gaddafi.The Libyan leader offered to send a lawyer to help Clinton deal with the fallout arising from his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. “I have no bad intentions towards (Clinton), and I am willing to send him a lawyer to defend him,” Gaddafi said.