WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's lawyers argued in impeachment hearings Tuesday that the president's misleading of others about his affair with an intern was sinful but not impeachable.House judiciary panel chief Henry Hyde walks past boxes of Starr documents.Reuters
Among defense witnesses who agreed was former Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah, who said Clinton's acts fall short of the standard for impeachment set by the House Judiciary Committee when he was a member in 1974 as it investigated Richard Nixon.White House special counsel Gregory Craig opened two days of defense by Clinton's attorneys by offering an apology from Clinton, an acknowledgment that his acts were wrong -- but an argument that they are not serious enough to merit impeachment.
"The president wants everyone to know -- the committee, the Congress and the country -- that he is genuinely sorry for the pain and damage he has caused and for the wrongs he has committed," Craig said.
He said Clinton instructed that no "legalities should be allowed to obscure the simple moral truth that his behavior in this matter was wrong. He misled his wife and family, his friends and colleagues, and our nation about the nature of his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky."
But Craig also urged the committee to "draw a sharp distinction between immoral conduct and illegal acts. Just as no fancy language can obscure the fact that what the president did was morally wrong, no amount of rhetoric can change the legal reality that there are no grounds for impeachment."
He added, "As surely as we all know that what he did was sinful, we also know it is not impeachable."
Agreeing was Owens, who argued that he and other Judiciary Committee members who investigated Nixon in 1974 concluded that impeachment should be only for cases where a president's official actions threaten "the system of government."Wayne Owens
"President Clinton's misdeeds do not reach the standard of impeachment which our committee established," Owens said in a prepared statement.
Clinton's actions do not threaten the system of government, but "you are faced with the record of misdeed by a president who carried on an illicit sexual affair, then publicly and privately misled others to protect his wife and daughter, and the public, from finding out about his infidelity."
Owens said that amounts to "personal, not official, misconduct." That is "improper and serious" but "not impeachable."
"If you vote to impeach a president because he had an improper sexual affair (and) then avoided full disclosure by using narrow legal definitions . . . you do untold damage to the Constitution and to the stability of future presidents."
Owens said the case with Nixon was different, because Nixon had used the CIA, the Justice Department and others to cover up unlawful activity by his aides.
Craig also argued that Clinton's actions do not constitute perjury, obstruction of justice or abuse of power.
For example, he said, Clinton's testimony in a sexual harassment case by Paula Jones "was evasive, incomplete, misleading, even maddening -- but it was not perjury."
Meanwhile, Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said he believes his panel has made a compelling case for removing Clinton for office. He announced that the committee will begin debate and possibly vote on articles of impeachment Friday.
The committee is expected to send articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote that could occur as early as next week. If a majority of the House endorses it, the matter would be sent for a trial in the Senate. A two-thirds majority vote there would be needed to remove Clinton from office.
While the impeachment hearings proceeded, the president was across town kicking off a conference on reforming Social Security -- and planned later in the day to attend a Tennessee memorial for former Sen. Albert Gore Sr., the vice president's father, who died Saturday.