WASHINGTON -- On the eve of Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment of President Clinton, some of the president's GOP critics on the panel turned up at the White House congressional Christmas party.
Committee chairman Henry Hyde, who gaveled today's solemn proceedings to order, chose to sit the party out and prepare for the impeachment hearings. "He's never been much of a partying guy," said spokesman Sam Stratman.Committee member Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., was among those who attended. "I've been a member of Congress for 12 years and my wife wanted to see the White House in all its Christmas form," he said. "So I took her."
But the couple did not queue up for a photo with the president, a tradition at such fetes.
"The line was too long," Gallegly said.
Rep. James Rogan stayed away to conserve energy for today's morning-to-midnight hearings.
"I've got a touch of the flu," Rogan said. "But I have attended and would have this year, because the White House belongs to the people, not just one president."
His picture with Clinton, he said, is "in a box somewhere," because the Rogan family is in the midst of moving.
Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, thought the impeachment proceedings threw the propriety of attending the White House party into question. "I thought it would be a little bit awkward," he said.
Not by accident, incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston was nowhere near the proceedings when Hyde gaveled the hearings to order this morning.
More than an hour earlier, the Louisiana Republican darted out a door down the hall, pausing politely for a finger-wagging man to make his case for impeachment.
Livingston said he had been attending an early-morning "organization" meeting of his incoming leadership team and that they did not discuss impeachment.
"No, no, we're not doing anything on that," Livingston told a reporter. "Have fun."