Clinton Urged To Admit Perjury

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 14, 1998 / 7:13 PM EDT / CBS

Republicans and Democrats are telling President Clinton that the way to help his case is to rein in his lawyers and just admit he lied to the grand jury about Monica Lewinsky, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer reports.

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They are telling him that frustration with his legal team is one of the main factors that is increasing pressure to hold impeachment hearings.

Orrin Hatch, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, became so frustrated with the legal maneuvering that he has sent word to the White House that he would personnally lead an effort to urge that the president not be indicted for perjury if he'll just admit he lied.

Hoping to bring the situation to a quicker conclusion, we've also learned that if the president does admit he lied, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is prepared to lead efforts to keep him from being indicted for perjury.

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And, for the first time, Democratic House Leader Dick Gephardt and his Senate couterpart, Tom Daschle, also expressed frustration with the White House argument that the president did not commit perjury.

Daschle said "the legal hair-splitting served no constructive purpose" and should be stopped.

And the Democrat who headed the Iran-Contra investigation said the Starr report leaves Congress no choice but to begin the process leading to impeachment hearings.

"I think it's the lying that bothers me the most. This was not an impromptu, impulsive decision to lie. This is a lie that went on for seven or eight months," said Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton.

Lee Hamilton

House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde spent Sunday going over the boxes of evidence Starr has collected and, like Hamilton, he's leaning toward holding hearings of some kind before the year is out.

As pressure for hearings built, the president lost the support of his favorite Republican, Iowa Congressman Gregg Ganske, who broke with his party this summer to support the President's HMO reform plan. On Monday, Ganske urged the president to step aside.

"The president should now do the honorable thing and resign," Ganske said.

Finally, if hearings do come, we're now told they may involve more than jus the charges in the report sent to the House last week.

Judiciary Chairman Hyde said Monday he expects to get more material from the Independent Counsel. And he expects it to cover matters beyond Monica Lewinsky. He didn't elaborate.

CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley reports that the president's lawyers are not willing to give up their technical legal argument on the perjury allegation.

Now the White House is preparing to announce it is hiring a new group of long-time legislative hands to make the president's case. A senior official tell CBS News they hope to lay the perjury issue aside and convince Congress that whatever the president did it does not rise to impeachment.

Mr. Clinton was in New York on Monday for a series of fund-raisers expected to bring more than $4 million to Democrats. He did not refer to the Lewinsky investigation. The president intends to say less about that now and become more visible on other issues.