With less than a month remaining before the House of Representatives' self-imposed deadline for an impeachment vote, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have unnecessarily introduced a huge new issue into the proceedings.
Yesterday, the committee approved subpoenas to obtain evidence that might implicate President Bill Clinton in fund-raising improprieties in the 1996 campaign.
Assuming that the committee sticks to its timetable, as Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said he hopes it will, there hardly seems like enough time for a thorough examination of these possible crimes.
A cursory glance at 1996 campaign fundraising detracts from the credibility of the charges in the first place. The accusations against Clinton for illegally soliciting and accepting funds are serious and Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the matter warrants inspection. However, these well-founded concerns make little sense in this context.
The committee's latest maneuver looks more like a Republican ploy to preserve the impeachment effort than a genuine inquiry into the campaign scandal. Regardless of the motivation for putting them in the spotlight, the charges need to be considered on their own merit, but at a later time.
Dredging up these charges now makes this increasingly silly process "an impeachment inquiry in search of a high crime," as Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. so aptly described the situation. By trying to add extra charges against Clinton, Republicans seem to be manufacturing an impeachment measure designed to pass the House.
The inquiry was initially launched to determine if the crimes alleged by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr were worthy of impeachment. Now the committee is more than just excessively partisan and petty; it is out of line.
Instead of sticking to the initial issues and quickly passing or rejecting an impeachment resolution related to the Monica Lewinsky affair, the committee's Republicans have cast out a fishing line with which they hope to snare something-anything-to implicate the president.
The committee should remember the lessons of last month's elections and the continuing message of opinion polls: the American people want this inquiry completed in a timely, decisive fashion.
Before these hearings become a complete disaster, Republican leaders should do an about-face-they should stick to the issues presented by Starr and reach a conclusion by the end of the year, as promised.
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