Instead, the House will vote today on a resolution
supporting American troops in the Persian Gulf -
leaving impeachment for tomorrow, over the
weekend or early next week.

Deciding exactly when a vote will come falls to
incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston.

Lawmakers were told not to leave town, since the
vote won't be put off long.

Despite the delay, the outcome on the first
impeachment vote in 130 years seemed certain,
as a handful of key fence-sitting Republicans
yesterday declared their support for impeachment.

A bad week for the White House got worse
yesterday when two fence-sitting Republicans -
Reps. Rick Lazio of Long Island and Sherwood
Boehlert of Utica - announced their plan to vote
"yes" for impeachment.

"I am convinced that ... we need impeachment as
a shield to protect the integrity of our institutions,"
Boehlert said.

The White House also watched and wept as
another Democrat, Rep. Paul McHale (Pa.),
signaled his readiness to join the
pro-impeachment ranks.

"The last thing I want to do is leave public life by
voting for the impeachment of the president of my
own party, but the principles in which I so strongly
believe ... may require me to cast that vote,"
McHale said.

More than 10 lawmakers said yesterday they
would vote to impeach, including: Rep. Kenny
Hulshof (R-Mo.); outgoing Rep. Bill Redmond
(R-N.M.); Rep. Michael Pappas, (R-N.J.); Rep.
Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.); Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.);
Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio); Rep. Bob Ney
(R-Ohio); Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.); Rep. Billy
Tauzin (R-La.)

"To me the evidence is clear and convincing that
the president lied both in the civil proceeding and
before the grand jury. He also lied to the American
people, and the fact that he persists, even today, in
these lies exacerbates the case against him," said
Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), who flip-flopped from his
decision earlier to vote "no."

Added Bilbray, a moderate Republican, "I cannot
as a man, a husband, elected official or a father,
say that President Clinton did not commit perjury
and did not do it willfully and calculated, right from
the beginning."

It takes 218 votes - a simple majority - to approve
one or more articles of impeachment, and GOP
leaders last night confidently predicted victory.

House GOP leadership sources said they expect
enough members of Congress to come out
publicly for impeachment by the end of today to
doom Clinton's chances of surviving the vote.

They said they're 15 votes short of the 218 needed
to impeach Clinton - and they now don't expect to
see more than three Republicans vote against
impeachment.

Clinton, the first president since Andrew Johnson
in 1868 to face a House vote on impeachment, is
facing four separate counts alleging perjury,
obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

All of the complaints stem from Clinton's ill-fated
kinky sex with former White House intern Monica
Lewinsky and the lies he told to hush up word of
the affair.

The allegations of impeachable offenses were
delivered to Congress in September by
independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who testified
before Congress last month.

Despite the president's statement that he hasn't
considered resignation, several lawmakers
yesterday again urged Clinton to step down.

"He can resign and keep us from having to move
forward to go to the time and the expense and the
diversion that this would cause the Congress,"
said Pappas.

Republicans criticized Clinton for ordering military
strikes now, saying they were meant to distract
Congress and others from impeachment - a
charge the White House denied.

-- Vincent Morris - 12/17/98