The Breach

by Peter Baker

  Clinton had braced himself for this moment. In a way, he had been ready for this outcome longer than any of his aides. He had had a fatalistic feeling about it at times, and so, on some level, this was not exactly a surprise. And yet it was still a powerful realization to be confronted with the inevitability of it, to know that everything he had worked for over a quarter century would come down to this historic judgment, that he would be only the second pres ident ever impeached. Clinton was not given much chance to absorb the development. At that point, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, press secretary Joe Lockhart, and other aides walked into his suite to brief him about where things stood with the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian leader. They also needed to talk with him about another national crisis that few outside that room knew was about to eruptan impending plan to bomb Iraq in retaliation for its intransigence in not cooperating with United Nations weapons inspections. To his aides, Clinton seemed momentarily lost in disbelief, his face registering an expression that appeared to say, How can all this be happening?

  The scene turned even more surreal on Air Force One during the twelve-hour flight home to Washington later in the day. About two hours into the flight, somewhere over Europe, Clinton conducted a decisive meeting of his foreign policy team. Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were with him on the plane, while Gore, Podesta, and Defense Secretary Bill Cohen were patched through by a secure telephone link. The question was whether to bomb Iraq for violating its agreements on arms inspections. The president had ordered such a strike a month earlier, only to recall the warplanes at the last minute to give diplomacy another chancean abort decision opposed at the time by both Albright and Cohen. Now the United Nations was reporting that Saddam Hussein had failed to live up to his latest promises. The president went around the group soliciting opinions: they were unanimous in recommending the attack. The November decision to back down meant they had no choice now but to go through with it; otherwise American credibility would be destroyed. And they would have to begin right away before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when it might alienate Arab allies to launch a strike. The subject turned to the more delicate issue: How could they explain this to the public? How could they keep this from looking like a Wag the Dog scenario intended to divert attention from the presidents political problems? After some discussion, Clinton decided in essence that they could not. All they could do was go forward and hope to make their case for why the decision was justified. After the meeting broke up, the president gave Berger the order to set the attack in motion.

  As he cruised through international airspace, Clintons domestic position was crumbling even further. Nine more key, uncommitted House Republicans were stepping up to microphones to announce that they too would vote for impeachment. Aides back at the White House were calling regularly to update the delegation on the jet about the latest defection. Every hour or so, Lockhart stuck his head into the planes conference room, where the president was sitting. We just lost Nancy Johnson, he would say, or, We just lost Mike Forbes. This wore thin rather quickly.

  Finally, in a fit of gallows humor, Lockhart returned to the conference room.

  We just lost Gephardt, he said.

  No one thought it was funny.

  Youve got to be kidding me!

  Bob Livingston, the ramrod-straight former navy sailor, believed in supporting his commander in chief, but he could hardly believe his ears when the secretary of defense, Bill Cohen, a former Republican senator no less, called up to say that the United States might be going to war with Iraq. It seemed unthinkable that the president would order troops into combat the day before the House of Representatives was scheduled to open a floor debate on whether to impeach him. It could not be a coincidence. Clinton had blinked only a month ago, so why was he suddenly all hot to hit Saddam Hussein now? Surely, Clinton would not order a military strike to help fend off the pending impeachment vote, Livingston thought, yet there seemed to be no other logical explanation.

  Around 10 A.M. on Tuesday, December 15, Clinton called Livingston himself to talk about the still-secret plans to attack Iraq. After discussing the military and international implications, the conversation came to the obvious domestic considerations. The new Speaker knew that going forward with the impeachment debate on the same day as a military strikelegitimate or otherwisewould be problematic at best, but he did not commit. A few hours later, he called Clinton back. Out of respect for the military and in deference to national security, Livingston said he would postpone the impeachment votebut not for long.

  Mr. President, I dont think were going to be able to put this off for more than a day or so. Well be going forward.

  Yeah, I thought so. Clinton sounded resigned.

  Sensing Livingstons unease, the president had Cohen as well as his CIA director, George J. Tenet, and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hugh Shelton, call up the Speaker-designate to explain the need for the operation. The top officials insisted to Livingston that the strike was justified and not motivated by political concerns.

  This is necessary, Cohen said.

  Look, Ive got to be skeptical, Livingston replied.

  That night around midnight, Livingston was at home in bed when a telephone call of a wholly different sort roused him. It was his district director back in Louisiana. There was a problem: the media was gathering around a woman the congressman used to know, and rumor had it that she might be ready to sign a contract with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt to disclose details about their extramarital affair. Livingston knew that it was all about to come out. But as he pulled the covers back over himself, Livingston could not help but think about the call from Butler Derrick, the former Democratic congressman, and what sure sounded like intimidation. Bob can stand scrutiny, cant he? It did not seem like a coincidence to Livingston that he should hear of this new threat to his career and his family from Flynt just twelve hours after telling Clinton that he would push forward with impeachment despite the looming war with Iraq.

  Most of Capitol Hill remained unaware of the military machinations that Tuesday, and some Republicans were still futilely focusing their peacemaking efforts on the censure front. Bob Dole, the former senator who had failed to dislodge Clinton in the 1996 election, signed a column in that mornings New York Times proposing his rival be reprimanded rather than removed. Congressman Amo Houghton of New York was preparing for a meeting with the president the next day to present his idea for a $500,000 fine in lieu of impeachment. Congressman Mike Castle, a leader of Republican moderates in the House and a friend of Clintons from the days when both were governors, sent Livingston and Gingrich a letter urging a censure resolution combined with a $2 million fine, half the cost of Starrs investigation into the Lewinsky matter. But it was too late. DeLay had crushed the possibility of a censure vote on the floor. Even Castle believed his cause was hopeless, and rather than try to sell his proposal to fellow moderates after sending the letter, he immediately turned his attention to deciding how he would vote on the articles of impeachment.

  With the momentum against Clinton, his few remaining GOP supporters began having second thoughts too. Congressman Chris Shays, a moderate Connecticut Republican who had worked closely with the White House on issues such as campaign finance reform, was publicly rethinking his announced opposition to impeachment. In recent days, he had watched a number of his friends in the caucus, thoughtful Republicans, people he respected, peel off and come out for the articles. While he was under no pressure in Washington, he was feeling quite a bit of political heat back home in his district, where local town Republican committees were fervently urging him to change his mind. Some local GOP activists even threatened him with a primary challenge should he side with Clinton. And Shays was increasingly offended by the arrogance of Clintons stiff-arm approach to the Judiciary Committee inquiry, particularly his answers to the eighty-one questions.

  Seeking reinforcement for his view that the case developed by Starr was not strong enough to throw
a president out of office, Shays turned to a onetime mentor, Lowell Weicker, the former Republican senator who later went on to be elected governor of Connecticut as an independent. Surely Weicker, a liberal rebel not unlike himself, would reassure Shays. But just as Greg Craig had been rebuffed by Weicker during the committee hearings, so too would Shays be surprised at the answer he got. If youre the chief law enforcement officer and you dont enforce the law, thats it, Weicker told him.

  Shays, no stranger to the theatricality of politics, decided to hold a town hall meeting in the coastal town of Norwalk to let his constituents tell him directly what they thought. On the night of Tuesday, December 15, more than two thousand people packed the town hall, and police turned away at least another five hundred. Actor Paul Newman was among those who got into the building but still had to watch on television because the auditorium was filled to capacity. So many cars approached the town hall that Interstate 95 was jammed. For more than four hours, Shays got what he wanteda vigorous discourse and the national spotlight. Like a talk-show host, Shays took comments from hundreds of citizens, alternating between pro and con. He heard from Republicans and Democrats, ministers and high school students, homemakers and college professors. His adrenaline was racing so much that he could hardly go to sleep when it finally came to an end after 2 A.M. Instead, he piled his family into his car and drove halfway back to Washington in the dark of night.

  Sweetie, he told his wife in the car, I have to tell you: I heard good arguments on both sides. They kind of canceled each other out.

  If the meeting did not settle the matter for Shays, it did provide something of a national forum on the issue. With live television coverage, the dialogue proved to be a microcosm of the debate playing out across the country. More people who turned out for the event opposed impeachment than favored it1,100 versus 800, according to the sign-in sheetsbut the passion on both sides was overwhelming and the arguments often heartfelt.

  Another House Republican struggling at the time was Congressman Mark Edward Souder from Indiana. While Souder was a committed conservative and self-described right-wing Christian, he and the moderate Shays had talked and found they shared similar experiences. Like Shays, Souder had already said publicly that he was against impeachment and yet now felt compelled to reevaluate his position. And like Shays, the pressure Souder was feeling came not from DeLays office but from back home in his district. After he made his public comments opposing impeachment, Souder lost three-quarters of his campaign finance committee. His wife was assailed by a clerk at the grocery store and she no longer wanted to go out to eat in restaurants. His mother and mother-in-law had both gotten grief in public. The two-term congressman was stunned by the intensity of the emotion out there, at least among the Republican base.

  While Shays met with his constituents in Connecticut, Souder was back in Washington sitting down with two fellow Indiana congressmen who both sat on the Judiciary Committee. As part of the committee whip operation DeLay had helped set up, Steve Buyer and Ed Pease had asked to see Souder and arrived around 10 P.M. to explain why they were voting to impeach and to see whether they could change his mind. Under the rules, committee members were not supposed to discuss the evidence that was not made public with other House members until midnight that evening, but they went ahead and described a frightening array of secret material that remained under lock and key in the Ford Building vault. Among the allegations Souder should know about, they said, was an Arkansas woman called Jane Doe No. 5 who said Clinton had raped her some twenty years earlier. Souder had to go down and look at that material, the two congressmen implored him.

  After his visitors left, Souder tried to reach Shays in Connecticut while he was at the town meeting, but could not get through. He found Shays by cellular phone in his car the next morning. We have to see the redacted material, Souder told him.

  Shays and Souder went over to the Ford Building around noon that Wednesday, December 16, and asked to be admitted to the sealed room. They signed their names, were admitted by Capitol Police officers standing guard, and found the Jane Doe No. 5 documents that laid out the Juanita Broaddrick case. If Broaddrick was to be believed, then the president of the United States was not merely an adulterer who exploited a young intern in his employ but a sexual predator who had forced himself violently on an unwilling woman. Both Shays and Souder found Broaddricks story believable, particularly her explanation that she had not come forward at the time because she was already having an extramarital affair and believed she should never have let Clinton come up to her hotel room in the first place. After reading the documents, the two congressmen sat down with Susan Bogart, one of the committee Republican investigators who had talked with Broaddrick, and asked for her assessment. Bogart described in chilling detail her conversation with Broaddrick.

  Shays and Souder then found Hyde and David Schippers talking with a group of other House Republicans who were studying the evidence and joined the conversation. Why was this not part of the public case against the president? they asked. Why was this inquiry so rushed that these and other charges of sexual misconduct were not thoroughly investigated? Schippers reacted testily to the insinuation. After all, he had been the one begging for more time to introduce evidence about Broaddrick and the other Jane Does.

  Several other Republican congressmen who were gathered in the room at the time, including Mike Castle, Heather Wilson, and Jay Dickey of Arkansas, heard their two colleagues cross-examining Hyde about Jane Doe No. 5 and were shocked to learn of the case for the first time. Others who still had not heard about it found out not long afterward during a 5 P.M. closed-door meeting of the entire Republican conference, when a fired-up Steve Buyer stood up to challenge members to go look at the secret evidence. This case, he declared loudly, was not just about what was in the public record but what was in the private record as well. The secret evidence showed a pattern of reprehensible behavior involving women and a practice of obstruction to keep them quiet, Buyer said. In particular, he mentioned Jane Doe No. 5 and her sensational accusation.

  Let me tell you something, Buyer told his colleagues hotly. Were over here every day, and if youre undecided on the information thats already out there, you have an obligation to yourself and your country to get over there and look at that information.

  Over the course of the next seventy-two hours, forty-five House Republicans would do just that, signing into the vault to examine the evidence that was not released publicly. Most of them had already signaled that they were likely to vote for impeachment, so the exact impact of this secret material was hard to gauge. But if nothing else, the outrage over the Jane Doe No. 5 allegations certainly helped reinforce their conclusions and remove any lingering doubts.

  Even Chris Shays was momentarily persuaded. Betsy, he told his wife, I think Im going to be voting for impeachment. You wont believe what I just saw.

  Exhausted from his trip to the Middle East, Clinton was nonetheless up with the sun on Wednesday, December 16, to prepare for a battle of a far different kind. He had only arrived back at the White House at 11:43 P.M. the night before and had spent nearly two more hours consulting with aides and by phone with Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle. While he slept, the USS Enterprise and at least eight other navy warships were moving into position to rain down massive destruction on Iraq. Although not scheduled to attend, Clinton decided to drop in at a 7:30 A.M. meeting in the Situation Room, where his senior advisers were going over the plans and timetables. The missiles would begin slamming down into select targets at 5 P.M. Washington time, and the plan called for the president to go on national television shortly afterward to explain the situation.

  After reviewing the plans, Clinton wandered over to the 8 A.M. senior staff meeting in John Podestas office, where most of the aides were unaware of the impending attack and the main topic was the forthcoming impeachment debate. The president rarely attended these meetings, and as he walked in, the assembled staff stood and applauded, ostensibly in recognition of his
successful peace mission to the Middle East but perhaps less consciously in support of a leader they knew to be undergoing an extraordinary ordeal. Clinton looked awful. The bags under his eyes were even more pronounced than usual.

  Clinton gave a short speech intended to rally his despairing aides and to thank them for their hard work in the difficult days to come. Dont stop fighting, he said. The American people are with us. I havent stopped. Keep up the work.

  Most aides thought he was referring to impeachment. But Greg Craig thought something odd was going on. Why was the president at work so early after having returned home so late the night before? When the meeting broke up, he wandered over to Podesta to ask what was going on. Podesta answered with his finger, tracing the arc of a bomb falling from the sky. Craig got it.

  Word began to spread around town, and Craig soon called Julian Epstein, the Judiciary Democratic chief counsel, to let him know. Epstein was furious. This was going to blow up their entire strategy on impeachment. Why the fuck do we learn about this an hour before everyone else learns about this? he shouted at Craig. You give me an hour to get ready for this shit?

  Craig said it was a national security matter. The White House staff did not keep him filled in on things like that either.

  That was just a tiny taste of the explosion that would follow. Most members of the House were only now returning to town for what they thought would be the opening of the impeachment debate the next day, and the news of what was about to unfold in the Persian Gulf struck with the political force of a Tomahawk cruise missile. DeLay and Livingston were not the only Republicans who immediately concluded that the military operation must be part of a political scheme designed to buy Clinton time to hang on to office. Even Republicans normally inclined to back Clintons policy with Iraq found themselves suspicious la Wag the Dog, and some decided the suspicion itself demonstrated how the trust between the president and the Congress had been shattered beyond repair.