The first step in the possible impeachment of President Clinton was taken on Capitol Hill early today when the House Judiciary Committee voted to begin the investigation which could lead to his dismissal from office.
The committee was told that the President may have committed 15 impeachable acts arising from his initial denial of a sexual affair with former White House intern, Ms Monica Lewinsky.
The full House of Representatives will vote before the end of the week on the recommendation to begin the investigation. Thanks to the small Republican majority the measure is certain to pass but the White House will be watching anxiously to see how many Democrats will break ranks to vote for the impeachment investigation.
The committee will begin its investigation after the elections on November 3rd and could submit articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote before the end of the year. If the House votes to impeach Mr Clinton, the Senate would then conduct a trial and if found guilty, he would be dismissed from the presidency and the Vice-President, Mr Al Gore would succeed him.
The committee vote last night was along strictly party lines, following a 10-hour debate during which the 21 Republican members opposed all attempts by the 16 Democrats to limit the time-scale and scope of the investigation. The vote dashed any hopes in the White House that Congress would be ready to accept a censure motion rather than start on what could be a prolonged impeachment process.
Democrats warned last night that the impeachment road would be bitter and divisive. "This has the potential to be the most divisive issue in American public life since the Vietnam War," said New York Democrat, Mr Jerrold Nadler.
This is only the third time that an impeachment process against a US president has been invoked.
The 15 charges against Mr Clinton were laid out before the committee by the chief Republican investigator, Mr David Schippers, who emphasised that these were "not accusations but a litany of crimes that might have been committed", based on the report of the Independent Counsel, Mr Kenneth Starr.
That 445-page report listed 11 possible grounds for impeachment including perjury, witness tampering, obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Mr Schippers widened some of the grounds in the Starr report but dropped the abuse of power allegation.
The chief Democratic investigator, Mr Abbe Lowell, argued that the allegations did not reach the accepted standards for an impeachable offence. He said the Starr report includes incidents where he "jumps to a guilty inference when a more innocent explanation was more obvious."
Mr Schippers said there was evidence that Mr Clinton gave false testimony under oath about his affair with Ms Lewinsky. There was also evidence that Mr Clinton in his testimony in the Paula Jones lawsuit and to the grand jury may have conspired to withhold evidence and tamper with witnesses.
The committee chairman, Mr Henry Hyde, opened the meeting saying, "This will be an emotional process, a strenuous process", and he reminded the members they were not there to pass judgment on Mr Clinton's conduct but "to decide whether to look further or look away".
The senior Democratic member, Mr John Conyers, criticised Mr Starr's investigation and his report, saying it offends the sensibilities of the American people's deep sense of right and wrong. "Much of this investigation, quite amazingly, turns on whether or how Mr Clinton touched Ms Lewisnky. It sounds like a parody but it is not."
Mr Conyers said that there was no question that the President's actions were wrong but "even worse than an extra-marital relationship is the use of federal prosecutors and federal agents to expose an extra-marital relationship."