Lewinsky returns, but odds still on Clinton survival

Monica Lewinsky is back in town, and Ken Starr is back in the headlines

Monica Lewinsky is back in town, and Ken Starr is back in the headlines. The short-lived spirit of bi-partisanship at the Senate impeachment trial has collapsed.

And all this over a weekend. The Clinton-Lewinsky saga which burst into public view just a year ago is living up to its "roller-coaster" reputation.

Last week the Senate trial was plodding along its preordained course of three days of prosecution arguments, three days of White House defence and then two days of questions. Nothing new was emerging, and attention was already shifting to the crucial votes this week which would decide either a quick ending or the prospect of a long-drawn-out trial with witnesses.

With the spectacular success of President Clinton's State of the Union speech and the head of the Christian Coalition, the Rev Pat Robertson, declaring the President cannot now be convicted, some Republican senators were considering siding with Democrats in a vote today to end the trial.

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Then the hardline Republican prosecutors, or "managers", from the House of Representatives demanded to "interview" Ms Lewinsky as a preliminary to calling her as a witness. Democrats cried "outrage" because the 100 senators had already agreed two weeks ago in a remarkable show of unity to put off the question of calling witnesses until a vote today or tomorrow.

The prosecutors then went to the independent counsel, Mr Starr, and asked him to make Ms Lewinsky submit to a "debriefing" before she was called as a witness. Under the immunity deal which Mr Starr made with Ms Lewinsky, she is obliged to submit to this questioning as Federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ruled on Saturday.

In the Senate, the Democratic senators bombarded the prosecutors with questions about why they were dragging Ms Lewinsky into an interrogation behind closed doors before there had been the agreed vote on witnesses.

The White House chief counsel, Mr Charles Ruff, scoffed at the prosecutors' explanation that they needed to question Ms Lewinsky before they could argue for her to be called as a witness. She had already been interviewed 22 times and her detailed testimony was on the record.

Mr Ruff told the trial: "What we have here is the managers using their `institutional role' to get the independent counsel to join with them and use the authority that he has under the immunity agreement to threaten Ms Lewinsky with jail. Can you imagine what that little conversation is going to look like?"

Ms Lewinsky, meanwhile, was getting on a plane to fly to Washington from Los Angeles. Later that day she struggled through the now-familiar media frenzy to reach the Mayflower Hotel, a few blocks from the White House and the one favoured by Irish presidents and ministers when they visit.

As for the Democrats' hate figure, Mr Starr, he was caught in the middle. Once the prosecutors invoked the immunity agreement, he had no choice but to summon Ms Lewinsky for "debriefing".

Incidentally, the White House lawyers have also been offered an opportunity to "interview" Ms Lewinsky separately but have refused.

Ever since the impeachment articles were voted in the House last month, the White House strategy has been to keep Ms Lewinsky as far as possible from the trial of Mr Clinton.

The thought of her being questioned on the floor of the Senate about the conflicts between her version and the President's on embarrassing details gave the White House shivers.

For the Republicans, hearing Ms Lewinsky testify in person was the only way they might win over the Democratic votes needed to make up the two-thirds majority for a conviction of Mr Clinton on the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Under the bipartisan agreement of two weeks ago, the 100 senators postponed the decision on whether to call witnesses until this week. Now the prosecutors fear that six or more Republican senators could defect and decide after last week's hearings that there was no need for witnesses.

By "debriefing" Ms Lewinsky yesterday the prosecutors hoped they would have some extra arguments for calling her as a witness.

Before the senators vote on witnesses, they have to vote on a motion "to dismiss", which if carried by simple majority would end the trial immediately. Such a prospect was appealing to some Republican moderates, as President Clinton's favourable poll ratings climbed even higher following his State of the Union speech.

Now the wavering Republican ranks have closed. There will be no vote for dismissal. And it also looks as if there will be witnesses and this trial is far from over.

Ms Lewinsky is back in town and in the headlines. But the odds are still on President Clinton surviving.