Clinton Calls for an End to Gingrich Probe Bickering

WASHINGTON — House Ethics Committee leaders struggled Wednesday to end the partisan warfare and put its investigation of Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) back on track, as President Clinton took the unusual step of admonishing Congress to end the bickering.

“I want it to be over,” Clinton told reporters, breaking the studied White House silence on the Gingrich case. “The American people have given us larger responsibilities. . . . Way too much time and energy and effort is spent on all these things.”

Clinton’s comments came as Ethics Committee Chairwoman Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) reaffirmed her determination to bring the Gingrich case to a House vote by Jan. 21. She and other committee leaders huddled Wednesday to draft a schedule to meet that deadline, which would mean that public hearings long awaited by Gingrich critics would have to be compressed into a day or two over this weekend.

A hurdle to wrapping up the investigation was removed Wednesday when Rep. David L. Hobson (R-Ohio) said he would step down from the Ethics Committee so that it will be equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, the panel’s ranking Democrat, upset the partisan balance Tuesday when he stepped down amid accusations that he had given reporters a recording of a telephone conference call between Gingrich and his GOP lieutenants.

Clinton’s comments about ending the partisanship surrounding the Gingrich case was a reminder of his potential shared political interest with the speaker. Facing GOP-led investigations of his own financial and political dealings, Clinton has a self-interest in toning down the rhetoric of the Capitol’s ethics wars, lest he suffer from a Republican backlash.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton’s remarks reflect his desire to “get in the business of doing the people’s business,” but he added that Clinton had not urged fellow Democrats in the House to hold their fire. “This is an internal matter for the House,” McCurry said.

The Gingrich case has enveloped Capitol Hill in an extraordinary miasma of partisan bitterness and mistrust--extending even to the Ethics Committee, which ideally should be an oasis of nonpartisanship.

Democrats were furious last week when Johnson unilaterally changed the panel’s planned hearing schedule. Republicans more than matched their outrage with the emergence of the controversy surrounding the tape of Gingrich discussing his ethics case with other GOP leaders.

The tape was made by two people in Florida, John and Alice Martin, who said they recorded the conversation off a police scanner, which apparently picked it up because one of the participants in the conference call was using a cellular phone in the state.

The Martins said they gave the tape to McDermott, outraging Republicans who said the tape clearly had been leaked by a Democrat who was supposed to be sitting in impartial judgment of Gingrich. The whole matter is being investigated by the FBI as a possible violation of federal wiretap law.

Gingrich has admitted violating House rules by giving the Ethics Committee false information about a college course he once taught. He also has admitted that he failed to ensure at the time that he was complying with laws governing the use of contributions from a tax-exempt foundation he controlled.

With the taping controversy nearly eclipsing the underlying ethics case for several days, there has been a striking mood shift among many Republicans. A week ago, some were nervously wondering if Gingrich could beat back efforts on the House floor to increase his punishment from a reprimand, which the Ethics Committee is expected to recommend, to censure--a penalty that would remove him from the speakership.

Now, however, some Republicans say they believe that the controversy over the tape has so underscored the partisanship at work in the case that they not only can knock down attempts to increase the punishment but may even try to reduce it, perhaps to a “letter of reproval,” a slap on the wrist milder than a reprimand.

“The dynamic has gone from, ‘How many votes can Democrats get for a censure?’ to ‘How many votes can Republicans get for a letter of reproval?’ ” said Rich Galen, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) predicted that the tape issue would reinforce GOP party unity behind Gingrich. “It showed how partisan the Ethics Committee had been,” King said. “They are going to be more strong in their support for Gingrich.”

But Democrats said such optimism may be premature because members of Congress and the public have yet to hear the judgment of James M. Cole, the special counsel who conducted the investigation, and the ethics panel.

Cole is scheduled to file his report with the committee today. After that, the committee is to conduct its public hearing, which will take place in front of television cameras but may not last more than a day or two, a committee source said.