Fasten Your Seat Belts

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The fine feeling between Lott and Daschle may not last. Before the impeachment trial comes to a close, bitter questions must be resolved. Will Republicans vote to release the videotapes? Will they end up siding with the House managers and bring live witnesses into the well of the Senate? "Our Republican colleagues are going to have to weigh that this is becoming a Republican trial," says Daschle. "We've tried to be as helpful as we can, but there comes a time when you have to draw a line."

The House managers will do everything they can to push across that boundary, confronting Lott with another set of difficult choices as he tries to grind the process to a halt without angering G.O.P. Senators who feel the prosecution has been slighted. Rather than calling the 15 witnesses the managers wanted, the prosecutors were limited to what Henry Hyde called a "pitiful three." In the crunch, Betty Currie was dropped from the list in exchange for White House aide Sidney Blumenthal. Though calling Currie was once thought to be central to proving the obstruction case, some managers decided the spectacle of 13 white men questioning one middle-aged African-American woman would not help their cause after all.

The parties are also set to do battle over the "finding of fact," a resolution concluding that the President committed any number of offenses, from misleading the grand jury to coaching witnesses. The measure would have no bearing on conviction or acquittal but would give Republicans the chance to issue a formal denunciation, now that it is all but certain Clinton will be let off. If a Senator thought the President lied but did not commit perjury, for example, he or she could vote to affirm the lie in the finding of fact without voting to convict on impeachment. Some conservative Republicans, such as Phil Gramm, oppose the gambit, contending that it is designed solely to give cover to moderate Republicans, allowing them to say they punished Clinton without having to convict him.

Democrats oppose the measure as unconstitutional: since it could pass with a simple majority, they see it as a backdoor way of convicting but not removing Clinton, without reaching the constitutional threshold of a two-thirds majority. To block such a measure, Daschle and the Democrats are sharpening their partisan shivs, threatening a string of amendments that would tie up the Senate chamber indefinitely. They could, says Daschle, submit the President's budget as an amendment and ask the clerk to read it.

In offering such mischief on behalf of his party, Daschle enjoys a respect he did not always have. He won his post in 1995 by a single vote over Connecticut's Christopher Dodd. Running in the wake of the Republican takeover, Daschle was opposed by old lions like Moynihan and Byrd, who thought he lacked the necessary ballast. Since then Byrd has twice nominated him to continue as the party's leader. Dodd, now one of Daschle's close confidants, marvels at his old rival's political skills. "I would have lost it long ago," he says, noting the patience Daschle displays in dealing with his verbose colleagues. "The caucus made a wise decision by its margin of one vote."

This month Daschle will try to help Lott and the Senate reach an even wiser decision. Because sooner or later, the impeachment plane has got to land. Is there a runway down there somewhere?

The Four Bumps in the Road
With a target date of Feb. 12, the Senate trial's homestretch includes some serious partisan obstacles

--THE VIDEOTAPE
Democrats say it will demean the Senate and Lewinsky if her deposition tape is made public

--THE LIVE WITNESSES
A band of Republicans is likely to insist House managers be allowed to call them