DOGGED Republican determination to reveal the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth appears to nave won a few. points for the man they want to see removed from office — William Jefferson Clinton, the first sitting president in 131 years since Andrew, Jackson to be impeached in the annals of the United States of America. The trial of the president, which began in the Senate has. more or less, progressed along a predictable path, taxed tone of bipartisanship dissolving into partisan sniping with voting on two motions — to dismiss and to subpoena witnesses — on January 27.JBoth votes were strictly along party line with a single exception. Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold who voted with Republicans. The margin was identical — 56-44 — against Senator Robert Byrd's motion which would have dismissed peijury and obstruction of justice charges against the president, and in favour of sunpoe-naing witnesses.

On completion of the first phase — presentation of cases from both the House prosecutors and the White House plus auestions from the senators —. re trial appeared headed for dismissal. When Senator Byrd made public his intention to move a motion to dismiss, the Republican spirit must have sagged; however, the House managers were not ready to throw in the towel. In a controversial move, they sought ruling at a US District Court to force co-operation from Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Clinton led to the impeachment proceeding. Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ruled that the House prosecutors had no right under Lewinsky’s immunity deal with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to force her to submit to their questioning. Nevertheless. Starr could, according to Johnson s ruling, to answer questions from his staff and allow the House managers to attend. That was what the Republicans needed and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde obtained Starr's help January 23 in an attempt to force the former White House intern to talk to the prosecutors in the impeachment trial.

Lewinsky apart, two more witnesses — Vernon Jordan, an advisor and a long-time friend of the president, and white House aide Sidney Blumenthal — have already been subpoenaed for close-door deposition. Three House prosecutors have already interviewed Lewinsky.

The House managers, who seem to have given up on convicting . the president of committing peijury. believe that Lewinsky’s ’total recall’ of her conversation with Clinton and her interpretation of what he said would support the obstruction of justice charge. The prosecution team feels she "has a lot of information if you ask the right auestions." And it appears that rey have the 'right questions.'

It would surely take plenty of skills on their part to use Lewinsky’s interpretation to overcome her statement that “no one ever asked me to lie. and I was never promised a job for my silence.'

The Democrats, however, say that the Republicans are-ac-tually buying time in the hope that something miraculous will spring up ana help them convince the senators that the president's conduct amounts to 'high crime and misdemeanour' and thus they should vote for his removal. Senator Edward Kennedy, after the back-to-back votes on motion to dismiss and subpoena witnesses, summed up the sentiment of his fellow Democrats when he said that the House managers were “whipping a dead horse."

Whipping a dead horse or not, the Republicans are surely flexing their muscles in the Senate, passing a plan blueprint to end the trial that ’ makes likely a public airing of Lewinsky’s testimony and tentatively sets February 12 as the date for a verdict. The measure

passed 54-44 — with one senator from each party not voting — after a rival Democratic plan and a motion to vote immediately on the charges against Clinton failed on similarly lopsided margin.

Senate - Majority Leader Trent Lott, who did not rule out the need for live testimony of the three witnesses, might find it hard to convince his counterpart., across the isle Tom Daschle for assent on this issue.

Dashcle. who had said after the votes on motion to dismiss and to subpoena witnesses that the president would not be removed from office, reiterated his adamant opposition to calling live witnesses.

"... we don’t want the spectacle of Monica Lewinsky or anyone else," the senate minority leader was quoted by AFP as saying. "What little dignity has Monica Lewinsky left we want to protect."

One of his fellow Democrat colleague in the Senate. Senator Jay Rockefeller, was more direct.

The proceedings are "a Republican trial." he told the media. "They’re intransigent ... they're just desperate to get Monica Lewinsky on the floor of the Senate."

Many Senate Republicans are. however, opposed to the idea of live witnesses in the ab- ; sence of "explosive testimony ' in the closed-door deposition. J ,t seems they don’t expect any •-thing new to emerge.

That the Republicans wot j't

be able to muster 67 votes to convict the president and remove him from office has become a certainty. Whatever the House managers come up with in between now and February 12. the tentative date for verdict. seems highly unlikely to change that. Votes on the motion to dismiss and to Subpoena witnesses more than made it clear. That leaves the senators in a dilemma: should they completely exonerate Clinton?

Many senators support punishing the president by some type of censure motion if he is not convicted.

"Whether you vote for conviction or not. he should not be able to claim that he was exonerated," said Senate Republican Orrin Hatch, who has proposed that the Senate adopt a statement that Clinton lied under oath and obstructed justice and couple it with a motion to ad-* journ.

The Hatch proposal is similar in essence to a likely Republican "finding of fact" plan, which could be passed, if moved, on the strength of Re-, publican majority alone. However. there are quite a few Senate Republicans who don’t support the idea. Republican Senator Richard Shelby is one of them. V/hen asked whether the initiative was alive and whether he supported it, he told reporters, “I think it's alive, but I Hope: it's not breathing very .well."

The other option, the all-too-ffnniliar Democratic one, is a motion to censure the president for his misconduct.

Once the' senatorb reach the/j” verdict on February 12 — . wh ich is highly unlikely to f ,0 against the president — the F publicans will find themsel ves at the receiving end. They will ha ve to come up with a str onger rt; ason for dragging the t rial on and not opting Tot Senator Byrd's motion to dismiss than their dogged determi-nation to 1 mow the truth.

According to a Newsweek poll, released on /January 30. fifty-four per cent of Americans believe that the Republicans have been hur t by the im-B:achment proceedings?. If the ouse managers fail to come up with something explosive during the closed-door deposition, the wrath o'i the public would surely be on the Republicans and it could well reflect on the 2000 presidential election. Then, the Republicans will have little option but to rue their decision to get on with the trial in the first place.