WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Thursday asked the FBI to investigate whether a spate of sex scandal reports about members of Congress constitutes an orchestrated campaign of intimidation against lawmakers deciding whether to pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Clinton.
House Whip Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said he was concerned that the report this week in Salon of Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde's extramarital affair 30 years ago, as well as recent embarrassing revelations about other lawmakers, represents a concerted attempt by White House aides or Clinton allies to smear and intimidate key lawmakers.
The Salon report said Hyde had a five-year affair with Cherie Snodgrass, a married mother of three.
As Judiciary chairman, Hyde would head any impeachment probe arising out of independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation into Clinton's relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky. Hyde's panel is also trying to decide how much of the confidential and graphic evidence Starr gathered should be made public.
The White House denied playing any role in exposing Hyde's affair. Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles said any staff member found to be involved in such activities would be fired.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, travelling with Clinton to Ohio, said the Hyde story did not help Clinton.
"If there is someone in our building who has so completely lost their minds that they think this is helpful, they should be fired," Lockhart said.
DeLay released a letter, signed by House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other members of the House Republican leadership, asking FBI director Louis Freeh to open an investigation.
Hyde was not among the signers and his spokesman said Hyde would have no comment on it.
DeLay spoke at a news conference of an "orchestrated" attempt to intimidate lawmakers, and said he believed "top aides who have access to the Oval Office" were implicated.
"I have no doubts who it is. I don't have the evidence to prove it. That's why I want the FBI," he said, adding that if an intimidation campaign is proven, "this could be added to the impeachment inquiry."
The letter to Freeh said that if reports were true that White House aides were trying to plant the stories, "the actions of the individuals responsible are pure and simple intimidation -- no different than threatening jurors to change their verdicts in organised crime trials."
Other Republicans said any campaign of intimidation would fail.
"We will never be intimidated by these scorched earth tactics, we will not back down from our constitutional responsibilities, and we will not cower from the White House attacks. We will do what is right," said California Republican Representative John Doolittle.
Hyde, a staunch conservative, is generally admired by members of both parties for his intellectual honesty and integrity. He became the third Republican House member to admit in recent weeks to a past extramarital relationship.
Indiana Representative Dan Burton and Idaho Representative Helen Chenoweth both acknowledged affairs, which in Burton's case led to the birth of an illegitimate child. In all three cases, the admissions came as a result of journalistic exposes.
Texas Representative Martin Frost, chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee, said he was appalled by the attack on Hyde, whom he called an honourable man who would conduct any proceedings against Clinton with distinction.
"Any Democratic candidate for Congress who initiates personal attacks on the private life of his opponent will no longer receive funding from the Democratic congressional committee," said Frost. He said any member of his committee involved in such attacks would be fired.
His Republican counterpart, Georgia Representative John Linder, immediately matched Frost's gesture, saying he would write to all Republican candidates warning them against trying to smear their opponents. Linder was among the Republican leaders who signed the FBI letter.
Hyde in a statement Wednesday night acknowledged the relationship in the 1960s but said, "the statue of limitation has long since passed on my youthful indiscretions."
