GROUP OF LAWMAKERS PUSHES IMPEACHMENT; 17 HOUSE REPUBLICANS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION

A group of House Republicans has called for an investigation that could determine if President Clinton should be impeached.

Seventeen House Republicans introduced a resolution Wednesday requesting the House Judiciary Committee look into alleged violations of law by the president.

The committee would then report to the House on whether impeachment proceedings were warranted.

The group of anti-Clinton lawmakers is led by Georgia Rep. Bob Barr.

Barr accused Clinton of making government decisions based on political donations, accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions, compiling secret files on American citizens, obstructing justice and using the White House for personal gain.

"That is an abuse of office -- an abuse of power," Barr told reporters at a news conference that was covered by the major wire services.

Barr, a former federal prosecutor, is a member of the House Government Reform Committee, which has been looking into allegations of fund-raising abuses in the 1996 presidential campaign.

White House officials dismissed talk of impeachment. President Clinton told reporters that Barr "always has a rather extreme view of these things."

No House leaders or senior members of the Judiciary Committee were among supporters of the resolution. None of Missouri's congressional delegation backed the resolution.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said in a prepared statement that it would be up to the House Judiciary Committee to pursue any impeachment inquiry.

"I would wait on their deliberations before making any further comments on this very sensitive matter involving the highest office in our land," she said.

But Emerson said, "I continue to call on Attorney General Janet Reno to do the right thing and appoint an independent counsel to investigate the credible allegations against the administration regarding fund-raising abuses."

Local reaction to the impeachment call was mixed Thursday.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, doesn't believe impeachment proceedings are warranted at this time. But he believes there has been plenty of wrongdoing on the part of Clinton, his wife and others in the White House.

"I believe that Bill Clinton is an appallingly corrupt president, the most corrupt we have ever had," said Kinder. "I believe he and his wife have probably been involved in obstruction of justice, corrupting the FBI, the IRS and other abuses," he said.

Clinton's former Arkansas business partners are convicted felons.

"Janet Reno is a joke at the Justice Department. The FBI has been compromised," Kinder said.

He said the message to Americans is that when it comes to the White House there aren't any moral standards anymore.

Kinder said he believes a number of administration officials could be indicted in the next six months.

"If it were a Republican president, you would have had Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw and the rest of the mainstream liberal media in full cry for impeachment," Kinder said.

But state Rep. Joe Heckemeyer, D-Sikeston, dismissed talk of impeachment as political rhetoric. "I honestly do not think they are going to impeach the president," he said.

Dr. Peter Bergerson, who chairs the political science department at Southeast Missouri State University, said the idea of impeaching Clinton is "utterly ridiculous."

Bergerson said Barr and others are raising the issue of impeachment as a way to keep alive congressional investigations of White House fund-raising efforts. "It is a political hand grenade that he is throwing at the White House," said Bergerson.

The current session of Congress is about to end. Bergerson said he doesn't expect the impeachment issue will get a hearing before the session ends.

Bergerson said House Republicans don't have the votes to impeach Clinton.