UPDATE -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House released a 184-page detailed defense of President Bill Clinton on Tuesday, saying that his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky affair was sinful but did not warrant his removal from office.

Impeachment Defense Continues on Capitol Hill
Clinton Picks Up Needed GOP Supporter

By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (Dec. 8) - President Clinton gained precious ground Tuesday in his struggle to avoid impeachment, winning support from one moderate Republican while a platoon of White House defenders argued his case before the House Judiciary Committee.

''As surely as we know that what he did was sinful, we also know it is not impeachable,'' White House lawyer Gregory Craig told a committee bristling with skeptical Republicans.

Other witnesses - including some who sat in judgment of Richard Nixon a quarter-century ago - argued that Clinton's conduct in the Monica Lewinsky affair was no Watergate, and thus not worthy of impeachment.

Ready by all accounts to muscle through at least one article of impeachment by week's end, GOP lawmakers bore in with questions relating to allegations that Clinton lied under oath about Ms. Lewinsky.

Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., noted that Clinton has testified he never touched Ms. Lewinsky in a sexual way, yet she testified to the contrary.

''Do you have any opinion ... as to who's lying, because it seems inevitable one of those parties has lied?'' Coble asked Craig, special counsel to the president.

''The president ... has testified about that kind of activity, and I accept his word about that,'' Craig said. He added that ''It's an oath-on-oath, he says-she says situation.''

Outside the committee room came the first indication that the White House campaign to build support among GOP moderates might be bearing fruit. Congressional sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Republican Rep. Amo Houghton of New York would announce on Wednesday he opposes impeachment and favors censure of the president.

Houghton is among the moderate Republicans whom the White House and Democrats hope can be persuaded to reject impeachment. The White House scripted its two-day presentation to the Judiciary Committee with that objective in mind.

Clinton's allies were hoping, particularly, that Houghton could show the way to others from New York, including Reps. Rick Lazio, Ben Gilman, Michael Forbes and Jack Quinn.

Under the direction of the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, the Judiciary Committee's staff has begun drafting articles of impeachment accusing Clinton of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Committee votes are expected beginning Friday.

The White House defense effort unfolded inside a hearing room that has had its share of history. Constitutional amendments are born inside the ornate chamber. And a quarter-century ago, the panel voted to impeach Nixon.

Nixon, the nation's 37th president, resigned before the full House could vote on whether to impeach him and order a trial in the Senate.

Clinton has vowed to resist rather than resign, and unlike Nixon at the end of Watergate, he retains strong political support in the public at large and among lawmakers of his own party.

Outside the crowded committee room, preparations already were under way for a historic vote on the House floor next week.

Several officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., was the leading candidate to preside over the House during the debate - a job that neither outgoing Speaker Newt Gingrich nor Rep. Bob Livingston, the speaker-in-waiting, wishes to perform.

LaHood, 53, recently elected to his third term, has presided frequently - and unflappably - over the House during debate on routine legislation during the past four years. ''It would be an honor to do it if that's what Speaker Gingrich or Speaker Livingston wants me to do,'' he said in a telephone interview, adding that he had received a call to be ready.

The White House deployed a battery of lawyers, professors and former government officials in its defense in the committee room, hoping moderate Republicans would be paying careful attention.

The GOP holds a 228-206 majority in the House, with one Democratic-leaning independent.

The White House count shows three Democrats likely to support impeachment - Reps. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, Virgil Goode of Virginia and Ralph Hall of Texas.

That gives Clinton a presumed base of 204 against impeachment, meaning he would need 14 Republican converts to prevail.

By this calculation, about three dozen moderate GOP lawmakers hold Clinton's fate in their hands.

To sway them, the White House decided at the last moment to jettison plans for a fresh attack on Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. The Clinton team also disclosed during the day that it would schedule an appearance Wednesday on Clinton's behalf by former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, a prominent Republican moderate and former top Justice Department official.

Several White House witnesses argued that even if Clinton were guilty of offenses, his transgressions did not rise to the level of impeachment. To make that case, the White House brought in three former Judiciary Committee Democrats from the Watergate era: former Reps. Wayne Owens of Utah; Elizabeth Holtzman of New York and Robert Drinan of Massachusetts.

Drinan took direct aim at the GOP-propelled drive for impeachment, likening it to the politically drenched attempt to drive Andrew Johnson from the presidency after the Civil War. ''The only time in American history that has seen anything like the process this fall ... occurred in 1868,'' he said.

Other witnesses said impeachment by the House would lead to a prolonged trial in the Senate. Bruce Ackerman, a Yale professor of law and political science, said a trial could consume an entire year.

With Clinton's approval, White House aides also equipped Craig with an opening statement that expressed presidential remorse.

''The president wants everyone to know - the committee, the Congress and the country - that he is genuinely sorry for the pain and the damage that he has caused,'' Craig said before the first Republican question was posed.

As for Ms. Lewinsky, who has never appeared before the committee, Craig said, ''We think in some areas she provided erroneous testimony that is in disagreement with the president's testimony.''

Clinton's testimony about Ms. Lewinsky was ''evasive, incomplete, misleading, even maddening, but it was not perjury,'' the lawyer added.

White House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they would gauge the reaction to their two-day defense effort before deciding on their next step.

They said there was consideration being given to having Clinton make another public mea culpa in the days before the full House vote. A high-profile August-style TV address is on the table, but only as a last-ditch resort to avoid impeachment.

Addressing the evidence compiled by Starr, Craig said testimony by Ms. Lewinsky, the president's secretary, Betty Currie, and presidential friend Vernon Jordan, ''far from incriminating the president, actually exonerates him.'' Even Starr's allegations were proven, he added, they do constitute impeachable offenses.

Craig gave no ground in a series of exchanges with Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., asked whether Clinton lied to the public when he said he never had sex with ''that woman,'' Ms. Lewinsky.

That led Craig to respond, ''You know, he doesn't believe he did.''

AP-NY-12-08-98 1723EST