Three Democrats Support Impeachment By DARLENE SUPERVILLE The Associated Press WASHINGTON (Dec. 11) - As moderate House Republicans wrestle with the votes that will determine President Clinton's future, at least three conservative House Democrats say they will vote to impeach him for allegedly telling lies under oath. Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas, said he concluded that Clinton lied after he read transcripts of the president's testimony before the federal grand jury that investigated Clinton's efforts to conceal his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. ''I didn't believe the president because he wasn't believable, and he turned out not to have been believable,'' the 75-year-old lawyer said in an interview. ''I know what (perjury) looks like when I see it. I was a judge for 12 years.'' Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., has said he, too, will vote to impeach. Taylor did not return a telephone message, but his chief of staff confirmed his plans. ''He said way before, as soon as this thing blew, if the president lied under sworn oath he will vote for impeachment,'' said Wayne Weidie. Indeed, in September, after Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr sent his report on the Lewinsky matter to Congress, Taylor said he would view perjury seriously. ''If it's perjury, yes, I will vote to impeach him,'' said Taylor, 45. Rep. Virgil Goode Jr., a lawyer from the tobacco and textile areas of southern Virginia, said he also believes Clinton had lied under oath when he denied having had sexual relations with the former White House intern. ''Do I think perjury is an impeachable offense? I do,'' the 52-year-old freshman told The Washington Post in an interview published Dec. 1, an interview that Goode spokesman Linwood Duncan said contained his only public comments until he votes on impeachment. ''For me the question is lying under oath. It's not a question of what he tells his wife or someone else.'' All three congressmen are members of the ''Blue Dog'' group of conservative House Democrats, and they regularly vote with Republicans against Democrats and the Clinton administration. In the last Congress, Hall supported every element of the ''Contract with America,'' the campaign paper that helped the GOP win the House in 1994. Goode and Taylor also side with Republicans more often than with Clinton. Both voted against the $520 billion spending bill Clinton signed in October. Taylor, Hall and Goode also were among the 31 Democrats who voted with the GOP to authorize the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry into Clinton's conduct. The panel has drafted four articles of impeachment against Clinton stemming from the Lewinsky matter, accusing him of two counts of perjury, and one count each of obstruction of justice and abusing the power of his office. A committee vote could come as early as Saturday. It is expected that the Republican-controlled panel will approve at least one article along party lines. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., also has told members to return to Washington next week to debate and vote on impeachment on the floor. Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House, where the GOP currently holds a 228-207 advantage. For the Senate to convict Clinton and toss him out of office would require a two-thirds vote there, where Republicans have only a 55-45 edge. The White House has been working to persuade a largely undecided group of moderate House Republicans to spare Clinton the prospect of a Senate impeachment trial by voting down any effort to remove him from office. Hall, who hails from the East Texas district that was represented by the powerful Sam Rayburn for nearly half a century, said his decision to vote for impeachment was not personal, but rather a function of the promise he made to uphold the Constitution since he arrived in Congress in 1981. ''I don't have any ill will for the president,'' he said. ''I've taken an oath to do my duty and my duty is to call them as I see them.'' AP-NY-12-11-98 0156EST Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.