December 20, 1998

THE FALLOUT

Livingston Quits Over Adultery Admission

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By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

ASHINGTON -- Representative Robert L. Livingston, who confessed on Thursday night that he had had adulterous affairs, stunned the House this morning by saying in the impeachment debate that he would not serve as Speaker and would quit Congress in six months. He urged the President to follow his example and quit, too.

At the White House, where calls for Clinton's resignation are derided as a Republican strategy, President Clinton sent his spokesman into the driveway to urge Livingston to reconsider his resignation.

IN A SCANDAL CLIMATE, SPEAKER'S CHAIR HAS BECOME A SEAT OF CONTROVERSY

Two of the three previous Speakers of the House were hounded by scandal before Robert L. Livingston's withdrawal Saturday after admitting to marital indiscretions. Representative Jim Wright of Texas, a Democrat who was Speaker from Jan. 6, 1987, to June 6, 1989, was forced out by accusations that he had skirted restrictions on outside income, some of it from book royalties. His pursuer was Representative Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican. Wright was succeeded as Speaker by Representative Tom Foley, a Democrat from Washington State, who lost his seat in the Republican avalanche of 1994. Gingrich succeeded Foley and survived House charges over the use of tax-exempt money for partisan purposes. But having weathered his own scandal, Gingrich was felled after the Republicans' poor showing in November's elections, in which the party tried to capitalize on the Monica Lewinsky matter. Livingston was out before he was in, having been Speaker-designate for exactly one month.

Livingston stood in the well of the House he has served for two decades and called on President Clinton to resign his office rather than force a trial in the Senate, drawing boos from his colleagues and cat-calls that he should quit instead.

He then did just that.

"I must set the example that I hope President Clinton will follow," Livingston announced to a shocked and silent chamber in an act that left the Republican Party in total chaos just hours before the vote to impeach President Clinton. The decision also left the party leaderless on the eve of the opening of the 106th Congress, when Republicans will have to rule with one of the most narrow majorities in history.

Several Republicans, including Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority whip, somberly welcomed the news, suggesting that it relieved them of an excruciating embarrassment.

In lauding Livingston's move, DeLay said, "He understood what this debate was all about -- it's about honor and decency and integrity and the truth, everything we honor in this country."

But Democrats said they were aghast and many besides President Clinton called on Livingston to reconsider his decision.

" Livingston's resignation was wrong," said Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York. "It is a surrender to a developing sexual McCarthyism. Are we going to have a new test if someone wants to run for public office -- are you now or have you ever been an adulterer?" He called on the country to distinguish between sins and crimes.

Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for the President, said Clinton was "disappointed" at the news of Livingston's plans and wished that he would reconsider. Lockhart said the President "firmly believes that the politics of personal destruction in this town and this country has to come to an end."

He reaffirmed that the President would not resign, saying: "The President is going to do what's in the best interest of the country. It would be wrong to give in to this insidious politics of personal descontruction."

Livingston's announced resignation was all the more stunning for its disclosure in a process that could result in the removal of the President from office. The Speaker is second in line to the Presidency after the Vice President.

Newt Gingrich, who was driven to announce his resignation as Speaker after the Republicans lost five seats in the November election, technically remains in the post until Jan. 6 when the new Congress convenes.

Livingston, who was chosen to be Speaker by the Republicans in the House last month, would have been formally elected in the new Congress.

But Gingrich has removed himself from the daily operations of the House and has begun to dismantle his office.

Livingston's decision was said to be driven in part by the anger of a group of about a dozen conservatives in his party who were disillusioned that he had withheld news of his affairs from them. They had threatened to withhold their votes for him in the election in January.

He was also concerned about the pain caused to his family by further disclosures, some members said. They added that, not lost on many in his party, was the example he would set for the President by offering to resign his post now.

DeLay, No. 3 in the House Republican leadership, is expected to fill the power vacuum at least temporarily, in deed if not in title, while the party regroups to find a new Speaker.

Many members quickly rallied around Representative Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Hastert, one of DeLay's whips who is well respected among his colleagues, had been promoted as a candidate for majority leader last month, but never mounted a campaign.

Representative Dick Armey of Texas only precariously held on to his post as majority leader last month and was not considered a likely candidate for Speaker. He is expected to manage the reorganization, which Republican leaders have set for Jan. 4.

Livingston met privately with his closest advisers on Friday as the impeachment debate unfolded. Some of his colleagues believed he had made a mistake in disclosing on Thursday night -- just as the House was moving into the divisive debate over impeachment -- that he had "on occasion strayed from my marriage."

He told Republican leaders late on Thursday afternoon that the sex magazine Hustler was going to expose his affairs early next year. Some leaders urged him to keep quiet, but his wife, Bonnie, encouraged him to tell his colleagues immediately, despite the momentous vote that was nearing on the floor.

At that point on Thursday night, Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, reported on its Web site that Livingston was going to admit to the affairs and was going to offer to resign. In a closed meeting with his fellow Republicans, he did admit to the affairs but made no offer to step down, receiving three standing ovations instead.

On Friday, Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler, told a news conference in Los Angeles that his investigators had found four women who said they had been sexually involved with Livingston over the last 10 years. Flynt, who said he wanted to expose the "hypocrisy" on Capitol Hill, had offered $1 million to anyone who could prove sexual indiscretions by members of Congress.

On Thursday night, Livingston said in a statement that he would "not be intimidated by these efforts" to exploit his past. But on Friday he removed himself from public action and that night drew his closest advisers into his confidence. His aides said today that they had no clue what he was contemplating, and few other members were aware of his plans.

Asked if he had any advance word, Representative J. C. Watts of Oklahoma, a newly elected member of the Republican leadership, said, "I had no idea."

Asked if there had been internal party pressure on Livingston to resign, Representative Harold Rogers of Kentucky said, "I didn't know about it if there was," but added, "There were some members who were critical of it."

As the leaders tried today to hold the party together on and off the House floor, most Republicans stuck to their prepared scripts on the floor in favor of impeaching the President. But some began expressing their anguish.

Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, who admitted to his own adulterous affair earlier this year, said after Livingston's resignation: "Those of us who are sinners must feel wretched today. Something is going on repeatedly that has to be stopped, and that is a confusion between private acts of infidelity and public acts."

To much applause, Hyde declared, "Congress has no business intruding into private acts."

Republicans, indeed Livingston himself, had made this same distinction between Clinton's sexual indiscretions and Livingston's, saying that Clinton lied about his private acts under oath and therefore had abused the legal system and his powers. As Livingston said in his statement on Thursday, "These indiscretions were not with employees on my staff and I have never been asked to testify under oath about them."

Democrats hoped that Livingston's seemingly drastic action would wake up the House to how poisoned the atmosphere had become and might prompt Republicans to reconsider the impeachment of President Clinton.

Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said, "We are now starting to offer up sacrificial lambs to whatever terrible disease this is."

In a stirring speech applauded even by some Republicans, Representative Richard A.

Gephardt of Missouri, the Democratic leader, praised Livingston as a "worthy, good and honorable man" and said his resignation was a grave mistake. "It's a terrible capitulation to the negative political forces that are consuming our political system and our country," Gephardt said, adding that the events of the last few days showed "life imitates farce."

"We need to stop destroying imperfect people at an unattainable altar of public morality," he said, urging his colleagues to "step back from the abyss" and reject resignation, impeachment and "vicious self-righteousness."