Looking back at the biggest stories in the first 10 years of nzherald.co.nz:At the end of 1998, US President Bill Clinton was fighting for his political life over the Lewinsky affair. In our story below, from the 14th of the month, he was battling to prevent impeachment hearings. The hearings went ahead but his presidency survived.
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The White House was last night scrambling for the couple of dozen votes it needs to head off impeachment of President Bill Clinton when the issue is put to a vote of the full House this week.
Mr Clinton is facing a momentous week after the House ofRepresentatives judiciary committee approved four impeachment articles against him at the weekend.
Following bitter debate, it rejected a Democratic effort to censure the President rather than impeach him over his actions in the Monica Lewinsky affair.
That left the White House desperately lobbying for the support of a bloc of about 24 moderate Republicans who are wavering on voting for impeachment when it comes to the full House floor, probably on Friday.
Despite his precarious political situation, Mr Clinton is halfway around the world on a three-day trip to Israel, leaving aides and Administration allies to sound out the undeclared Republicans in hopes of convincing them to oppose impeachment when the 435 members of the House vote.
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin yesterday urged Congress and the country to get on with business.
"Obviously, the President made some terrible mistakes, he's acknowledged those mistakes to the American public, he apologised for those mistakes and I think we should get on with our business."
The House judiciary committee approved the four impeachment articles on virtually a party-line vote. The first three articles allege perjury and obstruction of justice. The fourth alleges Mr Clinton abused the power of his office by making false and perjurious statements to Congress in answer to 81 questions put to him last month by committee chairman Henry Hyde.
If the House approves even one of the articles, Mr Clinton will be tried in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove him from office. This is an outcome nobody expects.
The committee votes came despite the President's last-minute appearance in the White House Rose Garden to apologise again for misleading the nation over his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.
But Mr Clinton stopped short of admitting he had lied or committed perjury, a move many Republicans have said could save him from impeachment.
Republican Representative Rick Lazio of New York said: "The President must look himself in the mirror and decide what's important -- his career or the health and the future of the country."
Committee members, still reeling from the enormity of voting to impeach a President for only the third time in US history, questioned motives during the debate.
"This does sometimes, to some people, begin to take on the appearance of a coup," said Democrat John Conyers of Michigan. "It's staggering. It's frightening."
But Representative Howard Coble, a North Carolina Republican, said: "We are not being vengeful. We are not a lynch mob over here. I've had knots in my guts all week."
