CONGRESS GOING SLOW AMID CALLS FOR CANDOR.

Byline: Lawrence M. O'Rourke Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Resisting calls to speed up the start of impeachment hearings against President Clinton, House Republican leaders Monday arranged a tentative schedule that would delay the start of the hearings until at least mid-November - the week after the congressional elections.

With Republican leaders viewing impeachment hearings as a virtual certainty, members of the House Judiciary Committee sifted through 2,000 pages of evidence assembled by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. He asserts that the evidence offers substantial and credible proof that Clinton committed impeachable offenses.

Republican leaders also said they wanted an early release of Clinton's Aug. 17 videotaped testimony to the grand jury, at which he defended his earlier testimony under oath about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

As House GOP leaders planned their strategy in the impeachment process, Clinton sought to convey a business-as-usual attitude as he visited New York City for an economic speech and campaign fund-raisers for Democrats.

Meanwhile, the two top Democrats on Capitol Hill, also in New York, urged the White House to abandon a defense strategy based on legal technicalities.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri issued public appeals to the White House as part of a developing Democratic strategy to punish Clinton with a congressional censure - but to let him avoid impeachment.

Daschle raised the possibility that Congress could ``consider other means to address the president's conduct, holding him fully accountable but sparing the nation months more of instability and policy paralysis.'' Some Democrats are discussing a censure sanction that might involve Clinton reimbursing the government for part of Starr's probe - in effect, a fine.

In what amounted to a rebuke of the White House legal strategy, Daschle said, ``I certainly agree with those who have grown impatient with hair-splitting over legal technicalities. . . . The president and his advisers must accept that continued legal jousting serves no constructive purpose. It simply stands in the way of what we need to do: move forward and let common sense guide us in doing what is best for the country.''

At the same time, Daschle put the heat on House Republicans to keep some of the additional evidence of Clinton's sexual relationship with Lewinsky under wraps.

Gephardt gave his support to those who want the president and his lawyers to back away from a legalistic defense of the president's conduct.

``The considered judgment of the American people is not going to rise or fall on the fine distinctions of a legal argument, but on straight talk and the truth,'' Gephardt said.

The leaders' criticism followed a reiteration by Clinton adviser James Carville, who on Monday morning contended that while Clinton might have lied under oath in denying a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, he did not commit the crime of perjury.

The discussion of legal tactics came as White House officials discussed adding Greg Craig, a State Department official with experience on Capitol Hill, to the Clinton team. Craig formerly was a law partner of Clinton attorney David Kendall.

The decision of House GOP leaders that could slow down the impeachment process had the effect of postponing a potentially acrimonious floor fight over whether Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., should be granted extraordinary authority to summon witnesses.

Hyde has asked for authority to subpoena witnesses before the Judiciary Committee in either its preliminary probe, now under way, or in full hearings, now apparently headed for a start no earlier than Nov. 9.

Furthermore, Hyde wants the power to compel the appearance of witnesses by ordering their arrest if they do not comply with his first subpoena.

Under current law, committee chairmen who want to force testimony from unwilling witnesses under the threat of arrest must secure the approval of the full committee before issuing such an enforceable subpoena, congressional lawyers said.

Hyde said he has requested the authority for himself to head off potential protracted fights within the committee every time he calls an unwilling witness.

Under a resolution approved last week by the House, committee members have until Sept. 28 to decide which of the 2,000 pages of Starr's evidence are to be kept secret. Under last week's House resolution, the bulk of Starr's evidence package is to become public Sept. 28.

With Starr himself raising the expectation that Congress might want to keep some evidence secret to protect innocent people, the Judiciary Committee faces the prospect of a fight over the documents.

Aides to House GOP leaders said they expect to bundle all decisions affecting the first phases of the impeachment inquiry into a single package.

Hyde also said he would not rule out expanding any inquiry beyond the president's affair with Lewinsky and efforts to cover it up, The New York Times reported.

Hyde says he remains far from making up his mind over whether the House should call for impeachment hearings.

But a Hyde aide said it is increasingly probable that the Judiciary Committee would not start public hearings until Nov. 9 at the very earliest. Such hearings could last the rest of the year. Under such a schedule, House debate on impeachment almost certainly would be delayed until January, after the seating of the new Congress.

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PHOTO (color) President Clinton discusses the global economy Monday in New York. See Business.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press