HOUSE VOTES 363-63 TO MAKE PUBLIC STARR'S REPORT.

Byline: Alison Mitchell The New York Times

With memories of Watergate echoing through the chamber, the House on Friday voted to make public the report of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and to begin the process that could lead to the first impeachment proceedings against a president in 24 years.

The 363-63 vote in favor of public disclosure was overwhelming, despite impassioned protests by Democrats that President Clinton was being denied the fundamental fairness of an advance look at the prosecutor's charges before they were sent to the world on the Internet. In a sign of the president's political isolation, only 63 Democrats and no Republicans opposed the measure.

``We are here because circumstances and our Constitution have thrust upon us an onerous duty - one that requires us to summon the courage and the means to defend the rule of law,'' said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which now takes the lead in determining whether to open an impeachment inquiry.

``Please don't forget,'' said Hyde, ``when all the distractions and definitions have been pronounced, at the end of it all, we are about one mighty task - to vindicate the rule of law.''

Minutes after the vote, two Capitol police officers carried two sealed boxes containing Starr's 445-page report into a House office building. House Sergeant-at-arms Wilson Livingood cut the seals and removed the black looseleaf-bound report for duplication on high-speed copying machines. He resealed appendices that had not yet been authorized for release.

One of the first copies went to Hyde. ``This is the beginning of a long climb up a steep mountain,'' he said, as he signed for his copy. Still other House members made printouts from Congress's own internal Web site.

The ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, also received an early copy. Conyers and 28 members of the 35-person Congressional Black Caucus voted against such a quick release of the main document.

Under the resolution approved by the House, the 37-member Judiciary Committee now has until Sept. 28 to review 17 other boxes full of video and audio tapes, transcripts of testimony and other materials sent to Congress by Starr, and then to decide what to make public.

The House also empowered the committee to review Starr's charges of ``serious and credible'' offenses and decide whether to recommend that the House initiate an impeachment inquiry. Many members of Congress say they believe that momentum is building for formal impeachment proceedings.

Congressional leaders are now planning to recess instead of adjourning this fall. That would allow a lame-duck House to return and take a formal vote on whether to begin an impeachment inquiry before next year.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Friday, ``The most likely environment for the least political circumstances involving a matter of this import would be right after the election.'' Daschle said the period between the November election and the opening of a new Congress in January ``is going to be the time when you see the least politicized environment in Washington and in the country.''

Well aware that the report's intimate and embarrassing details of Clinton's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky could decide whether Clinton can survive, some Democrats agonized over the report's release Friday.

Minutes after voting against making the report public, Rep. James Moran, D-Va., spoke glumly to reporters of ``six months of torturous hearings and humiliating expose that's going to make the American people the nation's voyeurs.''

``He may have explanations of this,'' said Moran, who like Clinton is from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, ``but it has to be something better than what we heard Aug. 17. It has got be something better than weasel words like `legally accurate.' ''

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who also voted against immediate disclosure, called the moment one of ``fate and history coming together.'' He added, ``We have to play the hand we've been dealt.''

Although the debate was partisan, lawmakers spoke often Friday of the gravity of the decisions they must make. ``There is no joy in bringing forward this resolution,'' said Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y., the chairman of the Rules Committee, ``only a sense of the gravity of our task ahead and mindful of our constitutional responsibilities.''

Throughout the two hours of debate, members of the House looked back 24 years to the last time Congress moved close to expelling the nation's chief executive. Richard M. Nixon ultimately resigned before being impeached by the full House.

HOW THEY VOTED

Here is how California representatives voted in the 363-63 roll call by which the House adopted a resolution Friday dealing with a report by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr on President Clinton's alleged impeachable offenses. X denotes those not voting.

Republicans: Bilbray, Yes; Bono, Yes; Calvert, Yes; Campbell, Yes; Cox, Yes; Cunningham, Yes; Doolittle, Yes; Dreier, Yes; Gallegly, Yes; Herger, Yes; Horn, Yes; Hunter, Yes; Kim, Yes; Lewis, Yes; McKeon, Yes; Packard, Yes; Pombo, Yes; Radanovich, Yes; Riggs, Yes; Rogan, Yes; Rohrabacher, Yes; Royce, Yes; Thomas, Yes.

Democrats: Becerra, No; Berman, Yes; Brown, No; Capps, Yes; Condit, Yes; Dixon, Yes; Dooley, Yes; Eshoo, Yes; Farr, Yes; Fazio, Yes; Filner, No; Harman, Yes; Lantos, Yes; Lee, No; Lofgren, No; Martinez, No; Matsui, Yes; Millender-McDonald, Yes; Miller, No; Pelosi, No; Roybal-Allard, No; Sanchez, Yes; Sherman, Yes; Stark, No; Tauscher, Yes; Torres, No; Waters, No; Waxman, Yes; Woolsey, No.

SOURCE: Associated Press

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BOX: HOW THEY VOTED (see text)