INEVITABLE: HOUSE SET TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT TODAY : DEBATE: PARTISAN ANGER COLORS MEMBERS' SPEECHES.

Byline: R.W. Apple Jr. The New York Times

For the first time since Feb. 24, 1868, three years after the United States emerged from an awful Civil War, the House of Representatives debated the impeachment of a president Friday.

It scheduled for today votes on four articles of impeachment ``for high crimes and misdemeanors'' against William Jefferson Clinton. Although Democrats protested bitterly and ardently, they acknowledged that passage of at least one of them, and a Senate trial next year that could result in the president's removal from office, had become inevitable.

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a Democrat who was badly beaten during the civil-rights demonstrations in the South during the 1960s, stilled the sometimes fractious House when he advised his colleagues, ``The spirit of history is upon us and the fate of the Republic before us.''

It was a grave and momentous day. For many, it was a grim day, without joy or satisfaction. Some of the participants said they were troubled that Congress seemed out of sync with the American people. Others ``hated to get out of bed this morning,'' as Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia put it.

Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, the 74-year-old chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sounded the Republican theme in his opening statement, asserting that ``no man or woman, no matter how highly placed, no matter how effective a communicator, no matter how gifted a manipulator of opinion or winner of votes, can be above the law in a democracy.''

Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, the Democratic whip in the House, called impeachment ``a runaway train headed for a cliff.'' Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, another Democrat, raised the ugly specter of McCarthyism and demanded of the Republican majority, in a distinct echo of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, ``Have we no sense of decency?''

The debate, sharply partisan like all the others in recent months, lasted through the day and into the evening. It took place as British and American warplanes rained bombs upon Iraq for the third day running, and as Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a rare public defense of her husband since he admitted to having had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

It came, too, in a coincidental conjunction that would have delighted Kafka, at the very height of the holiday season, with festive parties scheduled every night at the White House.

``The vast majority of Americans share my approval and pride in the job the president has been doing for our country,'' the first lady said on the White House lawn, with the dome of the Capitol, where the impeachment debate was under way, looming behind her.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from upstate New York, urged Clinton to think about resignation if he is impeached. She said that ``his usefulness would be lost in dealing with other nations.'' Rep. William Lipinski of Illinois, another Democrat, spoke in the same vein.

Won't resign

The White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, replied that the president would ``absolutely not'' consider resigning, and he launched a fresh attack on the Republicans on Capitol Hill, accusing them of scheming to drive Clinton from office.

Clinton himself spent the day focused on Iraq and the international economy and in meetings with several foreign leaders, including Chancellor Viktor Klima of Austria.

While conceding that the president had committed ``reprehensible'' acts and made ``deceitful'' statements to cover them up, Democratic members of the House argued that his actions did not come close to warranting impeachment, that they should be given an opportunity to vote on censure as an alternative to impeachment - an option the majority has denied them - and that the debate should not be taking place in any case during military action in Iraq.

``What the president did was wrong,'' said Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the dean of the House, who has represented a district near Detroit since 1955, in direct succession to his father, also John Dingell, who had represented it since 1932. ``What we are doing is equally wrong - an exercise in the abuse of power by the majority over the minority.''

The House's only independent member, Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, decried the prospect of a vote ``perhaps to paralyze our government as the Senate explores Bill Clinton's extramarital relations.'' He said that he had realized as never before ``just how out of touch this institution is with the American people.''

Republicans pressed resolutely forward with their accusations that Clinton had committed perjury, had obstructed justice and had abused his powers as president, all to conceal the truth about the Lewinsky affair.

Can't trust Clinton

One of the most dramatic and possibly telling interventions came from Rep. Tom Campbell of California, a moderate Republican often criticized in his district for being insufficiently conservative. He said in a soft voice that he could never trust Clinton again - indeed that he had been persuaded that the bombing campaign was legitimate only when Pentagon officials said it was.

``If it is in his interest not to tell the truth,'' the Californian said in a blunt indictment of Clinton, ``he will not tell the truth.''

Campbell's flawless legal pedigree - son of a federal judge, star student at the Harvard Law School, clerk to a Supreme Court justice, former professor at Stanford Law School - lent weight to his words.

Another California Republican, Rep. Frank Riggs, one of 41 departing members who will cast the last votes of their congressional careers today, said he had talked on Wednesday to two prominent Republicans, former President Gerald Ford and former Sen. Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee. Both, he reported, said that they would have voted to impeach.

Rep. Ray LaHood, who comes from the quintessentially Middle American city of Peoria, Ill., presided over the protracted debate, in which dozens of members participated. He urged decorum as speeches began at 9:29 a.m., Eastern time, but he had difficulty maintaining it, repeatedly pounding his gavel for order.

Hyde made a not entirely successful attempt to lend a sense of patriotic majesty to the occasion. He cited not only Roman law, the Magna Carta and the Constitutional Congress but also the Civil War, and the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord.

For the most part, the debate was more a series of political set pieces rather than a clash of oratorical titans in the mold of Clay or Webster.

Hissing and hooting

A low buzz hovered over the House chamber for most of the day, fed by whispered chats among members, ad hoc conferences, the rustle of turning newspaper pages and speeches practiced in stage whispers. A few times, hissing and hooting was heard.

Democrats bemoaned the lack of civility characterizing the entire process that has brought the president and the nation to the current moment of crisis. Applause greeted a demand by Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, the minority leader, for an end to ``the politics of slash and burn.''

At the beginning, the public galleries were packed and almost all the House's 435 members were in their brown leather seats. But by midday, the chamber itself was half empty, as if all the drama had been wrung out of the debate as soon as it started. By late afternoon, only 38 members were there, though there were still lines of people waiting for gallery seats.

In backstairs conferences Friday morning, the two sides reached an agreement on the length and of the debate and other rules, avoiding a series of noisy public procedural squabbles that both decided they did not want.

The Republicans moderated their rhetoric a bit, softening the prosecutorial tone they adopted in the Judiciary Committee's proceedings. But the Democrats' fury showed through.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan said that he was witnessing ``a Republican coup d'etat,'' and the same phrase was used by his party colleagues, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Rep. Maxine Waters of California. At another point, in a more analytical mood, Conyers stated one of the central Democratic contentions: ``Impeachment was designed to rid this nation of traitors and tyrants, not attempts to cover up an extramarital affair.''

Later, Rep. Ike Skelton, D.-Mo., said the Republicans wanted to ``decapitate their commander in chief.'' Rep. Steven Rothman, D.-N.J., complained of a ``Republican juggernaut, driven by the right wing.'' Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D.-R.I., a nephew of the late John F. Kennedy, spoke of ``a political lynching,'' and Rep. Danny K. Davis of Illinois denounced what he described as ``a lynching.''

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D.-Ill., son of the civil rights leader, said impeachment constituted an attack not only on Clinton but also on the accomplishments of the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the Great Society. African-Americans, who benefited hugely from all of those programs, have been among the president's staunchest backers from the start.

``In 1868,'' Jackson said, referring to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, ``it was about Reconstruction. In 1998, it's still about Reconstruction.''

The Johnson case

There were repeated references to the Johnson impeachment, which was voted upon in the same House chamber where the debate took place Friday, and to the Watergate case in 1974. Articles of impeachment never reached the full House on that occasion, because Richard M. Nixon concluded that his conviction in the Senate was certain and resigned the presidency to avoid it.

``Some of my colleagues,'' said Rep. Vic Fazio of California, a Democrat who is retiring, ``obsess about Slick Willie in the same way that those on my side of aisle used to about Tricky Dick.''

But the continuing air assault on Iraq came up even more often.

Some suggested that the Democrats saw a political opening in the Republicans' decision to stage the debate while the bombs were still falling. But some seemed genuinely offended; their views were crystallized on Thursday night by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., who served in Korea.

``You can't separate the president from the commander in chief,'' he said. ``You can't salute him in the morning and impeach him in the afternoon.''

For the Republicans, Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas, a former pilot who languished for seven years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, made this retort: ``Our military fighting men want the Congress to carry on our responsibilities every day.''

A potentially volatile ingredient was injected into the political equation by the confession of marital infidelity Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, the speaker-elect, made on Thursday evening. But there were only a few heavily veiled allusions to his difficulties during the debate, all from the Democrats.

Officially, the item under debate Friday was called House Resolution 611.

As read out Friday morning in a somber voice by the House reading clerk, Paul Hays, it began, ``Resolved, that William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors,'' and went on to accuse Clinton of perjury before a grand jury and in the Paula Jones lawsuit, of obstructing justice in a variety of ways, and of abusing his power by lying to and misleading Congress in his answers to 81 questions posed by the House Judiciary Committee.

CAPTION(S):

15 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) no caption (Footage of impeachment debate on the House floor)

Associated Press

(2) President Clinton visits with Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klima, while House was debating impeachment.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

(3) ANDREW JOHNSON

FROM CAPITOL HILL: What our representatives said

(4--Color) ``The evidence against the president on this score is overwhelming.''

- Rep. James Rogan, R-Pasadena, in a House speech

(5--Color)``I would call this House a kangaroo court, but that would be an insult to marsupials everywhere.''

- Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, in a House speech

(6--Color) ``This is not about sex. It's about lying under oath before a federal judge and a federal grand jury.''

- Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, in a House speech

(7--Color) ``What has been presented to us today does not amount to impeachable offenses.''

- Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, in a House speech

(8--Color) ``Evidence I've seen indicates the president did commit perjury, which is an impeachable offense.''

- Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, in an interview

(9--Color) ``Impeachment is not the proper vehicle for symbolic gestures.''

- Rep. Howard Berman, D-Mission Hills, in a House speech

LOCAL VIEWS: What area residents said

(10--Color) ``It's a sad, awful thing, but I think it's necessary (to impeach him).''

- Diane Sauceda, 58, of Simi Valley

hair salon owner, undeclared

(11--Color) ``I think he should be outta there. I don't see what the big problem is - he lied, get him out.''

- Heather Tuttle, 19, of North Hills

college student, Republican

(12--Color) ``I think it's a political thing. The Republicans are pursuing a vendetta against the president.''

- David Slack, 55, of Simi Valley

retired engineer, Democrat

(13--Color) ``I just don't really believe it's any of our business.I think it's strictly partisan politics.''

- Len Holness, 60, of Woodland Hills

retired aerospace manager, Republican

(14--Color) ``If that's the worst thing the president has ever done, then we should salute him.''

- Franklin Rodriguez, 31, of Los Angeles

motion picture set decorator, Republican

(15--Color) ``I'd like to see him get the same punishment you or I would get if we committed perjury.''

- Bobbie Powers, 35, of Canoga Park

director of a nutrition program, undeclared