The Impeachment Road Map

WASHINGTON: So what happens next? Despite the solemnity with which you'll hear them treat the forthcoming impeachment hearings, House members are set to put this constitutional process on the back burner and concentrate on the more urgent need to press the flesh in their constituencies. It's up to the hardworking aides of the House Judiciary Committee to sweat the small stuff -- like which parts of Monica Lewinsky's testimony are credible. And counsel for both sides may well go 15 rounds on how many of those 15 impeachment charges cited Monday should be investigated. For now, it's all about finding evidence that neither the GOP nor the Democrats dispute.

After this initial phase of the hearings -- the "stipulation" phase -- come the subpoenas. Will we see Monica Lewinsky, Vernon Jordan, Linda Tripp and all your other favorite characters from the grand jury hearings? Will Democrats call even the elusive Mr. Starr to account for his actions? That's up to Judiciary chair Henry Hyde and ranking member John Conyers, drawing up subpoenas together or -- as is more likely -- unilaterally. Barring the release of a politically timed second Starr report, which the independent counsel says he is still mulling over, there'll be few earth-shaking developments until after the November 3 elections. Will the committee then live up to Hyde's "fondest hope," and finish up by New Year's? Don't hold your breath.