Trial: Here Come the Witnesses

WASHINGTON: Gentlemen, clear your calendars. Senate Republicans hung onto both their trial and their witnesses after a pair of 56-44 party-line votes (Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold bolted on both) christened Wednesday's trial proceedings. Trent Lott then immediately called a recess -- not much to do, but lots to talk about while the subpoenas start flowing. The Senate has etched into the record the partisan gridlock that everyone so wanted to avoid -- not enough Democrats to stop the trial, not enough Republicans to convict -- and now they really need an exit strategy. As Florida GOPer Connie Mack put it afterward, "Now we have to get from second base to home." Latest trial wrap-up guesstimate from Lott is, appropriately enough, Presidents Day.

They may need some help from the White House. Although Presidential lawyer Gregory Craig came out Wednesday afternoon to plead for speed, continued threats that the legal team will demand discovery, study time and a witness parade of its own remain hanging over the proceedings, even if they have been laughed off by Republicans as a bluff. They'll be hard requests for the Senate to refuse, and TIME White House correspondent Karen Tumulty doesn't rule it out. "Even though the House's three witnesses will be relating mostly one-on-one conversations with Clinton, the President's lawyers could find any number of people who talked to one or both of the participants afterward," she says. The polls, of course, are still overwhelmingly against a long trial -- would Clinton dare to buck his favorite policy advisers? Tumulty says there's a first time for everything. "On Tuesday I heard the most chilling word from a White House staffer that I'd heard all year," she says. "'August.'"