An Exercise in Attention Spans

WASHINGTON — For the second full day of the impeachment trial, the senators came armed--like kids stocked for the second day of a cross-country car trip.

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) showed up with a brown bag containing a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich and with a black-and-white notebook that he “borrowed” from his younger daughter. Sen. Conrad R. Burns (R-Mont.) brought a bulging briefcase containing 10 crossword puzzles, two candy bars and a stack of news clippings. Several senators must have raided their office candy jars, because they spent the afternoon chewing, sucking and munching with a vengeance, as if their careers--if not their images--depended on paying attention to the proceedings.

Perhaps they did.

Apparently, Republican and Democratic leaders had warned their members privately Friday not to appear to snooze, because the press gallery--with its bird’s eye view--was bulging with reporters waiting and watching.

And the senators tried mightily to stay awake while listening to details about a presidential tragedy they have been watching unfold for a year.

They cleared their throats, shook their heads, applied lip balm, bobbed and bounced as much as you can in a hard-backed chair.

At one point, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) was tapping his foot, chewing gum, twiddling a pen and fluttering his eyelashes.

A recent Mayo Clinic study suggests that behaving like a jumping bean burns calories. If this trial goes on too long, move over Fergie: the senators could do a Weight Watchers ad.

If there was a riveting moment that stilled the senators, it came early in the proceedings, when Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), one of the House prosecutors, threw out some red meat.

Just as he began describing the nub of the perjury case against the president as being whether he touched Monica S. Lewinsky sexually, it was as if the senators were playing a game of freeze tag. The fidgeting stopped and then, as if on cue, several senators grabbed their glasses of cold water and started swallowing.

But by mid-afternoon, when Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) announced that he would be presenting case law on obstruction of justice, the senators again began, uh, relaxing--chewing, yawning and adjusting their glasses.

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Has Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee not heard enough?

Is there anything the Democrat from Texas, who sat through weeks of House Judiciary Committee hearings last month as one of the most engaged and outspoken members, could have missed? Is there a relevant detail or a legal nuance that Jackson-Lee, an accomplished lawyer, doesn’t know?

Let’s just say she’s a glutton for punishment.

Since Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist banged the gavel Thursday, Jackson-Lee has been on the Senate floor, sitting off to the side of the Democrats--close enough so that, if she should decide to speak, even though Senate rules forbid it, they could hear her.

“I come as a truth teller,” she said Friday before finding her way to the chairs reserved for staff and visiting House members. “I come ready to tell that truth.”

One of the president’s biggest defenders, Jackson-Lee said she is part tourist--”This is historic, you know!”--part advocate and partly curious.

“The Founding Fathers had in their wisdom that this would be a very somber, very punitive process,” she said. “They also thought this would be an impartial, bipartisan effort. Which it hasn’t been. I suspect that, if they had known it would become this partisan, they would have created an ‘opposition’ team of House members in addition to the prosecutorial one to make a presentation to the Senate.”

She said she represents the “opposition” view. Wearing an emerald-colored suit and a gold bird-like pin, she sat through Friday’s proceedings with a legal pad on her lap, taking notes and intensely eyeing House prosecutors. She said she plans to come every day of the trial unless House business keeps her away.

“Maybe I’ll be the one dragged from the floor in exasperation,” she said, smiling. “Who knows?”

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Senators are keenly aware that most Americans don’t really care about the impeachment issue and want Congress to get busy doing “the people’s business”--such as passing legislation on health care, Social Security and the like.

So, periodically, the public can expect the kind of show both sides put on Friday before the impeachment fun got rolling.

In the morning, a half-dozen GOP senators announced that, once again, they would propose their 1998 “patients’ rights” legislation to regulate the managed care industry.

Two hours and 15 minutes later, the Democrats countered with their own press conference, disclosing that they, too, would revive their 1998 proposal.

(Although both sides declared an openness to compromise with the other, the cognoscenti know that, if the two sides were serious, they would be working quietly behind the scenes, not declaiming in front of the cameras.)

In both cases, the first questions from reporters were about impeachment, not health care issues. When Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said he wanted to talk about health care, not impeachment, a reporter asked: “How’s the president’s political health?”

Daschle’s answer: “Pretty good.

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In case any lawyers in America were worried that the Full Employment Act for Legal Experts that has been so in evidence in Washington over the last few months might have expired, they needn’t. It hasn’t.

Indeed, dozens of lawyers were marched out last month during the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment show--to testify, advise or just be seen.

While they haven’t been as obvious at the Senate trial--unless you note that 55 of the 100 senators are lawyers--that’s not to say they’re not lurking behind the scenes.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) has hired two Duke University law professors to assist him in the impeachment process, according to his press secretary, Chris Madison.

They’re camping out in hotels, reading all the briefs and advising the senator on constitutional law, according to Madison. He expects that, when the time finally comes for the senators to speak their minds on the floor, the professors will help Biden write his remarks.

“Biden’s style is to have smart people who know the issues really well around him,” Madison said. Not a bad idea.

Times staff writers Edwin Chen and Art Pine contributed to this story.