|
Latest poll shows enough votes for impeachment
Updated December 18, 1998
10:12 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Court TV) — The latest poll of House members Friday indicated that President Clinton will become the second president in the history of the country to be impeached.
According to reported results from The Associated Press, some 219 representatives will vote to impeach President Clinton on one or more articles of impeachment set for a vote Saturday morning. 202 members said they would vote against impeachment and 10 said they were undecided.
House members will reconvene Saturday morning to vote on the four articles of impeachment against President Clinton.
The decision on the debate schedule came after much protest from Democrats, who criticized the timing of the debate and decried the omission of a censure resolution.
Throughout the day and night Friday, Democrats and Republicans passionately, often bitterly, expressed their views on impeachment on the House floor, agreeing only to expand the debate throughout the day and vote Saturday.
The first two hours of official impeachment debate yielded few surprises. Democrats reiterated that Clinton's possible felony does not rise to the level of impeachment while arguing for the leadership to allow a floor vote on censure. Republicans, stressing the importance of upholding the constitution, pointed to the prosecutions of others for perjury and the necessity of one law for all Americans.
Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who was born in Hungary and joined resistance movements against both the Nazis and communists, argued that what distinguishes the American system of government from totalitarian regimes is "procedural fairness." Lantos then blasted the leadership for not allowing a vote on censure — which if permitted would give "respect and legitimacy" to the proceedings.
"I find it unbelievable [the Republican leadership] want to limit my right to vote my conscience," Lantos said, arguing that he would defend their right to vote their conscience, even with his life.
Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, a former prisoner of war, said Clinton's actions had "made a mockery of the people who fought for this country and are fighting for this nation today.
"When the president stands before God, puts his hand on the Bible and takes an oath to uphold the Constitution ... he is promising to put the people and the nation before his own interests," Johnson said. "Instead of following the law, respecting American people's values and honoring his office, he chose to lie, cover up and evade the truth."
Four hours after debate began, the first of only a handful of Republicans expected to oppose impeachment rose to speak. "We are a nation consumed by investigations, by special counsels. We are a nation consumed by scandal. We are driving good people from government," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., drawing applause from Democrats.
Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., a member of the Judiciary Committee, responded that leading scholars had testified that censure is unconstitutional.
Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., yielded a few minutes to Rep. Paul McHale, D-Pa., who dealt a crushing blow to the president by announcing he would vote for the first three articles of impeachment. McHale, who was a prime supporter of censure and had in fact circulated a harshly worded resolution earlier in the month, had been the first Democrat to call for the president's resignation.
But a partisan defector from the other side, Maryland Republican Rep. Connie Morella, received brief cheers Friday evening when she announced, as expected, that she would vote against impeachment.
The lack of cooperation between the two parties lasted until the very last minute of Friday's debate, as Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., asked for an additional 15 minutes of debate time beyond the agreed 10 p.m. close. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., quickly objected, which prompted Lofgren to withdraw her request, a cantankerous end to a day of extreme political polarization.
The first lady, meanwhile, broke months of silence on the issue. "In this holiday season...we in our country ought to practice reconciliation," Hillary Rodham Clinton said at a White House event.
Vice President Al Gore said he was "fighting mad" that Republicans refused to consider a lesser punishment. Gore also ruled out the possibility of Clinton resigning.
"People can forget about that," Gore said in one in a series of interviews Friday.
But two Democrats who planned to oppose impeachment nonetheless said resignation should not be ruled out.
"I think that resigning is something that he should consider because his effectiveness would be reduced," said Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York. She added that she was "probably the only Democrat on the planet that has even considered" the idea. Going a step further, Rep. William Lipinski of Illinois said Clinton should resign if impeached.
Presidential spokesman Joe Lockhart blasted Republicans, accusing them of pursuing a "cynical political strategy" and of using the impeachment process as a way to try to force the president's resignation.
As expected, Clinton's chances of staving off impeachment worsened by the minute. An Associated Press telephone survey of House members found 204 lawmakers said they would support impeachment, 197 said they would oppose it, 26 remained undecided, and eight wouldn't answer. The undecided and those not responding included 11 Democrats and 23 Republicans.
The president's defenders were resigned to the possibility that at least one article of impeachment would be approved by the GOP-controlled House and were already preparing a strategy for trying to stop a Senate trial. Clinton, however, met for about an hour with Republican Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, hoping to persuade him to stay with his intended vote against impeachment. Shays said during Friday's debate that he would continue to oppose impeachment.
Republicans, meanwhile, opened the debate Friday by stressing that President Clinton violated the oath of his office.
"This debate is not about sex. It is not about the personal fate of a president, the political fate of a party, or the Dow Jones average. It is about lying under oath," said House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde. "The president is our flag bearer. We are here to protect the Constitution, not to weaken and wound it by excusing and tolerating lies under oath."
Read Hyde's statement.
But House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D- Mo., protested the timing of the impeachment debate and stressed that Republicans should reconsider a censure resolution. He felt that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq should have been cause for Republicans to wait until Monday to hold the debate. To force the debate now, he insisted, was sending the wrong message to U.S. troops and citizens.
"Today's debate is occurring on the wrong day, in the wrong way," Gephardt said. "We are considering whether or not we should remove our elected president from office. There has been a lack of common sense not befitting our office. It has been said that this is a vote of conscience. All we ask is that we get to vote our conscience and the censure resolution be considered."
Hutchinson said Clinton engaged in a pattern of false statements, deceit and obstruction, actions that went beyond private conduct and into the public arena. And he stressed that Clinton's failure to execute the laws he promised to uphold damages the Constitution and the integrity of government.
Another Judiciary Committee member, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, accused the House of "selective moralizing." He pointed out that when Newt Gingrich was found to have made false statements, he was reprimanded and then re-elected as House speaker.
Just before the impeachment debate began, Democrats made an ultimately failed bid to adjourn the House while U.S. troops fight in Iraq.
Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., petitioned the House to adjourn, in order to give U.S. troops their full support in their conflict with Iraq. Before making his motion, Bonior stressed that it was not appropriate to hold the impeachment debate during the Iraqi conflict while urging them to consider a censure resolution.
"I urge House Republicans to reconsider their decision to hold this debate today," Bonior said. "To do so would send the wrong message to our troops and show Saddam Hussein that we are a weakened nation. And I urge the Republicans to consider a censure resolution. Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and some other members of the Republican party have suggested this solution. The right wing of the Republican party is out of control, and this refusal to allow a censure resolution is just an attempt to get a president out of office whom they couldn't get out through elections."
But, as expected, Bonior's motion failed and House Republicans proceeded with the first presidential impeachment debate in 130 years. While Democrats have focused on the emotion of holding the impeachment debate while U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq, Republicans have pointed out that Nixon's impeachment hearing took place during the Vietnam War and that U.S. soldiers are not worried about the debate while in combat.
Martin Frost, D-Texas, said that Congress was "shattering the tradition of supporting the president and our troops during a foreign conflict." But Sam Johnson, R-Texas, said that Congress and the U.S. troops shared a common goal: defending the Constitution, which President Clinton had failed to respect.
"Clinton has made a mockery of the people who fought for this country and are fighting for this nation," Johnson said. Instead of following the law, respecting American people's values and honoring his office, he chose to lie, cover it up, and evade the truth."
Duke Cunningham, R-Calif. and a Vietnam War veteran, said that the impeachment debates are not on the minds of soldiers in Iraq.
"That is not a factor with them," Cunningham said. "They are thinking about their missions. When I was in Vietnam, I was concerned about getting home alive."
While the White House resumed a last-ditch anti-impeachment
lobbying campaign Thursday, presidential allies said they expected
at least one of four proposed articles to pass, triggering a trial
in the Senate.
Republicans, suspicious of the timing of the bombing in Iraq,
delayed the debate one day, but then insisted that the House not wait
any longer to consider the articles. But on the eve of the debate,
Republicans were stunned by House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston's admission to extramarital affairs.
Livingston, who will replace Gingrich on Jan. 6, told a Republican caucus — convened for the impeachment issue — that "I have on occasion strayed from my marriage." But contrasting his own case with Clinton's affair, Livingston said his relationships "were not with employees on my staff, and I have never been asked to testify under oath about them."
But Democrats noted the irony of Livingston's past transgressions.
"The only word that comes to mind is hypocrite," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "The hypocrisy is absolutely stunning."
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee approved impeachment
articles that accused Clinton of perjury in the Paula Jones civil
lawsuit, perjury before a grand jury, obstruction of justice and
abuse of power. The case of Andrew Johnson in 1868 is the only other time the House voted to impeach a president. Johnson was acquitted by a single vote in the Senate.
If the House passes one article of impeachment, House Majority Leader Trent Lott said the Senate would take the first "preliminary steps" toward a trial either the day it convenes, Jan. 6, or the following
day. The White House would be given several days to submit its pleadings, a formal response to the charges cited in any articles of impeachment.
According to Lott, the length of an impeachment trial would depend on "how many articles there are, what evidence had to be presented, would there be witnesses, would the White House want to take advantage of every legal."
Court TV's Bryan Robinson, Aldina Vazao Kennedy, Kim Khan, Jon Bonné and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| 
Full Coverage