George,
An interesting editorial from Florida.
(all emphasis is mine)
jim
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Florida Times-Union
Sunday, January 24, 1999
OPINION
IMPEACHMENT: A dozen Democrats
If Democrat senators vote en bloc to retain President Clinton in office, it will
stain the party forever.
It is assumed by pundits that all 55 Republicans will vote to convict, although
that conclusion seems a little premature at this point.
If that should happen, however, the votes of 12 Democrats would be needed for
conviction.
Because of the powerful presentation by the House prosecutors, the senators can
have little doubt that Clinton lied and obstructed justice.
Step by step, the prosecutors showed how the White House was galvanized into
action upon finding that Monica Lewinsky was to be called as a witness in the
Paula Jones lawsuit.
Phone calls from the Oval Office to Vernon Jordan and Betty Currie and from
Currie to Lewinsky cannot be explained in any context favorable to the president.
Nor could his Sunday meeting with Currie during which he clearly coached her
to lie on the witness stand.
What senators will have to decide is what to do about the president's felonious
activities.
Clinton Loyalist Sen. Tom Harkin, DIowa, has said, ''Just because a president
commits a crime does not mean, ipso facto, that he should be removed from
office.''
That might be suitable for Richard Nixon's epitaph.
Public opinion polls are Clinton's life raft, and the air is leaking.
The polls, which were in Clinton's favor at a time when few people were
following the case and when the Dow was soaring to record heights, began
moving against Clinton as the details were revealed - until he giddily proposed
giving away $288 billion a year and got a quick opinion fix.
Because of his reliance on polls, if the balance should tip to a majority in favor of
removal, Democratic defenders would have nothing left to cling to. Already, a
majority in one poll say Clinton deserves to be removed.
The sad part - for the nation, not the president - is that all of this could have been
avoided.
Throughout his career, Clinton has been able to use his husky voice to talk his
way out of trouble. He was so convinced it would work in this case that he
missed an opportunity.
Had he acknowledged the Lewinsky affair a year ago, it is doubtful that he would
have been impeached and therefore would not be on trial.
The worst would have been three days of headlines and - maybe - some nightly
news notice on TV.
Still, the consummate risk-taker may yet escape the ignominy of being the only
president removed from office.
The Senate could show mercy. Since a finding of guilt would require removal
from office, it may choose not to convict because enough senators believe
removal from office is too severe.
But if it falls on party lines, the narrow escape will be seen as a partisan rescue
of a guilty president.
Then it becomes Clinton's legacy and the Democratic Party's albatross.
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