Moynihan Favors a Clinton Censure, Saying Ouster Could 'Destabilize' Office nytimes.com
Sorry, the Republican's favorite Democrat seems to have rethought his position. Time to look for a new poster boy.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York made clear on Thursday that President Clinton should be censured but not removed from office, warning that the moves to oust Clinton might threaten to "very readily destabilize the presidency."
Speaking out for the first time about possible Senate action, Moynihan questioned whether the charges were strong enough to merit Clinton's removal from office.
He said he had consulted many of his colleagues and was increasingly confident that there was support among Democrats and Republicans to move rapidly to cut short a prolonged impeachment trial.
His comments will bring a measure of relief to the White House, where some officials had feared that Moynihan, who has broken with the president often in the past, might again turn on Clinton. His seniority, scholarship and independence make him an influential member of the Senate.
"We are an indispensable nation and we have to protect the presidency as an institution," Moynihan, a Democrat who has been a fixture of American politics for five decades, said in a telephone interview from his home here, where he was preparing for a Senate trial by reading The Federalist Papers.
"There has to be a commander in chief," he said. "You could very readily destabilize the presidency, move to a randomness. That's an institution that has to be stable, not in dispute. Absent that, do not doubt that you could degrade the republic quickly."
Merry Christmas to all. |
