To: Michael Sphar who wrote (2514 ) 8/21/1998 5:20:00 PM From: Doughboy Respond to
I don't think you understand Clinton and the GOP if you think the Congress is looking forward to this. The GOP has absolutely been stymied and humiliated in its three attempts to investigate Clinton: Senate Whitewater, House Campaign Finance, Senate Campaign Finance. Who ended up winning the public over hands down? Clinton. And it's not just Clinton, look at what Ollie North did to make the Joint Committee on the Contra Affair look foolish. The Congress does not have a good track record since Watergate for bringing down their target. Granted, this is much more interesting and salacious, but the Clintonites are banking on the fact that the public basically already knows everything and by the time a slow-moving hearing gets under way, their patience is going to be far past gone. As I also pointed out earlier, the Congress will be playing with one hand tied behind their back. They cannot divulge grand jury testimony, so they cannot fight back Clinton and his lawyers when they're out on the news every night lambasting House Republicans. Finally, the congressmen with skeletons in their closest are shaking in their boots. What happens when all the rumors begin flying about congressional shenaningans? The press will have a field day investigating the circumstances of Newt Gingrich's divorce. In my opinion, the House GOP is right now peaking, and they'd like to keep it this way until the November elections. They will put off hearings until the next Congress. The one thing that may change all this is whether House Dems turn on the President; that was the worst outcome of his speech this week IMO. For the most part, though, the House Judiciary Committee is a liberal-Democratic stronghold with John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Barney Frank (I think), and they are the least likely to be flipping on their President.
