Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Marty who wrote (29827)	1/25/1999 7:17:00 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 67261

Don't you love it? This invoking of "principle" when their hypocrisy is being exposed left and right, day in and day out? Just keep them sufficiently enraged and the Democrats can make HUGE gains in the Year 2000 elections. Onward to the New Millennium!

To: Marty who wrote (29827)	1/25/1999 11:33:00 PM
From: Borzou Daragahi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

Marty, here's a pretty good dissection of why the Republicans are pursuing this. Read especially the end of the article. yahoo.com.sg Republican drive to prolong impeachment: political suicide? WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (AFP) - The Republican drive to prolong President Bill Clinton's trial despite public opposition and clear signs they will lose on any vote to oust him has some wondering if they've lost their political minds. "It flies in the face of smart politics," said Ron Faucheaux, editor of the magazine Campaigns and Elections. Monday, Senate Republicans rejected the Democrats' latest bid to wrap up the historic trial, in which Clinton has been charged with committing impeachable offenses as he sought to conceal his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The Democrats' Senate minority leader Tom Daschle had proposed a deal under which his party would stop asking for a dismissal of the trial and the Republicans would agree not to call witnesses. It would have given the Republican House "managers" prosecuting the case a chance to present their closing arguments before a Senate debate and vote on the impeachment charges. The rejection of Daschle's proposal was but the latest move by the Republicans to drag out the year-long saga, which has much of the American public pleading for an end to the "national nightmare." Their first steps to extend the process included last fall's decision to hold hearings on independent counsel Kenneth Starr probe into the president's conduct. That was followed by a series of releases of sensational materials and then the vote to impeach Clinton. Now Republicans are seeking to add live witnesses into the mix. Some party members insist it is their constitutional duty to see the process through to the bitter end, even if that includes calling Lewinsky herself to the stand. But former Senate leader George Mitchell, who has been advising the White House on the trial, said a the Republicans' move to interview Lewinsky Sunday was a sign they knew they had a lost cause. "Knowing that their case is failing, knowing that they have a losing vote, knowing that they're not going to prevail in the Senate under current circumstances, now they say well, we've got to interview her," he said on CNN after three House "managers" met with the former intern. "This is a desperation attempt in the hopes that she'll say something sensational," said Mitchell, who joined other Democrats in predicting the maneuver will backfire on the Republicans. But congressional expert Norman Ornstein said the Republicans could not afford to jump ship now. "If they cut this short just by dismissing it, they're going to underscore the belief that the House Republicans vastly overreached (in voting for impeachment), which is going to reflect on all Republicans and create a huge firestorm on the right," he said. Faucheaux agreed, noting that the Republican majority has apparently decided that the damage has already been done and that they needed to hold on to their core constituents. "They feel that they have taken the hit on this and, at this stage in the game, if they back away from it would be even worse," Faucheaux said. "At least if they carry it through they are responding to their political base," he said. Polls show that Clinton has strong support from about 30 percent of Americans, while 30 percent want him out and 40 percent are somewhere in the middle. Faucheaux predicted that the center section will not feel strongly enough about the trial either way to penalize Republican politicians in the 2000 elections unless Democrats really seek to make an issue of it. "That requires a defense of Clinton," he said, adding: "They may not want to do that."