| Friends, Romans, and Countrymen -- First, let me wish each of you a Happy New Year. As I sit here at the end of 1998, a year in which the President of the United States was impeached while receiving a job approval rating of over 70%, I have a lot to say about the world. Many of you have had extensive conversations with me while I rant and rave like a lunatic about such things. While you often do not agree with me, I hope that you at least enjoy my rantings and ravings. As you may guess, I LOVE ranting and raving. It is much more fun than preparing legal documents. Unfortunately, most of my ranting and raving is done with no audience, which takes all of the fun out of it. Therefore, thanks to the Internet, I am going to remedy this problem and satisfy my gigantic ego. When I get a coherent thought about matters of current events or general interest, I am going to write it down and e-mail it to you. You are free to push Reply to respond, Forward if you think somebody else might be interested, or Delete if you are uninterested. If you are really uninterested and do not want to receive any of these e-mails, let me know and I will take you off the list. No offense wil be taken. (Conversely, if there is somebody you know who would like to receive the message directly, let me know). If you Reply, I reserve the right to publish and/or respond to your Reply. I encourage Replys, especially those that are critical. I am betting that if you take the time to open and read the idiotic junk humor that we get every day, you will take the time to open and read a semi-coherent and usually serious discussion of current events. Of course, on second thought, that may be an unreasonable assumption knowing the people on the list. Just kidding. Let the games begin. WHY PRESIDENT CLINTON DESERVED TO BE IMPEACHED On December 19, 1998, President Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying to a grand jury and obstructing justice. The President's defense to impeachment and removal from office is that, assuming that everything alleged is true, his actions are not an impeachable "High Crime or Misdemeanor" because they were committed in his private life. In a separate posting, I will explain why the defense is bogus on its own terms. However, at this time I want to discuss the reason the President deserves to be removed, even if you are inclined to believe he should not be removed because it is better to move onto more important things. On or about January 21, 1998, the President's affair with Monica Lewinsky was publicly disclosed. During the day, which was utter chaos for the President, the President went on various TV shows and made statements such as "there is no improper relationship" (as opposed to a past improper relationship, or a present proper relationship). The news media, and the American public, did not buy it. That day, the President spoke with Dick Morris, his long time political consultant. Morris commiserated with the President (Morris had suffered through his own sex scandal in 1996). Morris and the President then engaged in the most important conversation of the entire scandal. The following information can be found in the Starr Report and Morris' grand jury testimony. Clinton told Morris that while he did not do what had been alleged, he did do something. Morris told him that the American people have a great capacity for forgiveness. Clinton responded that he was concerned about a perjury charge. Morris then offered to take a poll. Morris called back later with the results. According to Morris, while the American people were willing to forgive adultery, they were not willing to forgive perjury or obstruction of justice. Morris explained that, based upon the poll, the President should not go public with a confession or explanation. I want each one of you to imagine you are Bill Clinton at that moment. You received oral sex and had regular phone sex with an intern for almost two years. (No problem so far, you are thinking). You had a good friend arrange for Monica to get a cushy job within one day of Monica submitting a false affadivit. You arranged for your secretary to go to Monica and pick up certain gifts so that Monica would not have to disclose and turnover those gifts. You then went to a deposition in which you knew Monica would be discussed and you lied repeatedly in response to questions concerning your relationship with her. And now, you were caught. And your valued political consultant had just told you that if the alleged charges regarding perjury and obstruction of justice were true, there would not be forgiveness. You have three choices. First, you can immediately confess, state that you made a terrible mistake, and ask for mercy and permission to remain as President. Second, you can immediately confess and resign. Third, you can immediately lie, deny the entire episode, and delay the Starr investigation for as long as possible in order that the American people will tire of the scandal and change their collective mind about a perjurer being President. If you chose option three, you are eligible to be President of the United States. Clinton's actual response: "Well, we just have to win, then." On January 23, 1998, the President held a Cabinet meeting and denied the affair, which denial was repeated to the press by the Cabinet members. On January 26, 1998, he gave his famous finger wagging speech and then refused to answer any further questions about the whole matter. Over the next several months, the President waged war (in the words of James Carville) against Ken Starr. In effect, he asserted his 5th Amendment right to remain silent and did everything legally permissible to obstruct Starr's investigation, inclusing hiring private investigtors to investigate the sex life of Starr's prosecutors. Delaying tactics included frivolously asserting executive privilege all the way to the Supreme Court, thereby establishing precedent that will be used against future Presidents who will assert the privilege in a nonfrivolous context. Only when Monica struck her deal with Starr and turned over the dress did Clinton agree to be deposed. At the deposition, he refused to answer certain questions (e.g. the nature of the "improper relationship"), lied in response to certain others (including repeatedly answering that he could not recall when he damned well could recall), and asserted that words such as "is" and "alone" are ambiguous. Grand jurors actually laughed at him at certain points during the deposition. He then left the deposition and gave a speech to a national audience in which he admitted an "improper relationship" and blamed Ken Starr for investigating his private life. Starr then finished his Report and turned it over to Congress. The President did not challenge any material factual allegation in the Starr Report, only that the facts, even if true, did not consist of impeachable offenses. The Republicans disagreed and impeached him on December 19, 1998, notwithstanding polls that showed 2/3 of the American people imposed impeachment. Should he have been impeached? Go back to January 21, 1998. In determining whether or not to tell the truth, Clinton relied upon a poll!! Look at the language "we just have to win." Clinton treated the scandal as a game, a challenge, to see whether he could remain President against the odds. Perniciously, Clinton never asked which option was the best for the country -- only what was best for Bill Clinton. The option chosen by Clinton was obviously the best for him -- the process has taken so long that majority of Americans now agree that even if he is a perjurer, he should not be removed from office. But look at the cost. Nothing got done in 1998, because we did not have a President. Here are a few random examples: 1. A very controversial tobacco settlement was reached by the States and tobacco companies and needed Federal approval. Bill Clinton allegedly supported the settlement. Unfortunately for those who supported the settlement, the settlement was before the Congress in the Spring and Summer of 1998 when the Bill Clinton had more important things to worry about, such as Bill Clinton, and the settlement did not get approved by Congress. Bill did not expend an ounce of political capital in favor of the settlement. If you can think of one piece of legislation that Bill Clinton pushed hard for in 1998, let me know. 2. Republicans and Democrats are in agreement that reforming Social Security is an important priority. However, because of the political risks that must be taken, only the President can take the lead. What did Bill do? While he talked about how important the issue was, he had more important things to spend his time on. There was no Social Security proposal introduced by the President in 1998. 3. The President did not have any domestic news conferences for almost the entire year, because he did not want to answer questions about the one topic that was monopolizing conversation. 4. The President has so little credibility that many (most?) people believe that the decision to bomb Sudan and Afghanistan in August, and the decision to bomb Iraq in December, were timed to distract from the scandal. At best many (most?) believe Clinton is capable of being so craven. Does Clinton have any credibility in foreign policy and with foreign leaders? The list could go on. The bottom line is that Clinton knew full well that by refusing to come clean in January, he was goint to put this country through political hell for an extended period of time, the consequences be damned. To me, that justifies removal from office. We should not permit a situation where a man escapes removal from office precisely because he so successfully delayed the entire process to the point the nation became tired of the matter and just wants it to go away. We can do better. Thank you for listening. DS |