House Judiciary Runs Amok

In the history of our country only two presidents have been impeached. In the aftermath of the Civil War President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives. However, he was not removed from office when the Senate failed, by one vote, to achieve the requisite 2/3 majority.

This year, a prosecutor, with ties to a right wing group, came forth with four counts for the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. The House Judiciary Committee, controlled by a conservative 21 Republican majority, voted to impeach the Democratic President on all four counts. These 21 each had four votes to cast. At the end, their total vote was 83-1 to impeach.

The entire House then voted along party lines to impeach the President providing a razor thin margin but only on two counts. Immediately after, four moderate Republicans tried to recant their votes. Had they done so earlier, the House would not have impeached the President. In the Senate, with the President having his say for the first time, not only couldn't the Republicans achieve a 2/3 vote, but they also could not achieve a majority on either count.

The factual record above leads me to the following conclusions:

The most significant vote was the vote in the House Judiciary Committee as there never was any opinion anywhere else that two of the four counts amounted to an impeachable offense. Thus, it is clear that the 83-1 vote by the 21 member majority was an abuse of political power. As for the other two counts, virtually all of the country's constitutional experts concluded that none of the four counts were impeachable offenses. By the vote in the Judiciary Committee and in the entire House, the Republican Party showed how irresponsible a political party can be.

It is clear then, that the Democrats should retake the House of Representatives if for no other reason than the disgraceful act of impeaching the President.