Impeachment: A Tale of Two Presidents

Which is of greater relevance to the Presidency, sexual relations or war? Both of our last two Presidents deliberately lied to the American people. One of them was impeached for it, the other was not. Below I outline the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of Bill Clinton and follow that with the justifications of the movement to impeach George W. Bush.

William Jefferson Clinton

In a January 17th 1998 deposition, Bill Clinton said, “I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I’ve never had an affair with her.” He repeated the claim in an appearance before the white house press corps just nine days later, saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” Exactly seven months later, on August 17th 1998, Clinton admitted to the Lewinsky relationship before a grand jury. Later that evening, he told the American people about the relationship, and that he had misled them.

Just a few months later, on December 11th and 12th 1998, four articles of impeachment were approved by the House Judiciary Committee. The Washington Post summarized the four articles as follows:

1) The president provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury regarding the Paula Jones case and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.2) The president provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony in the Jones case in his answers to written questions and in his deposition.

3) The president obstructed justice in an effort to delay, impede, cover up and conceal the existence of evidence related to the Jones case.

4) The president misused and abused his office by making perjurious, false and misleading statements to Congress.

Ultimately, the House approved only the first and third articles. Notably, only one Republican voted not to impeach Clinton, Rep. Connie Morella of Maryland.

In January 1999, with 67 required to remove Clinton from office, the Senate voted 55-45 and 50-50 against doing so on the grounds of the two articles.

Following the vote, Clinton made the following remarks in a televised address:

Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people.

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George W. Bush

Impeachbush.org has taken the time to draft Articles of Impeachment. The most compelling of these 20 charges include:

1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of over one hundred thousand Iraqis, and thousands of U.S. G.I.s.2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war.

4) Instituting a secret and illegal wiretapping and spying operation against the people of the United States through the National Security Agency.

6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

9) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of a citizen as an “enemy combatant.”

17) Engaging in criminal neglect in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, depriving thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf States of urgently needed support, causing mass suffering and unnecessary loss of life.

18) Institutionalization of racial and religious profiling and authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement on persons based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political activity.

Members of Congress (during Bush’s tenure) who have mentioned or considered initiating impeachment hearings include Rep. John Conyers,
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Cynthia Mckinney, and Dennis Kucinich, among others.

Additionally, proposals for the impeachment of Bush have been introduced in at least 26 states. Despite considerable support, the latest indication from the Democratically controlled Congress is that impeachment of President Bush is “off the table.”

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It is the opinion of this writer, that in comparison to the deceptions and high crimes committed by Bush, Clinton is looking like a saint these days. What do you think?