Clarification/Follow-up by LTgolf on 11/06/05 6:34 pm:
PW

Clinton was impeached and I think it was on Dec 19,1998.

Th ehouse of reps merely has to vote by majority for impeachment . That was done.

The senate never followed up with an indictment.

Leon

Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 11/07/05 1:03 pm:
What's the matter Choux, you can't understand how the statement "A clear majority of Americans now supports President Bush's impeachment" is not at all what the poll said?

Clarification/Follow-up by sissypants on 11/09/05 10:45 am:

to pw and others



House impeaches President Clinton for perjury, obstruction of justice
By NANCY BENAC and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House of Representatives impeached President Clinton on Saturday for obstructing justice and lying under oath about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, voting largely along party lines to send his case to the Senate. It was only the second presidential impeachment in American history.

The House approved two of the four articles of impeachment lodged against Clinton, formally recommending that he be tried in the Senate for committing perjury before a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Lawmakers rejected two other articles accusing the president of perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit and abuse of his presidential powers.

The first vote was announced at 1:24 p.m. EST, leaving the 42nd president to face the gravest moment of his political career. Clinton was secluded with a minister at the time, but planned a public appearance later in the day.

For Clinton to be removed from office, two-thirds of senators would have to vote to convict him.

After being stunned by the abrupt resignation of its incoming speaker, Rep. Bob Livingston, the House proceeded with the first impeachment votes since those against Andrew Johnson 130 years ago.

Five members of each party defected on the first article as the House voted 228-206 to impeach the president.

The House then voted:

-229-205 to reject a second article, accusing Clinton of committing perjury in the Jones suit. More than two dozen Republicans defected to join Democrats.

-221-212 to approve a third article, accusing Clinton of obstruction of justice in the Lewinsky matter.

-285-148 to reject a fourth article, alleging he abused the powers of his office by giving false written answers to questions posed by Congress during the impeachment inquiry.

Democrats briefly walked out of the chamber in protest when Republicans blocked their effort to force a vote on the lesser penalty of censure as an alternative to impeachment. They returned to vote on the articles of impeachment, ending a three-month constitutional drama that at the end played out amid U.S. military action against Iraq.

When the first impeachment roll call occurred, the House floor was crowded with lawmakers, although there was little in their reaction to suggest the significance of the moment. ''Article One is adopted,'' intoned Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., tapped to preside over the House on the historic occasion.

The House immediately turned to votes on articles of impeachment accusing Clinton of committing perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, obstructing justice and abusing his presidential powers.

The president remained out of sight during the vote, meeting with a minister. He planned a later appearance at the White House to make a statement surrounded by Democratic supporters.

Final arguments on the historic House votes paralleled those laid out by Republicans and Democrats during a months-long debate over the fitting punishment for a president who deceived the nation, the Congress and his family.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., told legislators that Clinton's actions required impeachment to ensure equal justice under the law.

''When the chief law enforcement officer trivializes, ignores, shreds, minimizes the sanctity of the oath, then justice is wounded, and you're wounded, and your children are wounded,'' he said.

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt countered that Clinton's offenses warranted less draconian action. ''We need to start healing, we need to start binding up our wounds we need to end this downward spiral that will end with the death of our representative democracy,'' Gephardt exhorted.

Absent some sort of deal, a Senate trial of uncertain duration will follow next year with Chief Justice William Rehnquist presiding. It would be the first such proceeding since Andrew Johnson escaped being removed from office by a single vote during a Senate trial 130 years ago.

A quarter century ago, Richard Nixon resigned before facing a certain impeachment vote in the House.

The somber House debate was brought to an instant hush when incoming Livingston called on Clinton to resign and then told lawmakers he himself was resigning from Congress next year because of revelations this week that he had extramarital affairs.

''I must set the example that I hope President Clinton will follow,'' Livingston said.

Democrats, buoyed by a last-minute visit to Capitol Hill by Hillary Rodham Clinton, made one last move to force a vote on censure as an alternative to impeachment. It was defeated 230-204.

Beforehand, they argued that neither Livingston nor Clinton should succumb to the ''politics of cynicism and smear.''

House Minority Whip David Bonior charged that ''angry partisans'' were seeking to undo the elections with a presidential impeachment opposed by two-thirds of Americans.

'' We must not let them accomplish through impeachment what they could not do at the ballot box,'' he said.

Bonior's Republican counterpart took aim at the defenses that Clinton and his supporters have offered for months.

''The president's defenders have said that the president is morally reprehensible, that he is reckless, that he has violated the trust of the American people, lessened their esteem for the office of the president and dishonored the office which they have entrusted in him but that doesn't rise to the level of impeachment,'' said House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.

''What the defenders want to do is lower the standards by which we hold this president and lower the standards for our society,'' he said.

In an early-morning visit to the Capitol, Mrs. Clinton rallied Democrats and told them that the impeachment process against her husband ''should be done right and that up to now it has not been,'' according to Gephardt.

The votes came at the end of an extraordinary week in which the historic impeachment action went forward at the same time as the infidelity allegations against Livingston and air attacks in Iraq.

Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., one of the last Republicans to announce in favor of impeachment, whispered his arguments, nearly in tears. ''Bob Livingston has led by example,'' Campbell said.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., passionately rejected suggestions that she and other Republicans were voting to impeach Clinton because of party pressure. ''This isn't about falling into line. It's about honor,'' she said.

On the House floor, Livingston made an impassioned speech, saying he hoped the bitterness that had divided Congress over impeachment would recede.

''I very much regret the enmity and the hostility that has been bred in the halls of Congress for the last months and year,'' he said. ''I want so very much to pacify, cool our raging tempers.

Publication date: 12-19-98