WASHINGTON (AP) _ William Jefferson Clinton won bipartisan acquittal Friday
in the Senate, concluding a searing national drama that tarnished him forever
as the second president to be impeached. Clinton declared he was "profoundly
sorry" for what he said and did in the Monica Lewinsky affair that triggered it
all.
Clinton "hereby is acquitted of the charges," declared Chief Justice William
Rehnquist after a somber Senate twice refused to vote the two-thirds majority
needed for conviction.
The first vote, on perjury, was 55-45 against, with 10 Republicans joining
all 45 Democrats voting not guilty.
The second vote, on obstruction of justice, was 50-50, with five Republicans
breaking ranks to join the Democrats.
Moments after the trial ended, Republicans bottled up an effort led by Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to censure Clinton for "shameless, reckless and
indefensible" behavior. Several Democrats said they did not expect the issue to
resurface when lawmakers return to the Capitol after a break.
"Let's move on. He won. He always wins," said one Republican, Bob Smith of
New Hampshire, who twice voted to convict the president and strip him of his
office.
After a grueling five weeks, in which senators sat silently for hours
listening to legal arguments, it was a day for keepsakes.
One House prosecutor, Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida, asked Rep. Henry Hyde,
R-Ill., to autograph a blank Senate roll call form, then used it to record the
results. Hyde the leader of the prosecution effort, sat silently as the verdict
was sealed. So, too, the legal team that had defended the president.
For each article of impeachment, a clerk read the charges aloud, then
Rehnquist said, "Senators, how say you? Is the respondent, William Jefferson
Clinton guilty or not guilty?"
One by one, the lawmakers rose at their seats to respond. Sen. Spencer
Abraham of Michigan was first, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon was last. Between
the votes, Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia sat at his seat,
perusing his breastpocket copy of the Constitution.
Within 45 minutes, the trial _ the first since Andrew Johnson sat in the
White House in 1868 _ was over.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton was exercising in the White
House when he received word of the first vote in a phone call from his chief of
staff, John Podesta. The president had returned to work in time to learn he was
finally free of the threat of removal from office.
Clinton said later in the Rose Garden that he was "humbled and very grateful for
the support and the prayers I have received from millions of Americans over
this past year. Now I ask all Americans, and I hope all Americans here in
Washington and throughout our land will rededicate ourselves to the work of
serving our nation and building our future together."
"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 the American people," the president said.
Similarly, staff members were sent an e-mail message from Clinton apologizing
that "my actions and the events they triggered have made your work even
harder." He promised to "redouble my own efforts on behalf of the ideals we
share."
The Senate votes, coming several months after the dismissal of Paula Jones'
sexual harassment lawsuit, marked the second consecutive major legal and
political victory for Clinton. He still faces the threat of an indictment from
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, either before or after he leaves office.
Hyde, the 74-year-old, white-haired chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, said he hopes that won't happen.
At a news conference, he told reporters that despite the verdict "I have no
regrets. We fulfilled our oath of office to discharge our duty according to the
Constitution. And when people do that, when elected representatives do that,
democracy works."
There had not been any doubt for weeks about the outcome, the only suspense
coming over whether either article of impeachment would gain a majority. In the
end, neither did.
Five Republicans, John Chafee of Rhode Island, Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins of Maine, James Jeffords of Vermont and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania,
voted to acquit the president on both counts.
On perjury, there were five other Republicans voting to acquit: Fred
Thompson of Tennessee, Slade Gorton of Washington, Richard Shelby of Alabama,
Ted Stevens of Alaska and John Warner of Virginia.
Still, there was harsh, bipartisan condemnation of Clinton's behavior.
In comments late Thursday night, as senators were emerging from a third long
day of closed-door deliberations on Clinton's fate, Utah Sen. Robert Bennett
said that "over and over again from both sides of the aisle," senators had
denounced the president as a liar.
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who alone among Democrats had voted earlier
against dismissal of the charges, said "President Clinton has disgraced
himself."
The verdicts were broadcast nationally to a public that had long since said
it wanted the trial over _ but seemingly never tired of watching, reading and
joking about it.
And if the politicians said it was time to move on, other key players in the
sex and cover-up drama were only just starting to speak up.
Ms. Lewinsky is expected to write a book and make several media appearances
in the coming months. Linda Tripp, whose tape-recorded conversations with Ms.
Lewinsky helped propel Starr's investigation, is also embarking on a series of
media appearances to refurbish her image.
That investigation began in January 1998, when the nation awoke to the
shocking allegations that the president had had a sexual relationship with a
young woman in the White House.
His denials were famously forthright _ "I did not have sexual relations with
that woman, Miss Lewinsky," he said a few days later. But that depended, it
later developed, on the definition of sexual relations.
There was a string of embarrassing disclosures, and at one point it turned
out that Ms. Lewinsky had evidence of a sexual encounter, a stained dress.
Starr sent Congress what he said was evidence of impeachable offenses in
September,
Thousands of pages of salacious material was released to the public at
cyber-speed. Republicans and Democrats went to war almost immediately in the
House, and by year's end, the GOP muscled through a formal impeachment inquiry
unlimited in time or scope.
Their drive was stalled at the elections, though, when the GOP lost seats in
a campaign that was widely viewed as a referendum of sorts on the president's
fate. Republicans returned to a lame duck session determined to wrap up the
case speedily, and narrowly won approval of two of four articles of impeachment
that had been approved by the Judiciary Committee.
The trial opened in the Senate on Jan. 7, with the unforgettable sight of
Rehnquist mounting the dais, senators vowing to do impartial justice and
walking to the front of the chamber to sign an impeachment book.
The two legal teams clashed for days on end, but the real struggle played
out in closed-door party caucuses. There, Democratic support for Clinton
hardened. Republicans, sensing political damage, fractured.
