Friday Impeachment Debate Excerpts
Excerpts from the debate on articles of impeachment before the House Judiciary Committee Friday, provided by the Associated Press:
"Is this just a shell game? I guess that is the question. Under which pea is the impeachment? Is it under number one or is it under number two? ...
Or maybe it's under three and two, or four and one, or two and three. And how are you going to defend it?
I mean, I have to say the notion _ and I hope this (amendment) doesn't go anywhere. And I hope we don't bog the country down. But I'm almost intrigued here. I want to see Chief Justice Rehnquist sitting there while the senators try to guess under which pea you have concealed the impeachment." _ Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
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"Maybe the majority is having some doubts, or some members of the majority, about one of two of the aspects here. Maybe the arguments we made that points three and four really have very little basis _ none in the Starr, and even in the Schippers, not much basis _ so you're hedging your bets. You don't do that when it comes to impeachment. You make a decision whether that high bar of impeachment is reached and you send your considered judgment, first to the full House and to the Senate." _ Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
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"The other side's trying to trivialize this matter. And this is not a trivial matter. What we're dealing with here today is far from simply a matter about the president possibly touching certain parts of the 'other woman' as he called her.
What we're dealing with today is the fact that the president of the United States engaged in a scheme, an elaborate scheme to lie and to get other people to lie and to hide evidence and get other people to hide evidence in order to thwart the opportunity of Paula Jones to bring her civil rights sexual harassment suit in court and have it properly adjudicated." _ Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla.
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"Much has been said since the beginning of this entire sorry episode about the lack of Democrat votes for impeachment on this committee, and I have sat and listened day after day and month after month to my dear friends on the other side virtually boasting over the expectation that no Democrats will cross over to vote for President Clinton when a number of Republicans voted to impeach President Nixon.
... I don't question the motives of any of my dear friends as to why it may be that they choose not to vote for articles of impeachment, but I must say to all of you that in light of this record of deceit, of treachery, of perjury, of injuring women in the workplace who were subordinate employees of this president, I hardly think that boasting that none of you will vote for an article of impeachment under these facts and circumstances is a matter of bragging rights." _ Rep. James Rogan, R-Calif.
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"Let history record, I, Maxine Waters, member of Congress representing the 35th Congressional District of the United States of America, is of sound mind, excellent health and a clear conscience. ...
I will not violate the Constitution of the United States. I will vote no on each and every vague and general article of impeachment that will be presented to this committee today. Let history record I have fought against the impeachment of the president of the United States in every way that I know how, that my Democratic colleagues have shown in every possible way that this president has not committed perjury, obstructed justice or committed any actions or crimes that rise to the level of impeachment." _ Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
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"To say that we're going to throw Bill Clinton out of office ... and again, this notion that you're just here hitting batting practice _ you know, it's old Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in the Senate and poor you, you're not making any judgments, you're not doing anything. That's simply wrong and everyone knows it. There is no more solemn act you can take here than to say we think Bill Clinton ought to be thrown out of office and we set in motion, as you just did, the process to throw him out of office." _ Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
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"I'm awful afraid that if we say it's okay to lie in legal proceedings on sexual harassment, we've made enforcement of the sexual harassment laws ineffective, because every lawsuit on sexual harassment is about sex, in and of its very nature." _ Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
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"While we're troubled by the president's testimony, we believe it is insufficient, too insufficient, to warrant an impeachment of the president. The president's reactions to the set-up in the Jones deposition were not impeachable reactions, but the reactions of a husband and a father whose misconduct was about to be exposed. Please, please, let us reject this second article of impeachment." _ Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
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"I'm driven to the conclusion that when we look at the context here, we have to understand that this was a serious act of wrongdoing, a willful act of wrongdoing, an act of wrongdoing designed to deprive another American citizen of her rights in court." _ Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla.
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"Regardless of one's view that sexual relations means intercourse, the evidence is indisputable that this is indeed what President Clinton believed at the time. And of course perjury is dependent on what the deponent believed. Perjury requires more than that someone else believes President Clinton was wrong about the meaning of these terms, it also requires proof that President Clinton knew he was wrong and intentionally lied about it." _ Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
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"I think some have had it right in the past; it would have been preferable if (President Clinton) resigned _ he did not announce that he was resigning today _ than to what we're doing. But we have an obligation, constitutionally, to proceed. ...
(Clinton) clearly committed perjury in that deposition. I would suggest that it does rise to impeachable standard, and he should be impeached _ unfortunately and sadly _ for it, and that's what we're called upon here to do in the article we're debating today." _ Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla.
