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Historians will record that Republicans could not muster the necessary sixty-seven vote Senate majority to convict the President at trial. Those same historians should note, if only in a footnote, that not a single senator made the trip to the Ford Building to review documentation of Clinton's "nauseating", "alarming" and "horrific" sexual misconduct; evidence that ultimately made the difference in the impeachment vote. |
Rep. John Kasich of Ohio told an interviewer that he hadn't paid attention to the charges. Sen. James Jeffords asserted on Vermont radio that rape was "a private matter.". Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii told the weekly that "I've heard smatterings about the charges," but "I really haven't paid attention" to them. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware said, "I guess Starr didn't think she was (credible) . . .I tend to be guided by Starr's judgment." Senator John Breaux of Louisianna offered only "I have no comment. Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island confessed that "I just haven't paid attention to it. There are certain things I just shut out." Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois said, "I don't see it as anything that is relevant at this moment to my job in the United States Senate. Senator Charles Schumer of New York said, "I haven't looked at that . I'm working on Social Security and Health care." Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said, "I'm beyond that, we've been through that." Senator Ted Kennedy was asked about Broaddrick's charges while on a Washington escalator. Kennedy "made no verbal response..." THE PRESIDENT IN THE ATTIC--WHO IS BILL CLINTON?
REASON Magazine* May, 1999
a senator to Henry Hyde
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,
and listen to the song of that siren
till she transforms us into beasts.
Is this the part of wise men,
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be the number of those
who, having eyes, see not,
and having ears, hear not,
the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst, and to provide for it.
Patrick Henry
Theodore Roethke
he understands all too well its most significant byproduct.
You can see it in his eyes.
they now dart back and forth reflexively,
searching futilely for approval,
attempting desperately to dispel his own certain knowledge
that his moral authority is gone. . .
forever.
Mia T
