I like Henry Hyde, but it's hard to Impeach a philanderer when you've had a mistress of your own.
Sad, but true.
Posted on 09/25/2006 12:29:21 PM PDT by gopwinsin04
Robert Novak Hyde: 'I'd like to do impeachment again'
September 24, 2006
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON -- Only weeks remain in the legendary political career of Republican Rep. Henry Hyde.
He leaves the House of Representatives at year's end after 32 years representing his Chicago west suburban district. He is proud of his accomplishments and candid about his failures, qualities that have made him one of the most respected and best-liked members of Congress.
A former basketball star at St. George High School in Evanston and Georgetown University, Hyde has been a formidable presence on the House floor as one of its most effective -- and most feared -- orators. Last Tuesday night, as friends and supporters gathered at the J.W. Marriott Hotel here to pay tribute, Hyde was confined by back and knee troubles to a seated position, and his once booming voice was barely audible. But the eloquence survived as he repeated this advice to new members of Congress: "If you don't know the principles on which you're prepared to stand and lose, if necessary, then you shouldn't get into this arena."
A few days earlier, he had dispensed his familiar blend of candor and determination as I sat across from his desk in the Rayburn House Office Building.
He critiqued the role that raised his national pro The end of civility on the Hill
He expressed both satisfaction and disappointment over his record as principal legislative foe of abortion. Preparing to leave the House that he loves, Hyde mourned the death of civility during three decades on Capitol Hill.
Hyde, 82, has been a congressional generalist in an era of specialization, equally at home with social issues and national security. He became so involved in intelligence that he told me, during the Reagan administration, he would welcome appointment as CIA director even at the cost of leaving Congress. He relinquished his elected post as chairman of the House Republican Conference to accept the Judiciary Committee chairmanship, which was followed by his current position heading the International Relations Committee.
His reputation grew as the House's premier orator, his booming voice assailing congressional term limits and radical disarmament.
The Hyde Amendment
"He's the rare member," Vice President Dick Cheney told Tuesday's dinner, "who can bring the House to silence merely by stepping to the well."
Hyde's name will be engraved in history books for what he accomplished in his second year of Congress: passage of the Hyde Amendment barring federal funds for abortion on demand. Renewed regularly, it is Hyde's proudest accomplishment. "This has had its effect over the years, and I'm proud of it," he told me.
"There is no greater accomplishment," said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert at Tuesday's dinner.
But Hyde told me he was "terribly disappointed" by inability to do more to stop abortion. "If I can be candid," said the Catholic layman, "what disappoints me most are Catholics who vote for abortion. You see in their biographies they mention their religion -- Roman Catholic. But a lot of them vote for abortion, and that's a great disappointment."
Low point
He has no apologies for prosecuting Clinton, but told me: "I'd like to go back and do the impeachment again." He explained: "I was soft on the treatment we received from the Senate. We couldn't produce a witness without their permission. I should have had the president come in and testify. And if the Senate wouldn't let me, I should have gone before the body and Chief Justice Rehnquist and made a motion. That would have dramatized that the Senate was not letting us try our case. A lot of things could have been done differently."
The impeachment fight brought the low point in Hyde's public life when an online magazine reported he had an extramarital affair 30 years earlier. "That was one of the most depressing periods in my life when that came up," he told me.
I asked Hyde whether the world is better or worse than when he arrived in Washington in 1975. "I wouldn't say it's better," he replied. "It's faster, more opulent. We have more ways to amuse ourselves."
He blamed the "telecommunications explosion" for causing House members to stay late to take advantage of C-SPAN. "Also, the press seems more involved in issues rather than standing back and being reportorial," Hyde added.
Moving home
Hyde worries about his Republican Party ("I think we are in massive trouble") and the profession of politics generally: "We have denigrated politics so much that nobody wants to touch it. You have to be half nuts to want to run for office and subject yourself to being dragged through the mud, having to raise all kinds of money, having to defend yourself against negative attacks. The caliber of office-seekers is dwindling, deteriorating and diminishing."
Hyde is moving back to the Chicago area to spend the rest of his life. "I tell people I'm going to write 'Welcome to Wood Dale' on the back of souvenir turtles," he told me, adding he may write a journal of his experiences in the 1986 Iran-contra investigation.
Henry Hyde will be missed, and not merely for his humor and good fellowship. He made no political calculations in pointing out the failure of administration policy in Colombia or Afghanistan. He alone in Congress has taken the unpopular and politically unproductive course of defending beleaguered Christians in Israel. With Hyde gone, nobody will be there to defend them. He is unique and irreplaceable.
So great, if they managed to Impeach Clinton, all that we would have gotten was Algore in the White House, and he would have been the Incumbent in 2000. Frankly, we were better off leaving Clinton in the White House. Gore would have been a disaster.
He has been a good, solid man in office.
I am sorry to see him go, but I know he deserves his own life now.
Someone else will get a chance with Hillary soon enough.
Henry Hyde's pretty good but I don't know what he's talking about here. Seems to me there's no end of people wanting to run for office and political talk is on the tube and Internet 24/7.
Lots our elected officials lost their nerve - just too many skeletons in the closet, I suspect.
Or perhaps, too many FBI reports in Hillary's office that would be "leaked" to the press if any of them had gotten close to nailing Clinton and hs ol' lady!
Clinton was impeached but he wasn't convicted.
That was relevant to the discussion? "Nice" lib tactics.
Congressman Hyde my have regrets but his closing statement at the Senate Trial should be nailed to the doors of the Capitol.
32 years! It is hard to believe so much time has elapsed since Henry Hyde took his place in the Senate! I am sorry that retirement time has rolled around for him. He possesses presidential material if there ever was such a thing, and America will feel the loss of his leaving. I look forward to his writings, and I hope that Senator Hyde will continue to serve in a counselling capacity for many years to come. Thank you, Henry Hyde, and God bless you.
I never understood why Hyde did not defend himself against the apparently false charges by the Clinton Machine that he had an extramarital affair. Hyde has been a long time supporter of family values and a Congressional leader for the Pro Life Movement. He should not have fought those accusations in the media and saved his reputation.
I'm reading (slogging painfully) through John Dean's book "Conservatives Without Conscience." He agrees but not for your reason.
It's a mishmash of "epirical data," opinion, "facts," and a sorta, kinda tied together conclusion that Bush, Cheney et al really ARE the devil.
You have to read it. I wish FR had a book review section.
Henry Hyde has never had a Senate seat.
Anyone know WTF this is about? I don't recall hearing much about Christians being persecuted in Israel...Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, sure...but Israel?? Is this some kind of lib-tard dig at the Izzies?
I'd like to suggest that you have not followed his career very carefully - and that you didn't read the article - if you think Henry Hyde was EVER in the Senate.
>Henry Hyde has never had a seat in the Senate.<
Okay, Congress then. Thank you for the correction.
Yeah... see... the inconvenient part in terms of that is that it happened to be true. That makes a defense a little tricky. :)
I had no idea he is 82 years old.
Wasn't Clinton convicted of perjury? And that's why he was barred--lost his license to practice law?
I liked the way the Clinton case was adjudicated. He was impeached, but not removed from office. Making Gore president would have been catastrophic and would have made it easier for him to win the 2000 election. Impeachment was good enough to put a stain on Clinton's legacy.
You don't remember him admitting it? How did you miss that?
Sad, but true.
Sigh...THEY WEREN'T IMPEACHING A PHILANDERER...they were impeaching someone who lied under oath.
Same also goes for Bob Livingston. They were really coming out of the woodwork at that time.
He would have had the Jerry Ford effect if he was the new president.
Even worse was Newt which is why when some people on here tout him for President, I want to scream!
A youthful indiscretion at when he was in his forties or fifties? I wonder if I could use that as an excuse with my wife now that I am 45?
Too bad clinton wasn't impeached for being a philanderer.....duh.
Precisley, which is why your comment equating Congressman Henry Hyde with BJ Clinton is ridiculous.
Everyone keeps stating that Big Al would have been a disaster, but think again. I think the terrible lesson that we were reminded of again yesterday is that Clinton couldn't handle the scandals and the national security of the country at the same time. Remember when Presidents/ politicians resigned "for the good of the country? Clinton's resignation would certainly would have been preferrable to the nasty fight and the lack of focus that he had. Maybe Al would have even stumbled on to national security (---good grief what a charitable thought for who is now an unhinged jackass).
Yes he should have! He gave in too many times to the other side and was intimidated by the attack dogs the Clinton's hired that called themselves lawyers!
While on the subject, someone should make sure the sealed files are opened and told to the public BEFORE Hillary manages to get herself in that White House!
I wonder if you have a copy of it that you could link?
I like to fire all the GOP Senators that left Clinton off.
That's an understatement of the press that creates news.
It was about Clinton lying under oath, not about Hyde's personal life.
I am convinced that Jesus Christ hinself could have tried Clinton and Clinton's followers, fellow democrats and fawning press would have still circled the wagons in his defense.
There's a double standard and the GOP usually cave. I cite Bob Livingston as another example where this double standard was applied.
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