Posted on 04/21/2005 5:07:08 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Republican Congressman Henry Hyde made some surprising comments Thursday on the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He now says Republicans may have gone after Clinton to retaliate for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Hyde is stepping down after this term
Hyde's comments came as he talked with ABC7 political reporter Andy Shaw about his 30 year in Congress.
In an exclusive interview, Hyde delivered a big dose of candor and some reflective second guessing. He said, among other things, he might not try to impeach President Clinton if he had it to do all over again.
The 81-year-old DuPage County Republican, who mastered the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable, will be stepping down in January of 2007 after 16 terms and 32 years.
"I am leaving voluntarily, but it's because my physical strength is ebbing. Father Time and Mother Nature have been pursuing me, and I'm 81," said Rep. Henry Hyde, (R)-Illinois.
Hyde is known for his eloquence, courtesy, civility and his fierce partisanship on behalf of conservative GOP principles, including authorship of the Hyde Amendment, which outlawed federal funding of abortions, and leadership of the House judiciary committee in the impeachment of President Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
When asked if he would go through with the Clinton impeachment process again, Hyde said he wasn't sure. It turned into a personal and political embarrassment for Hyde when an extra-marital affair he had in the 1960's became public amid accusations of hypocrisy. He called the affair a youthful indiscretion.
"Accusations hurled at me to intimidate me were misplaced, and I regret having to deal with them, but they didn't intimidate me," Hyde said.
The veteran DuPage County congressman acknowledged that Republicans went after Clinton in part to enact revenge against the Democrats for impeaching President Richard Nixon 25 years earlier.
Andy Shaw asked Hyde if the Clinton proceedings were payback for Nixon's impeachment.
"I can't say it wasn't, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility," said Hyde.
Hyde's comments reflect what Democrats have been saying for years about the Clinton impeachment. It will be interesting to see what happens when Hyde's comments hit the national media.
Hyde's style will be missed in Washington, as well as his sense of civility, even though a lot of people will not miss his rigid ideology.
This is the second thread that I have posted on in the last hour, where I have done the stupidest thing---
I have read an article and believed what was said, maybe even exptrapolated out what WAS said into a full conversation that wasn't written---
IOW, other FReepers are so much better than I at sniffing out reporter bias and writing tricks to make a person say things that they actually didn't say to make a story what it isn't---
I am too much of a newbie at never believing the MSM, I guess...LOL
This is just another puff piece because Hitlery is running for Prez. It's BS like she is.
Exactly. The sleazy reporter played a slimy sleight of hand on an old man. Whaddasupprise.
Go home and enjoy your retirement Henry--and remember from this last backstab what good civility ever did when dealing with 'rats.
Well, that's one man's opinion, and he's welcome to it. That doesn't make him right.
Nixon wasn't impeached. Dementia?
i have too much respect for Mr Hyde, i wouldnt have believed some BS like that.
According to my math, he was in his 40s in the 1960s. I guess your 80s can make your 40s seem youthful.
>>>>>Ok, so everybody else recognized immediately that Nixon wasn't impeached. Why didn't the author or his editor?
I will say I was blatantly told in school that "Nixon was our only impeached President".
I only learned otherwise after joining FR.
So, not everyone will recognize that he wasn't.
Hyde should have told everyone else that. What is it with old guys losing it in the latter years like Goldwater?
You are. To me Clinton's biggest crime was witness tampering in a sexual harassment lawsuit in which he was the defendant.
Which is a felony.
Leave it to rat a-hole reporter Andy Shaw to twist the above statement into something completely different than what Hyde said.
Yep - the reporter dangled the bait, and when Hyde didn't take it, he figured he'd attribute a quote to him anyway.
Maybe for him it was, But not for me and I would guess a lot of other congress people feel the same way as I do.
Sooooo, does this mean Clintoon didn't get Lewinski's in the White House, and he didn't lie under oath????????
Nixon resigned; he was never impeached.
/sarcasm off.
Complete BS.
Hyde neither inferred nor implied Clinton's Impeachment was "retaliation for Nixon."
So, when will Andy Shaw interview President Clinton and asked him if he raped Juanita Broaddick?
I've met good ole Andy in Chicago and believe me, he's a limpwristed dork.
Oh, and Andy, instead of suckering Hyde during an interview, you may want to actually start investigating Mayor Daley?
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