THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT CLINTON

President Nixon lied but had the courage to resign his office rather than subject the United States to ridicule and disgrace.

Martha Stewart also lied -- under oath -- and was sent to jail for perjury.

Big lies, small lies, white lies -- to some degree all people lie. But, it’s perjury when a person in this country lies under oath and, if tried and convicted, sent to jail -- the standard punishment.

However, there has been one very high profile exception, namely, that of President William Jefferson Clinton, the forty-second President of the United States of America.

Included among several very high profile criminal cases in the late 1990’s, the U.S. House of Representatives had impeached him for perjury and obstruction of justice in a sex scandal.

For reference, Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution specifically states that “The President ….. shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The House of Representatives had impeached President Clinton for violating the Constitution under “high crimes and misdemeanors” but did not define each term separately, which implied that both were just violations of criminal law -- “high crime” a felony, and “misdemeanor” a charge less than a felony. It was left to the Senate to try President Clinton on that part of Article II, Section 4.

As the case proceeded through Congress, the following question must have occurred to the average American: “How can the President be impeached for a “misdemeanor”? It was obvious that if the terms continued to be bundled as “high crimes and misdemeanor” the Senate could only absolve the President.

But, what if the House members had defined the two terms separately, as they should have?

First, the framers of the Constitution had wanted to assure the people that inherent incompetency, abuse of power, depravity, arrogance, and corruption – among other abuses - which characterized European royalty, could never become a part of the nation. Charges under

“Impeachment” had to be all-inclusive so that the “Divine Right of Kings” syndrome could never establish itself in the nation under the new Constitution.

Consequently, the founders bundled all conceivable violations against the state, other than treason and bribery, into “high crimes and misdemeanors”, with what one has to assume to be the following definitions: High Crimes: -- formal criminal behavior related to activities of state, and Misdemeanors:--personal misbehavior and misdeeds, which demean or reflect negatively on the state. In other words, one has to wonder why the U.S. Senate had not separated the two terms, which subsequently absolved President Clinton’s violation of a key portion of the Constitution’s impeachment process.

Secondly, the U.S. Senate had the opportunity and, more specifically, a duty to show the American people and the world that even the U.S. President is subject to the “Rule of Law.” Instead, partisan politics and quid pro quo dominated the trial portion of the impeachment process. It was the U.S. Senate that decided to debate the non-issue of whether President Clinton’s sexual activities “rose to the level” of an impeachable offense rather than the real crime, namely, that of having perjured himself before a grand jury. Congress has made the nation pay for its lack of courage ever since, having set the stage for all of the currently unwarranted ridicule now being heaped on the Office of the President, both from within and without the country.

President Clinton was caught lying -- under oath -- but got away with it. Congressional bickering today generally ends with one individual calling another a liar. However, when the accusation of lying is hurled by members of Congress at the President of the United States, it is not only obscene and disrespectful of the Office of the President but verges on chaos. Is that what President Clinton really wanted to leave as part of his legacy to the American people? For the moment, it seems to be, as the words ‘lie’ and ‘liar’ have been hurled at President Bush by so many members of Congress and too many other Americans. What is it going to take to restore the dignity of the Office of the Presidency? One answer: An electorate armed with unbiased facts from an unbiased media, and a Congress of dedicated elected officials whose prime duty is to serve the people -- not their own ego.

The Impeachment of President Clinton, Copyright 2006, Bob Hegamin