Authors: Unknown
Although we do not condone President Clinton’s private behavior or his subsequent attempts to deceive, the current charges against him depart from what the Framers saw as grounds for impeachment. The vote of the House of Representatives to conduct an open-ended inquiry creates a novel, all-purpose search for any offense by which to remove a President from office.
The theory of impeachment underlying these efforts is unprecedented in our history. The new processes are extremely ominous for the future of our political institutions. If carried forward, they will leave the Presidency permanently disfigured and diminished, at the mercy as never before of the caprices of any Congress.
The Presidency, historically the center of leadership during our great national ordeals, will be crippled in meeting the inevitable challenges of the future.
We face a choice between preserving or undermining our Constitution. Do we want to establish a precedent for the future harassment of presidents and to tie up our government with a protracted national agony of search and accusation? Or do we want to protect the Constitution and get back to the public business?
We urge you, whether you are a Republican, a Democrat or an Independent, to oppose the dangerous new theory of impeachment, and to demand the restoration of the normal operations of our federal government.
In early December, the Vice President’s father, Albert Gore, Sr., died at age ninetyone at his home in Carthage, Tennessee. On December 8, Bill and I flew down to Nashville for a service in the War Memorial Auditorium. Al Gore stood next to the flagdraped casket and delivered a beautiful eulogy for his father, the once powerful and courageous U.S. Senator who lost his seat in 1970 because he opposed the Vietnam War. Al spoke directly from his heart with humor and empathy. It was the best speech I’d ever heard him give.
There has been immense speculation about how our relationship with the Gores was affected by the impeachment scandal. Al and Tipper were as shocked and hurt as everybody else in August when Bill admitted his wrongdoing, but both were supportive throughout the ordeal, personally and politically. They were there whenever we needed them, sometimes when we asked for their help, sometimes when they sensed we could use it.
Starting on December 11 and finishing early on the twelfth, the Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to refer four articles of impeachment to the full House for a vote.
This was no surprise, though we still had held out hope that we could gain enough support for a compromise on censure.
While Congress pursued impeachment, Bill focused on his official duties and I on mine. I felt strongly that I had a duty as First Lady to continue my public responsibilities, including a trip I was determined to make with members of Congress to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti to bring aid and comfort to citizens there who were recovering from Hurricane Georges. Keeping my regular schedule often got me up and going. I never believed that I had the luxury of climbing into bed and pulling the covers over my head.
From December 12 to 15, Bill and I visited the Middle East. We went with Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, to Masada, a symbol of Jewish resistance and martyrdom that Bill and I had first visited seventeen years before when we were part of a Holy Land tour led by Bill’s Southern Baptist pastor, Dr. W. O. Vaught.
He had since died, and I wished often that he had been around as a pastor to counsel, and confront, Bill. I was deeply appreciative that three ministers did offer guidance―Rev.
Phil Wogaman, Rev. Tony Campolo and Rev. Gordon MacDonald met and prayed with him regularly as he sought understanding and forgiveness.
On that earlier visit, we had also gone to Bethlehem; now we returned there with Yasir Arafat to visit the Church of the Nativity, where we sang Christmas carols with Christian Palestinians, still holding out hope for the peace process. Bill was scheduled to make a groundbreaking address to the Palestinian National Council and hold other meetings with the Palestinians, and we landed at the brand new Gaza International Airport. This was a momentous event because the opening of the airport had been one of the tenets of the recent Wye Peace Accords that Bill had brokered between Arafat and Netanyahu to help advance economic opportunity for the Palestinians.
Although the Middle East provided a positive picture at that time, Bill continued to monitor closely the defiance of Saddam Hussein, who refused to agree to a resumption of U.N. arms inspections in Iraq. From a political point of view, this was the worst possible time for a military response to Hussein. With the impeachment vote looming, any action by the President could be challenged as an attempt to distract or delay Congress. On the other hand, if Bill put off air strikes on Iraq, he could be accused of sacrificing national security to avoid the political heat. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan was imminent, and the window of opportunity for an attack was closing. On December 16, Bill’s defense and intelligence advisers informed him that the time was right. Bill ordered air strikes to knock out Iraq’s known and suspected weapons of mass destruction sites and other military targets.
An openly skeptical Republican leadership postponed the impeachment debate when the bombing started. “Clinton’s decision to bomb Iraq is a blatant and disgraceful use of military force for his own personal gain,” said Republican Congressman Joel Hefley.
Trent Lott, the Senate Republican Majority Leader, publicly disputed the President’s judgment. “Both the timing and the policy are subject to question,” he said of the military action. Lott backpedaled when his statement was interpreted as an indication that partisan politics came before national security in this Congress.
The House leadership was determined to force a vote on impeachment in the lame duck session, before the Republican majority was reduced to eleven members in January.
On December 18, as bombs fell on Iraq, the impeachment debate began. I had refrained from making any direct public statement for several months, but that morning I spoke to a group of reporters outside the White House. “I think the vast majority of Americans share my approval and pride in the job that the President’s been doing for our country” I said.
“And I think in this holiday season, as we celebrate Christmas and Chanukah and Ramadan―
and at the time for reflection and reconciliation among people―we ought to end divisiveness because we can do so much more together.”
Dick Gephardt asked me to meet with the House Democratic Caucus on Capitol Hill, right before the scheduled votes on the articles of impeachment. Standing before the Democrats the next morning, I thanked everyone for supporting the Constitution, the Presidency and the leader of their party, my husband.
“You all may be mad at Bill Clinton,” I said. “Certainly, I’m not happy about what my husband did. But impeachment is not the answer. Too much is at stake here for us to be distracted from what really matters.” I reminded them that we were all American citizens living under the rule of law and that we owed it to our system of government to follow the Constitution. The case for impeachment was part of a political war waged by people determined to sabotage the President’s agenda on the economy, education, Social Security, health care, the environment and the search for peace in Northern Ireland, the Balkans and the Middle East―everything we, as Democrats, stood for. We couldn’t let it happen. And no matter how the vote went that day, Bill Clinton would not resign.
We all knew last-ditch efforts to avoid impeachment would fail. Walking out through the marble corridors that had seen so much of American history, I was saddened for my country as our cherished system of laws was abused in what amounted to an attempted congressional coup d’etat. As a freshly minted law school graduate, I had studied the politically motivated impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. As a member of the congressional staff that had investigated Richard Nixon, I knew how hard we worked to ensure that the impeachment process was fair and conducted according to the Constitution.
This grave event was nearly upstaged by a bizarre drama on the floor of the House.
The night before the voting began, Bob Livingston, the designated Speaker, was exposed as an adulterer. By Saturday morning, as Livingston stood before his colleagues in the grand House chamber of the Capitol, everyone knew he admitted that he had “strayed” in his marriage. Moments after he demanded the President’s resignation, amid heckles and angry shouts from the floor, he stunned everyone by resigning his position as Speaker, another unintended victim of his own party’s campaign of personal destruction. Like Gingrich, he left the House.
Two articles were defeated, two were adopted. Bill was impeached for perjury in the grand jury and obstruction of justice. He would now be put on trial in the U.S. Senate.
After the impeachment vote, a delegation of Democrats rode buses from the Capitol to the White House in a show of solidarity with the President. I linked arms with Bill as we walked out of the Oval Office to meet them in the Rose Garden. Al Gore gave a moving statement of support, calling the House vote on impeachment “a great disservice to a man I believe will be regarded in the history books as one of our greatest Presidents.” Al’s approval rating, like mine, soared. The American people had figured out what was going on.
Bill thanked everyone who had stuck by him and promised not to give up. He would serve, he said, “until the last hour of the last day of my term.” It was a peculiarly upbeat gathering, given the terrible event that had just occurred, and I was grateful for the public testimonial to Bill. But I was working hard to contain the pain I felt gathering in my back.
By the time the event ended and I walked back to the residence, I could hardly stand.
The timing was very bad, because it was Christmas season, and impeachment or no impeachment, the White House was hosting receptions day and night, and that meant standing in receiving lines for hours. I survived a few of them, but soon I was flat on my back and unable to move, the casualty of accumulated tension and, as it turned out, footwear.
One of the White House physicians who examined me called in a physical therapist from the Navy. After the Navy therapist examined me, he asked, “Ma’am, have you been wearing high heels a lot lately?”
“Yes.”
“Ma’am,” he said, “you shouldn’t wear high heels again.”
“Never?”
“Well, yes, never.” He looked at me curiously, and asked, “With all due respect, ma’am, why would you want to?”
It was both comforting and odd to spend the holidays doing the same things we always did, despite the specter of an impending Senate trial hovering in the room like an uninvited and unwanted guest. I received hundreds of letters of support. Among the most thoughtful was a message from Lady Bird Johnson, who had been following events from her home in Texas:
Dear Hillary,
You made my day! When I saw you with the President on television with you by his side (was it the South Lawn?), reminding us of the country’s progress in many areas such as education and health and how far we have yet to go, I sent a prayer your way. Then I learned that you went to Capitol Hill to speak to Democrats and rally their support.
It made me feel good, and I think that is a gauge for what a great many of our nation’s citizens think.
Cheers to you and Admiration,
Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird’s words of experience and kindness warmed my heart. It was reassuring that someone who understood the pressures I was under recognized why I was so determined to support my husband.
Once again we spent New Year’s Eve at the annual Renaissance Weekend at Hilton Head, South Carolina. So many friends and colleagues went out of their way to encourage us and to thank Bill for his leadership as President. The most moving tribute came from retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., former Chief of Naval Operations during the Vietnam War. Admiral Zumwalt gave a short speech addressed to Chelsea titled “If These Were My Last Words.” He wanted her never to lose sight of her father’s accomplishments, even as the events in Congress threatened to overshadow them.
“Your father, my commander in chief,” he said, “will be remembered as the President: Who reversed fifteen years of decline in our military strength, thus ensuring the continuing viability of our armed forces… who stopped the killings in Haiti, Bosnia, Ireland and Kosovo…. who moved the peace process forward in the Middle East… who initiated debate and action to improve social security, our education systems and health care coverage….”
Admiral Zumwalt also told Chelsea that her mother would be remembered “for opening the eyes of the world” to the rights of women and children and for my efforts to improve their lives, as well as for my support of my family in crisis. His words were an invaluable gift to Chelsea-and to me.
Sadly, those were the last words Chelsea would hear from Admiral Zumwalt, who died a year later. He will be remembered by his country as one of the great patriots and humanitarians of his generation, and by me and my family as a true and steadfast friend.
The Senate trial began on January 7, 1999, soon after the 106th Congress was sworn in.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist arrived in the Senate Chamber dressed for the occasion.
Instead of the usual plain black judicial robes, he wore an outfit he had designed, down to the chevrons of gold braid on its sleeves. In response to questions from the press, he said he got the idea from the costumes in a production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera Iolanthe.
How fitting that he should wear a theatrical costume to preside over a political farce.
I studiously avoided watching the trial on television, in part because I viewed the entire process as a colossal miscarriage of the Constitution and partly because there was nothing I could do to affect the out come. Bill’s case was in the hands of a superb legal team―the White House lawyers, who included Counsel Chuck Ruff, Deputy Counsel Cheryl Mills, Lanny Breuer, Bruce Lindsey and Greg Craig, who had left a top job at the State Department to join the White House staff, and his personal lawyers, David Kendall and his partner, Nicole Seligman.