Wisdom and Honor
The Judiciary Committee takes its political lives in its hands, while the President "wags the dog" yet again in a display that itself should be impeachable.
by Rod D. Martin
December 16, 1998
With a courage none would have believed just after last month's elections, the House Judiciary Committee voted this weekend four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Their consultants told them this would be suicide. The polls told them they were risking everything. The Democrats offered them censure, an unconstitutional, horrible precedent-setting, but nevertheless politically-popular way out. They assessed their lives, decided who they were, and cast their votes. They are heroes.
By contrast, with his political efforts failing, his personal threats against individual "swing" members such as Arkansas's Jay Dickey backfiring, and an almost certain impeachment vote by the whole House looming on the morrow, Bill Clinton showed tonight a craven cowardice unlike any in the history of the Republic.
He again "wags the dog." He again bombs Iraq. He again takes the lives of innocent civilians, carefully calculati…