Clinton is impeached, but refuses to quit

Impeachment is an American constitutional infliction that condemns the Presidency but doesn’t immediately oust the incumbent from office. It means the House of Representatives has found enough evidence for the Senate to hold a trial. Adoption of even one article of impeachment is enough for a trial in the Senate.

The historic vote proceeded along expected lines showing a deep partisan cleft. The House has228 Republicans and 206 Democrats (and one Democrat-allied independent). Five Republicans voted against impeachment and five Democrats voted for impeachment, evening out the cross voting. Two Democrats were not present.

The vote was preceded by a stunning political development which saw the exit of the Republican Speaker-elect Bob Livingstone after his own extramarital affairs were threatened to be exposed by Hustler magazine.

Livingstone announced his resignation on the floor of the House, saying: “I must set an example which President Clinton will follow.” The announcement rocked the House and the political establishment but there was no indication that the President would follow suit. On the contrary, Clinton urged Livingstone to reconsider his decision and not to submit to the politics of personal destruction.

Even as it became clear that Democrats would not be able to thwart the impeachment, Republicans called on Clinton to resign to avoid putting the country through a Senate trial which may lastmonths.

But the President has vowed to fight it out in the Senate, his supporters said. Clinton is expected to address the nation later in the day to put forth his views.

Earlier, First Lady Hillary Clinton, who had withdrawn from the political arena the past few weeks, made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill to address Democratic lawmakers in camera. The First Lady stressed the need for forgiveness and reconciliation in public life and the need for a fair constitutional process.

But her rallying cry came too late. Democrats were already resigned to losing the vote. One explanation was that her Hill sortie was aimed more at rallying the flock for the Senate trial coming up and disperse the gathering momentum for the President’s resignation by showing her support to her husband.

On a history-making day, the bombing of Iraq — the fourth wave of strikes began today — receded to the background as American lawmakers met in the special session to grimly go through a process that was last seen 130 yearsago when then President Andrew Johnson was impeached just three years after the Civil War.

The vote to impeach Clinton was a foregone conclusion but Democrats organised procedural hurdles to delay the inevitable. Terms like censure plus and impeachment lite, redolent of the American penchant for verbal simplification, were bandied about as the two sides fought a pitched legislative battle.

The partisan Republican vote came against the public sentiments of a majority of the American people as revealed by several opinion polls.

Republican lawmakers pushed ahead nevertheless saying the President had corrupted the law and if he was not punished it would send out a wrong message down generations.

“Let the future generations note that we risked our political fortune in service of the constitution,” one Republican lawmaker said. Democrats argued hoarsely that the Republicans had lost all sense of proportion and the punishment of impeachment was not consonant with the President’s crime. They accused theRepublicans of staging a constitutional coup.

“Let he who has no sin in this chamber cast the first vote,” Congressman Robert Menendez said dramatically.

The stage is now set for a Senate trial which will be presided over by the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court William Rehnquist. The 100 Senators will constitute the jury. The House will elect managers to function as the prosecution team, while Clinton will be defended by his lawyers.

There is little likelihood of Clinton being convicted by the Senate given that a conviction needs a two-thirds vote (67 out of 100) and the Republican strength is only 55. But Clinton supporters fear that there will be increased momentum for the President to resign instead of going through a trial. Already opinion polls indicate that the American people would rather see Clinton resign if he is impeached.