Impeaching the President by Alan Hirsch

Author:Alan Hirsch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: City Lights Publishers

Two tickets for Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, January 14–15, 1999.

The Republicans had prevailed in the House, but polls gave them no cause to gloat. The public continued to oppose the removal of Clinton from office and showed little stomach for a drawn-out process. The House managers wanted to call at least 15 witnesses, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who held several secret meetings with pollsters and political consultants, wanted no part of that. After considerable internal debate, and then debate with the Democrats, Senate Republicans deferred the question of witnesses until mid-trial.

As this and other questions about trial procedure were negotiated among the senators, the House managers, and Clinton’s attorneys, one thing was understood and from time to time articulated: There was virtually no chance Clinton would be convicted. In a private session, Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, told the House managers that they would be wasting their time calling witnesses, because at least 34 senators would never vote to convict. This was Alice in Wonderland: Verdict first, trial later.

To those who refused to consider the case a done deal (out of either excessive optimism or pessimism), the identity of the person presiding over the trial, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, gave each side cause for concern. Rehnquist was a lifelong Republican, a conservative justice appointed to the Court by Nixon and elevated to Chief Justice by Ronald Reagan. On the other hand, back in 1992 he had written Grand Inquests, a book criticizing the politicized impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Whatever the chief justice’s feelings about Clinton’s trial, he stayed true to his own sartorial preferences. As he had for the last few years, he wore gold braids on the sleeves of his otherwise traditional black robe, homage to a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He had witnessed a performance of Iolanthe in which the Lord Chancellor wore such a costume.

The trial formally commenced on January 7. Rehnquist and the senators were sworn in by 96-year-old president pro tempore Strom Thurmond, whose father was alive during the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Following the swearing in, the first week was given over to wrangling, most of it behind closed doors, over the still-not-determined trial processes.

The trial began in earnest on January 14, with the managers’ opening statements. There would be quite a few such statements—the Republicans had put together a team of 13 managers, all House members, all of whom made opening remarks.

Their addresses mixed high-minded rhetoric about the rule of law with detailed factual recitation of the president’s misdeeds and clips of his many misstatements (including “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”). The first round of opening statements was effective enough that it reportedly had some Democratic senators reconsidering their opposition to conviction. The Senate recessed at 7:00 p.m.

The next day brought opening statements by five more managers and, near the end of the day, the first formal objection. Democratic Senator Tom Harkin rose to object when manager Bob Barr referred to the senators as “jurors.” The managers had used the term repeatedly, but for some reason Harkin held his objection until now.

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