Posted on 07/03/2011 3:34:17 AM PDT by bobk333
"This is the political equivalent of the government shutdown when I was president," Clinton said. "The White House could blink. I hope not."
Clinton made his argument in front of a large crowd at the left-leaning Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado Saturday. Should the United States default on its payments, the country's credit ratings will decline, Clinton said, and interest rates could rise.
Growing anti-government forces like the Tea Party are truly affecting healthy government reform, Clinton said. "It's astonishingly good politics," he admitted, "but poor economic policy."
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Clinton remembers - and assumes Obama wants - all that spare downtime his shut-downs gave him.
This has overtones of Clinton serving his third term. Who is resident anyway.
NONSENSE! In the Preamble to the Bill of Rights, it states: "When a President Shall Be Impeached, The Supreme Court shall Issue a Warrant For Their Arrest, and Upon Arrest, The President Shall Stand For Trial Before The Full Cabinet of the Executive Branch."
Now, I admit the Cabinet has changed a bit since this country was founded in 1861, however, at present, the Cabinet is Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Defence, Department of Justice, and Department of Food, Vitamins and Exercise.
I don't know what Cracker Jax box you got your high school diploma out of! Sheesh!
See my post above, please. So many uneducated people.
The “Cracker jax” remark ignores how Clinton was confronted with impeachment.
Happy 4th my friend...that was good!
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/impeachments/clinton.htm
Making matters worse for Clinton, the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee announced it would consider a resolution calling for a formal impeachment inquiry, the first step in the long process toward possible removal of Clinton from office. The super-charged partisan political atmosphere in Washington, combined with lingering anger over the President’s deceit, and the allegations contained in the Starr report, all lent the necessary momentum. Thus the process moved forward and Clinton became only the third U.S. President to be seriously faced with the threat of impeachment. On October 8, the House of Representatives voted 258-176 to authorize an open-ended impeachment inquiry, with 31 Democrats joining the Republicans in voting for the investigation. The House Judiciary Committee, consisting of 21 Republicans and 16 Democrats, then began televised hearings.
Witnesses appearing before the committee included Ken Starr himself, who accused Clinton of repeatedly engaging in conduct under oath that was deliberately deceptive in order to hide his affair with Lewinsky. The Democrats, in defense of Clinton, produced an array of scholars asserting that the charges against Clinton did not rise to the level of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” mentioned, but not specifically defined, in the U.S. Constitution as grounds for impeachment, and therefore did not warrant removal of the President from office. The President’s own lawyers described Clinton’s conduct as “morally reprehensible” but not impeachable.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde also sent 81 written questions to the President asking Clinton to “admit or deny” various statements of fact contained in the Starr report. On November 27, the President responded in writing to the questions and forcefully denied having lied under oath. The President’s responses to the 81 questions would later be used as the basis of an article of impeachment. (81 Questions/Responses)
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee drafted a total of four articles of impeachment based on 60,000 pages of evidence provided by Ken Starr. The evidence included sworn testimony, grand jury transcripts, depositions, statements, affidavits, along with video and audio tapes, all concerning Clinton’s attempts to conceal his extramarital affair with Lewinsky during the Paula Jones lawsuit and subsequent criminal investigation by Starr’s office.
On Friday, December 11, the Judiciary Committee voted mainly along party lines to approve the first three articles of impeachment, accusing Clinton of committing perjury before Starr’s grand jury and in the Jones case, and with obstruction of justice in the Jones case. Only one Republican on the committee sided with Democrats by casting a no vote on Article 2 charging Clinton with perjury in the Jones case.
On Saturday, the fourth article was approved, accusing Clinton of making false statements in his answers to the 81 written questions. The four articles were then forwarded to the full House of Representatives for consideration. Republicans controlled the House with 228 members compared to 206 Democrats and one Independent who normally sided with the Democrats.
With polls indicating that Clinton’s job approval rating was holding steady at 60 percent amid a booming economy, and with most Americans disapproving of impeachment, Democrats now began a major push for an alternative to impeachment. They hoped for a congressional censure of the President that would reprimand him but leave him in office. However, their efforts got nowhere amid the fiercely partisan impeachment atmosphere in Congress.
Adding to the polarization, old rumors and allegations of marital infidelities came out of the woodwork against leading Republicans, including Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, who stunned his conservative colleagues when he admitted several marital indiscretions.
The House of Representatives had been scheduled to convene on Thursday, December 17, to begin considering the four articles of impeachment. However, on Wednesday, President Clinton ordered a series of military air strikes against Iraq, following the failure of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors. Clinton’s timing drew an immediate chorus of criticism from Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott who stated: “I cannot support this military action in the Persian Gulf at this time. Both the timing and the policy are subject to question.”
The President defended his timing when asked by a White House reporter if the attack was an attempt to avoid the impeachment vote in Congress. “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any President would do such a thing.”
Democrats wanted to postpone the impeachment proceedings until after the conclusion of the joint U.S.-British military operation, claiming it would be improper to debate removing America’s Commander in Chief while U.S. pilots were “in harm’s way.” Republicans, however, allowed only a 24-hour delay, noting that impeachment proceedings had been held against President Richard Nixon while U.S. troops were still in Vietnam.
Thus, on Friday, December 18, 1998, the full House of Representatives gathered for the first time in 130 years to consider the impeachment of a President. Thirteen hours of fiery partisan oratory followed in which over 200 members of Congress arose to speak their minds, quoting everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr.
On Saturday, toward the end of deliberations, Speaker-designate Bob Livingston made a blockbuster surprise announcement on the House floor, saying he would quit Congress as a result of his now-admitted extramarital affairs, and also called on President Clinton to resign. “I must set the example that I hope President Clinton will follow,” Livingston declared.
Meanwhile, televised news reports indicated the U.S. was in the midst of bombing Iraq again.
House Democrats also staged a brief walkout to protest the Republican refusal to allow consideration of a censure resolution as an alternative to impeachment.
Amid this extraordinary atmosphere, the House of Representatives voted on the four articles of impeachment, needing only a simple majority (218 votes) for approval of each article.
Articles of Impeachment:
RESOLVED that William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS.
My thesis is that the Clinton Impeachment failed because it was done wrong. If they had started at the Supreme Court, like the Constitution says, he’d be GONE.
Your post is why you will never be appointed the Director of the Department of Food, Vitamins and Exercise.
And too think that blog poster that supposedly posts from the supposed DC insider prints interviews of the supposed insider saying that there is a fight within the DNC and that people like the Clinton’s are good democrats and not progressives.
What a joke.
Americans who care to Boehner: Don’t blink of debt ceiling showdown!
It would be his own personal suicide if he did. Hell, it would be suicide if he had only a narrow majority of the GOP caucus.
And, you can bet the arm twisting is severe.
See #12, #15 & #17.
You're even further off than Eric. Impeachment charges are brought forward by the House and tried in the Senate. The SCOTUS does not get involved at all, otherwise in the case of impeachment proceedings against a Supreme Court justice, they would be impeaching one of their own which would never happen.
I mean, it's right there, as plain as the wording of the Seventh Amendment: Congress Shall Make No Law impeding the Privacy of the citizenry; nor Shall housing be denied from the Provision of the Federated Government; And the Health of All Citizens are Guarenteed under This Amendment."
LEARN SOME DAMNED HISTORY!!!!!!
Great post :)
Brings back some fond memories, huh? :)
Please. 50 Republicans voted to remove the scumbag from office -- 5 didn't. 45 Democrats voted to keep the scumbag in office. Zero didn't.
Now, then, which party was responsible for not removing the scumbag from office?
Law definition; . the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority.
He's good for a fundraiser but the two- time minority president is way overblown as a pol.
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