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We’ve done our job. Our job now is to go over to the Senate. Well do our job there and we will abide by their rules, Rep. James Rogan RCalifornia said.
But even before the senators have returned to Washington, Senate Democrats have been approaching some Republicans to gauge support for censure. Possible targets include GOP moderates like Sens. John Chafee of Rhode Island, Jim Jeffords of Vermont and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.
But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott RMississippi had some discouraging words for those efforts, saying in a news interview Monday that the believes the Senate has a responsibility to hear all of the evidence before anybody considers cutting the trial short for a censure deal or some other alternative punishment of Clinton.
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Though many Democrats favor censuring the president rather than removing him from office, key Senate Republicans have said an alternative should be considered only after a speedy impeachment trial, and perhaps only after a vote on whether to remove the president from office.
Conservative Sen. Phil Gramm RTexas says a censure resolution would be both superfluous and a poor precedent. In a written statement Tuesday, Gramm said censure pales next to the historical weight of the impeachment resolutions already voted by the House.
The subtext is that Lott and Gramm could never accept censure, as their constituents in conservative places like Texas and Misssippi would never allow it.
That was the compromise that Gramm agreed to, no censure, but a trial with rules that were much more liberal than the house managers had expected and prepared for which made the trial a show trial. Give the house managers their due, they fell on their swords and never publicly complained. The truthes were told not by them but by Schippers.