Former Rep. Henry Hyde Is Dead at 83

AP via NY Times ^ | November 29, 2007 | AP

[JohnLongIsland]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Rep. Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who steered the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and championed government restrictions on the funding of abortions, died Thursday. He was 83.

[JohnLongIsland]

RIP

[sauropod]

Rest in peace Henry! Thanks for serving the country during the impeachment debacle. Pity the Senators didn’t do their jobs.

[ElkGroveDan]

God Bless his soul. May the Lord welcome him with open arms.

[Puppage]

So, I guess Alec Baldwin can put down the stones?

[Tennessean4Bush]

RIP

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

[Dahoser]

RIP, Henry. You did us proud.

[debboo]

Thank you for all you did, sir. RIP

[Nowhere Man]

RIP Henry, I loved your speech on the Rule of Law, it really hit home with me.

[rottndog]

RIP Henry Hyde!

A good soul who will be missed.

[WVNan]

We have lost a real hero. May he have a rich reward. One of the highlights of my life was meeting this man, who seemed larger than life, at the Dinner for the House Managers. I will cherish the pictures of him that I had taken with him that night. I will also always remember the speech he made when he opened the impeachment trial. I have a copy of it somewhere. I am saddened by this news.

[moodyskeptic]

Henry was a class act, during impeachment hearings, while under withering attack from the MSM, he was steady and stuck to the process. I remember when he finished the House articles and knew they would be spiked by the Senate, he made an elegant appeal to the nation to stop with the dark cynicism and strive for a great nation. He was channeling Reagan, it was poignant and philosophical.

I can’t seem to find that speech anywhere online. Freepers? You are the best researchers on the planet (witness last night).

[Alberta's Child]

Condolences to the Hyde family. My opinion of Rep. Hyde declined considerably during the impeachment proceedings when he used the term "youthful indiscretion" to describe an extra-marital affair in his 40s, but he was definitely a good guy in government.

I'll never forget his answer to a reporter's question after the Senate refused to acquit Clinton (I paraphrase) . . .

"Well, the people chose Barabbas, too -- didn't they?"

[Bean Counter]

Sorry for the dupe...

Can we reasonably expect a State Funeral without it turning into a circus??

[The Pack Knight]

He was a hero of mine for his work on reforming civil asset forfeiture. While the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act was a considerable compromise on what he, myself, and a lot of other people interested in individual property rights wanted, it was still an important step.

It's not an issue a lot of people pay attention to, but it's something I'll always remember him for.

[ccmay]

Wasn't this the guy who called an affair he had, as a married man of 41 years of age, a "youthful indiscretion"? Why yes, it was.

He may have been a good conservative, and a good Congressman, but he was no better a man than Bill Clinton. We have to be consistent; that's what separates us from the unprincipled lefties. Clinton was a cheating snake and so was Hyde.

-ccm

[Milhous]

"Well, the people chose Barabbas, too -- didn't they?"

Allow me to embellish the story with an excerpt from The Greatest Story Ever Told.

By the time Annas reached home, a crowd had gathered before his front door. Rough-looking men stood idly talking together, like laborers waiting for a foreman to come and give orders. Which, Annas reflected with satisfaction, was exactly what they were - laborers, hired mobmen, shouters, screamers, fist-shakers, noisy professional pickets who would rail against any person or any cause - for pay. Tonight Caiphas would be their foreman.

Caiphas had worked swiftly. Not only had he assembled these hirelings to give tongue at the proper time, and sound as if they were the voice of all Judea, howling for blood, he had also assembled a troop of Temple guards, sentinels without weapons. These were men of the priestly classes, very important, too, and they let you know it by the way they swung their shoulders as they walked and the scornful way in which they looked past people in trouble. Their duties were to guard the Temple and maintain order; they had already been greatly reproached for not having prevented the disastrous scene in the Temple, when Jesus overturned the tables and whipped the money-changers.

... Presently they would be joined by Roman soldiers with armor and swords, who would give empire authority to the arrest.

---

Coral Ridge Ministries, proclaiming truths that transform the world.

[moodyskeptic]

I just found this, it’s not the speech I remember, but it’s an elegant reminder of Hyde’s sober assessment of his duty and a plea to the Senate to take Clinton’s perjuries seriously. Henry, RIP.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/01/16/transcripts/hyde.html

[ex-snook]

God Bless him. One of the great ones.

[Cicero]

May he rest in peace. He was a good Christian gentleman and a great American.