Notes From the Impeachment Battlefront

by Jack Breibart

• Among all the charges and countercharges made Friday at the House impeachment debate, the award for the most down-and-dirty goes to Florida Democrat Carrie Meek, who charged that the impeachment process was "gonad driven."

• The Democrats, in general, won the battle of high dudgeon, high rhetoric and high voices. And in good old-fashioned name calling. "Hypocrites," California Democrat Nancy Pelosi shouted across the aisle at the Republicans. "You are paralyzed with hatred."

• NBC commentator Tim Russeth reached back to the Cold War arms race when he described the Washington situation as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).

• The bare-knuckles fight between the Democrats and Republicans could disgust enough voters, said Pat Caddell, a Democratic strategist during the Carter administration, that the country could be open to a Jesse Ventura-like candidate in the next presidential election.

  In a stunning turn of events last month, Ventura, running as a Reform Party candidate, won the governorship of Minnesota. Caddell, a pollster, also predicted a change in the polls bolstering the president if the House votes for impeachment. Is that sucking sound coming from Ross Perot?

• Always bet against conventional wisdom (CW).

  Remember when CW said that the last thing Republicans wanted was to impeach the president and give Al Gore a running start on the 2000 election. CW also claimed the Democrats unexpected strong showing in the elections in November assured the president that the Republicans would not win impeachment in the House.

  CW now predicts two things will never happen: the president will resign, and barring that, the Senate will convict.

• "You may have the votes, you may have the muscle, but you do not have the legitimacy," declaimed Rep. Jerrold Hadler, (D - New York). Other notable quotes from Democrats in the House:
  • "What the president did was wrong. What we do today is equally wrong" (John Dingell, Michigan).

  • "This is indeed a Republican coup d'etat ... one of the most despicable actions" (Maxine Waters, California).

  • "No honor will rain on this House if we vote to impeach" (Barbara Kennelly, Connecticut).

  • "You will have only yourselves to blame when the people rise up" (Loretta Sanchez, California).

• The atmosphere is so poisonous in Washington that even stoic Vice President Al Gore has become impassioned. "I am fighting mad about the way they are carrying out this impeachment matter," Gore said in an interview yesterday with the American Urban Radio network "You don't impeach the president over something like this." The vice president charged that the Republican congressional leaders were "cracking the whip" over their membership to vote for impeachment.

• White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart was angry, too. He said the "Republican apparatus" -- meaning the party and conservative religious organizations -- were engaged in a "cynical" political strategy for sending 200 faxes to newspaper editorial boards around the country calling for the president's resignation.

  "I call it cynical because you all remember that a few weeks ago, they were saying, "We are not removing the president from office, we are just laying reasonable charges and sending them to the Senate.' "

• First Lady Hillary Clinton, who has been involved in lobbying members of Congress to vote against impeachment, was more subdued than Gore and Lockhart in defending her husband.

  "I think the vast majority of Americans share my approval and pride in the job that the president's been doing for our country," she said. "And I think in this holiday season, as we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah and Ramadan -- and at the time for reflection and reconciliation among people -- we in our country ought to practice reconciliation and we ought to bring our country together. We ought to end divisiveness because we can do so much more together."

• The Democrats also were busy at the fax machines. They wanted the media to know that the Republicans were "dumbing down" the impeachment process.