In early 1999, President Clinton was impeached. "Impeached" means he was tried; it does not mean he was convicted. In fact he was acquitted. The major thrust of the impeachment trial was his sexual conduct. Regarding that, I have a few comments on the hypocrisy of many of his supporters during the impeachment trial. But I believe one can make a good case for his impeachment on other, more serious charges. During early 1999, I wrote several letters to Representatives and Senators expressing the following sentiments:
- Mr. Clinton attempted to legalize domestic spying (as part of his “anti-terrorist” legislation after the Oklahoma City bombing);
- Mr. Clinton attempted warrantless searches (he issued an executive order to allow such searches of public housing; the ACLU sued; Clinton's order was quickly ruled unconstitutional);
- Mr. Clinton, a self-styled “constitutional scholar”, supported the blatantly unconstitutional Communications Decency Act (which would have outlawed, among other things, any on-line discussion of abortion). Steven Den Beste has an excellent commentary on the Act, along with a copy of Judge Dalzell's decision in the case.
- Mr. Clinton ordered, at least via his Attorney General Janet Reno, the Waco raid. While Mr. Clinton may not have explicitly authorized the storming of the compound while David Koresh could have been arrested in town, he was certainly responsible since Reno acted on his authority.
- Mr. Clinton may also have helped manufacture (he certainly allowed its dissemination) the bogus “child abuse” excuse for storming the compound. But child abuse is not a federal offense; the state of Texas never asked for federal help investigating child abuse; no one has suggested, let alone shown, that Texas is incapable of enforcing, or unwilling to enforce, child abuse laws; if such a thing is shown, Congress should monitor child abuse enforcement the way it has monitored voting rights enforcement in many southern states. Allowing the raid to take place, and allow the "child abuse" excuse to be fabricated and disseminated, was certainly, in my opinion, grounds for impeachment;
- Involving the U.S. in wars in Haiti, Somalia and Bosnia (all without a clear purpose, or means of deciding when the U.S. should leave – otherwise known as "exit strategy"). Here we have the draft-dodging Mr. Clinton trying to make himself look tough by sending U.S. troops on ill-conceived missions all over the world. He could have opposed such wars, and used his opposition to explain the folly of Vietnam (and the similar folly of involvement in Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia). Instead of helping to explain the motivations of those who opposed Vietnam (and thereby helping to make "draft-dodging" less objectionable), he simply helped make all Vietnam opponents look like the hypocrite he was.
During his administration in the early 1970's, President Richard Nixon was threatened with impeachment for domestic spying (and other causes). He subsequently resigned. About the same time, it was discovered that Lyndon Johnson, his predecessor, had ordered similar spying. Presumably, had it been discovered earlier, such spying would also have been cause for Johnson's impeachment. Neither Johnson nor Nixon ever attempted to legalize such spying, having conducted it on the sly. Neither attempted to search homes without a warrant; neither attempted anything like the Communications Decency Act. It seems that Clinton gave even greater cause for his impeachment than either Johnson or Nixon, yet all of the items listed above were ignored by the House (when they voted to impeach) and the Senate (during the impeachment trial).
One of the "other causes" cited in threatening Nixon with impeachment was the Kent State shootings. In 1970, it was discovered that Nixon had been waging a "secret war" in Cambodia, as part of the Vietnam War. The Cambodian action had not been approved by Congress. Student demonstrations against the Cambodian action took place, and in one (at Kent State University, in Ohio) national guardsmen, who had been brought in to quell rioting, shot several students. To this day, reports conflict as to whether the students or the guardsmen started the violence. In any case, a movement to impeach Nixon began. He was blamed for the Cambodian action (for which he surely was responsible), and for the shootings (which he was not, at least directly). It's amazing to me that the Waco raid, which Clinton was responsible for (at least through his Attorney General, Janet Reno) – and which he followed by the bogus "child abuse" justification – did not generate similar sentiment.
Had there been no Waco, there would have been no Oklahoma City bombing. While the former does not excuse the latter, neither do the reparations of the Treaty of Versailles excuse World War II. Yet the U.S. created the Marshall Plan, to prevent another Treaty of Versailles from causing another World War. It's ironic that many people who look to blame the U.S. for the Sept 11 attacks, and try to understand the motives of terrorists, make no effort to understand Timothy McVeigh's motivations. Nor do they place any blame on Bill Clinton for the Oklahoma City bombing, even though Waco was completely unnecessary.
And, of course, during the Vietnam War, Bill Clinton was an ardent opponent of the War. That being the case, one would think that he would be relucant to involve the U.S. in conflicts, without a clear purpose or means of finishing. One would be wrong – witness Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti. (I believe U.S. intervention in Kosovo took place after the impeachment.) The fact that a hundred American soldiers were not being killed weekly (which occurred at the height of the Vietnam War), and that the draft was no longer in operation, probably helped save Clinton from impeachment.
Here is my critique of those those Democrats (and anyone else) who supported Clinton during his impeachment, after trying to prevent the confirmation of Clarence Thomas.
(Note added Mar 2005) It turns out there were more reasons to impeach Mr. Clinton:
7. Janet Reno should never have been confirmed as Attorney General. When she was Dade County State's Attorney, she participated in prisoner mistreatment in a child abuse case.
8. Mr. Clinton started the practice of rendition, sending terror suspects to countries where they could be tortured.
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