11 years ago today...the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Clinton

[alp227]

11 years ago today, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice, specifically for lying about a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and something about Paula Jones. From an old CNN article:

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, December 19) -- A deeply divided House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton Saturday on charges of lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice in the Monica Lewinsky affair. The two allegations of "high crimes and misdemeanors" next go to the Senate for trial.

Enough Republicans broke ranks to defeat the two other articles of impeachment recommended one week ago by the House Judiciary Committee. Those accused Clinton of committing perjury in his deposition in the Paula Jones case and abusing his power in his efforts to cover up his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, a former White House intern.

Here's the Washington Post account of things; unlike CNN the WaPo chose to preserve internal links that provide deeper information beyond the article.

Even though Clinton got off acquitted, don't you see something wrong with the Republican-controlled Congress under Clinton rushing to put him before justice simply because he lied under oath about something that didn't really affect our lives, yet when the next president went off a constant string of lies from the campaign trail to the White House to Congress, including starting that Iraq War under false pretenses, no one did anything...not even the Democratic-controlled Congress after the 2006 elections?

Some apolitical events from that time in 1998:
- The government actually had a budget surplus; two years earlier Clinton and Congress managed to balance the budget too.
- America's favorite song was the inter-country R. Kelly and Celine Dion duet "I'm Your Angel". Kelly is American; Dion is Canadian; that explains my use of "inter country".
- America's favorite show: ER, always on Thursdays at 10PM on NBC. Wasn't George Clooney on the cast at that time?
- Windows 98 was the dominant operating system
- The internet looked a lot more crude, as you might've seen on the CNN article I linked. It was much slower too; DSL was a rich man's privilege!
- Free Republic was the dominant political web forum; only when Chimpy entered the Oval Office did DU come up as a forum for progressives who've had nightmares from the non-stop Clinton-bashing/hate speech on FR.
- Britney Spears was just a teenager who scored her first number-one hit, "Baby One More Time". Look up the entry for that song on Wikipedia and notice how young and innocent she looked compared to her tabloid-scarred, washed-up soul now.

[treestar]

1. It's all so much harder to prove

Lying about Monica was an easy thing to focus on and the Repukes got lucky and could prove it. Also they are the types of assholes who spend time on things like this. Furthermore, the economy wasn't bad and we didn't have two wars to deal with.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Insanity. nt

[Loudmxr]

3. 11 years!! Haven't they got that guy yet?

Seems like they haven't stopped trying. :smoke:

[bluestateguy]

4. Someday we will get those impeachment articles formally rescinded and expunged from the record

If it takes decades, we will get it done.

[alp227]

5. How can that be if the Senate acquitted Clinton?

They should be preserved in history as one of the biggest political blunders in American history.

[AndrewP]

6. They should be. Although nobody ever learns from history it seems. LOL

What the Repukelicans did to the Clinton administation was worthy of THEIR impeachment.

[Turbineguy]

7. And they haven't improved much since.