General News

This week, my general news subject is the drive to impeach the president. I have a very strong opinion on the subject, and since no one from Gallup has ever called, I'll share them with you.

Clinton lied. All presidents lie. Clinton lied under oath (That is not perjury, by the way, ask any attorney. Perjury is illegal only if it is material).

What he did was stupid and wrong. It was not a felony. Even it was a felony, as constitutional scholars say, not all felonies are impeachable and not all impeachable offenses are felonies.

Assume every word of the Starr report is gospel (I doubt it). Clinton's behavior doesn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense. If you can't tell the difference between this and Watergate, or for that matter, between this and Iran-Contra--a truly impeachable offense--I pity you.

(By the way, I have especially enjoyed the several columnists, including one in a recent New Yorker, who have recently suggested that Starr's tactics smack of McCarthyism--the criminalization of non-criminal acts. McCarthy did it by calling people before Congress and asking them about their Communist affiliations. Having Communist affiliations wasn't illegal. Not telling anyone about them was not illegal. Refusing to testify about them before Congress was illegal. Thus, a legal act criminalized. Clinton did nothing illegal until Star, in collusion with his friends the attorneys in the Paula Jones case, conspired to entrap Clinton).

The impeachment process is, to borrow Clarence Thomas' phrase, a high-tech lynching. It is the GOP trying to invalidate the results of two elections they didn't like.

If you want a parliamentary system in this country, fine. Come out and ask for one. Don't try to create one via this backdoor methodology.

I am ashamed to admit I live in the district of a rogue Democrat, Ellen Tauscher, who voted for the impeachment. I'll still vote for her; she may come to her senses and on her worst days she's better than the mutton-head the R's are running against her. She had to vote for impeachment; I live in a suburban district that normally votes Republican. Even as a yellow-dog democrat, I'll have to hold my nose this year on Election Day.