POLITICS
by Obanion
. . . IMPEACHMENT - NO ; CONVICTION - YES
"Are we a government of laws or a government of men?" is an oft-rhetorically asked question with a mandated answer "A government of laws, of course."
The fact, however, is that we are both. Politics is the art of compromise, and prosecutors compromise the law and make political decisions day in and day out. They do this in deciding whether or not to bring charges. And many times, as we all know, they choose not to press charges, or to bring charges less than a crime warrants, for a variety of reasons.
The House has chosen to bring charges - an action with which I do not agree - for actions they have chosen to construe as "high crimes and misdemeanors." This is a political action, within their purview as mandated by the constitution. They must be held accountable for this action.
Now, however, it becomes a matter of law. There can not be many among us who doubt that President Clinton, at the very least, lied under oath. Just as the jury in a civil or criminal case cannot debate the wisdom of whether charges should have been brought, neither is it the duty of the Senate to so debate. The issue before them is guilt or innocence on the charges brought. If now they were not to remove President Clinton from office, then, most certainly, irreparable damage would be done. It would then be graven in stone that some men are, indeed, above the law.
Having set this abominable precedent, let us now brace for the torrent of political and constitutional instability that will be unleashed as any unpopular, minority or otherwise vulnerable public figure is hounded in the most sacrosanct intimacies of his or her life by virtually limitless expenditures of public funds that must almost inevitably expose, or create, some basis for bloodless assassination. The tide will turn, and those who cry for a President's head now, will, before long, reap the whirlwind. Woe to our ourselves, our children, and all future generations for our victimization by the inevitable consequences of partisan hatred. Thus begins the end of Pax Americana.