Rick Allen: “President Clinton has disgraced himself and diminished the office he holds. While this House may not censure Bill…”

“President Clinton has disgraced himself and diminished the office he holds. While this House may not censure Bill Clinton, history will. But by failing to respond in a fair and measured way to the President's conduct, the Republican leadership has assured that history will also condemn the 105th Congress. Others in this debate have made the point simply: the proven offenses are not impeachable and the impeachable offenses are not proven. ``To depose the constitutional chief magistrate of a great nation, elected by the people, on grounds so slight, would * * * be an abuse of power.'' These are not my words, but the temperate statement 130 years ago of a Maine Republican. William Pitt Fessenden was one of seven courageous Republican Senators who voted against the attempt by the Radical Republicans to remove Andrew Johnson from office in 1868. Fessenden understood the meaning of the Constitution's words, ``treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.'' An impeachable offense, Fessenden said, must be ``of such a character to commend itself at once to the minds of all right thinking men, as beyond all question, an adequate cause for impeachment. It should leave no reasonable ground of suspicion upon the motives of those who inflict the penalty.'' Fessenden knew what the framers meant and what the distinguished chairman of our Judiciary Committee professed to believe at the outset of this inquiry--a partisan vote of impeachment will be forever suspect.…”