Chuck Schumer: “these are my last moments as a Member of the House that I honor and that I love, but this is a bittersweet day for me…”

“these are my last moments as a Member of the House that I honor and that I love, but this is a bittersweet day for me because a pall hangs over this House. Unless a miracle occurs, we will take one of the most serious and rare actions that this body can assume and impeach the President against the overwhelming will of the American people. Voting against these articles will be my last act. Since September I have said what the President did was reprehensible and should be punished. I also argued that lying about an extramarital affair, even under oath, does not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors as spelled out in the Constitution and that the proper punishment is censure, not impeachment. But today, Mr. Speaker, my last day in the House that I cherish, I ask myself what has brought us to this day? It would be easy for Democrats to lay the blame on a narrow band of right wing zealots out to destroy Bill Clinton. It would be convenient for Republicans to lay the blame squarely at the feet of the President for his behavior. But this goes much deeper than that. What began 25 years ago with Watergate as a solemn and necessary process to force a President to adhere to the rule of law has grown beyond our control so that now we are routinely using criminal accusations and scandal to win the political battles and ideological differences we cannot settle at the ballot box.”