On his first morning as president of the United States, Gerald Ford greeted the nation in his baby blue Bermuda pajamas and revealed that he had just toasted his own English muffins. And the nation breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Man, we loved that English muffin thing. Such was the scourge of the dark and bitter and departed Richard Nixon that word the new president was so normal he fixed his own breakfast–tea and melon and muffins–was greeted like pennies from heaven.
That was the depth of the nation’s disgust with Nixon, who resigned because Middle America had abandoned him and the House and Senate were ready to follow Middle America. He resigned after dragging the nation through two years of Watergate torture. Our long national nightmare is over, Ford said. Nightmare, yes it was.
I don’t know if Monica Lewinsky’s deal with independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr will turn out to be the beginning of the end of President Clinton, will be his Saturday Night Massacre, his 17-minute gap. But the Lewinsky deal has revived talk this week about impeachment.
Nixon was a nightmare. Clinton, if it gets that far, will be worse.
Nixon was at the top of a massive criminal conspiracy that took down not only him, but dozens of other people in and out of his government. He co-opted the FBI and the CIA in a protracted coverup of his sins.
Clinton may have lied under oath in a civil lawsuit and suggested that others do the same thing.
That’s what is left to decide. Did Clinton commit perjury in a court deposition when he attested that he had not had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and did he obstruct justice by trying to convince Lewinsky to lie as well?
If he did, that is impeachable. Yes, it is. If it is true, then the president attempted to subvert the legal system. He broke the oath he took as president to faithfully uphold the law.
But there’s going to be more to this than arriving at a definition of high crimes and misdemeanors. There’s going to be a decision made about what is best for the country. That means, whether removing Clinton from the White House is worth tearing the nation apart.
We’re a long, long way from impeaching the president. We’re talking about what Monica Lewinsky will tell the grand jury before she has told the grand jury a thing. We’re talking about information that’s coming from the same lawyer-scribe-rumormonger axis that the public has come to deeply distrust.
We’re jumping the gun again. We don’t know exactly what Lewinsky and Clinton will say to the grand jury. We don’t know what will be in Starr’s final report or when he will give it to Congress. But that hasn’t stopped the buzz that this is all hurtling to a wild and quick finish because Lewinsky has a deal.
That won’t be the case. Don’t give up your seats for the 1999 season.
When Starr completes his work and hands it to the House Judiciary Committee, it’s likely that only a summary of his findings will be made public at first. The full report will be reserved only for members and staff lawyers of the committee to mull over, and they will take their sweet time. If there is a powerful case against Clinton, the committee will ask the House for permission to hold hearings. But Congress has better things to do this fall, like go home and win re-election.
If, in time, it looks like impeachment is in the offing, the heavy burden of proof will be on Congress to produce clear and convincing evidence of the president’s crimes. At that point, the members of Congress will be almost as much at risk as the president. If Congress moves on the president with a case that falls short of absolute credibility–based on the work of a prosecutor who has already lost the public’s confidence–the members could write their own impeachments.
It will become a question of Congress’ credibility as much as Clinton’s.
Clinton’s credibility? He has none, really. What a thought. The president’s word is matched against the word of a former intern who has said she’s been lying her whole life. And most people, including me, still believe her over Clinton. She may have been lying her whole life, but Clinton is twice her age and has three times the experience.
Congress may wind up with evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. Congress may wind up with far more evidence of wrongdoing than we’ve heard so far. But my guess is it will, in the end, let Clinton go with a censure, a reprimand, a knuckle rap. Not because the evidence fails to meet a legal standard for impeachment, but because the public won’t endure another long national nightmare, not over lying and adultery, not even over perjury.
Some will say that’s an awful state of affairs, when lying becomes acceptable, even fashionable. But if Clinton is impeached, the nation will wake up not with a sense of relief, but with a terrible hangover. And nobody, but nobody, will cheer the sight of Al Gore in baby blue Bermuda pajamas.
