Impeachment of Clinton

“Reject Revenge” (editorial, Dec. 20) stated that “a prolonged trial would be harmful to the nation.” I agree. But a trial would not be necessary if President Clinton had the interests of the country at heart. If he resigned, the country would not have to endure a trial and he would leave office with a sense of honor and dignity.

An alternative could also be a censure by Congress “expressing its abhorrence of Clinton’s behavior and specifically condemning him for lying under oath.” Your words. But add the punishment of a fine equal to the cost of Kenneth Starr’s investigation from January, the time the scandal first broke, up to the end of Starr’s investigation. Clinton could have saved the nation these tax dollars if he had confessed his guilt at the outset.

Many people believe that this impeachment is about adultery. It is not. It is about perjury. No citizen is above the law. I don’t think it is appropriate that, in our nation of laws, the chief executive of our nation can escape punishment for committing perjury when the average citizen cannot.

CARMEN MONTE

Santa Maria

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You wrote a lengthy and thoughtful editorial on the past events leading to an impeachment of this president and ended with a plea for reconciliation. I am still shocked and I do not wish to reconcile yet. Nowhere in your editorial did you place blame on the media in this country, which have been on this president’s back from day one.

Lots of ink and newsprint have been wasted in allegations of every “gate” named by the right wing. Was there an apology from any of the pundits today on radio, TV or newsprint? No, but plenty of ink shed on why it happened and wondering what will become of us as a nation. I will go back to public radio and turn off the talking heads and look to certain authors for perhaps the truth.

LIBBY BREEN

Altadena

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Reject revenge? Not this little ol’ lady! I feel very vengeful toward the Republican Party and I want at least a pound and a half of its flesh!

BARBARA BARDIN

Chatsworth

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Over the past six years, every time the Republicans have loaded up to get Bill Clinton, they have shot themselves in the foot. This time they have shot themselves right between the eyes. They have wasted the last six years proving they just do not know how to govern.

WILLIAM C. MONTGOMERY

Long Beach

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Let me try to understand this! The White House and the media are deploring the idea that the “partisan” House waged impeachment proceedings while our servicemen and servicewomen were involved in dangerous military action in Iraq. Then the Clinton administration announced that we had achieved our goal and called for an end to the bombings.

Or, put another way, when the House announced its date to call for a vote, Clinton began the aerial assault and ended it only when impeachment became a reality. What’s wrong with this picture?

CHARLENE BIESCHKE

Laguna Niguel

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For me, the House of Representatives’ decision to impeach President Clinton is significant in two respects: It will go down in history that Clinton lied to the grand jury and was consequently impeached; now we can look our children in the eye and tell them one must take responsibility for one’s deeds and that it doesn’t pay to lie.

As far as I am concerned, whatever the Senate chooses to do with him is of secondary importance.

DAVID CHEN

Hacienda Heights

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In the history of our country two presidents have been impeached. Neither justified. Both by the Republicans and for political reasons.

A person’s sex life is becoming a major qualification for office. Is this what we really want? Wake up, America, while we still have a democracy.

ISAAC C. REESE

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Some people have called for Clinton’s resignation in order to save the nation from the trauma of an impeachment trial and governmental gridlock. These people should consider whether they would like to establish a precedent that the House can force a president, popular or not, out of office by a mere majority vote and the threat of gridlock.

I think that they might come to agree that the only reason Clinton or any impeached president should resign is the serious threat of conviction in the Senate.

HENRY MENDELL

Los Angeles

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Michael Ramirez’s Dec. 20 cartoon implies that Clinton’s supporters also embrace a wide range of personal immorality. This implication is both insulting and erroneous, and as such it is emblematic of the Republican witch hunt to which we have been subjected over the past many months. I am the mother of four children. I volunteer in the community in support of families and in my children’s school. I have never had an extramarital affair, owned a gun or consumed or produced pornography. I fully support President Clinton, and there are a lot more people just like me.

People like us do not condone personal immorality. However, whatever Clinton’s sins may be, they pale in comparison to the immorality of the congressional Republicans’ attempt to nullify the 1996 presidential election.

SHARON A. WATKINS

Manhattan Beach

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The ignoble, mainly European tradition in political cartoons of depicting a money-mongering man with Semitic features corrupting the nation’s morals has come alive in Ramirez’s cartoon. Only the absence of a Star of David or devil’s horns distinguishes Ramirez’s work from the more vicious Nazi propaganda of the 1930s.

RALPH GOLDSTEIN

Altadena

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Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) may have inadvertently done this country a great service indeed. He has finally proven, despite all Republican assertions to the contrary, that “this” really is about s-e-x. If not, why did he have to go?

MELANIE ROTHSCHILD

Topanga

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Re “Flynt Shines Again in the Media Spotlight,” Dec. 19: For months, the public tried writing letters and e-mails; none of it worked; nothing made them stop and think. Then a hero stepped in: He was a millionaire pornographer who could play at the same high financial level and the same low moral level as Starr and the Republicans. God bless you, Larry Flynt.

JOSEPH BRUTSMAN

Los Angeles

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William Schneider (Opinion, Dec. 20) tells us Republicans made themselves “look even more ridiculous” when they carried on their impeachment debate while “bombs were falling on Baghdad.”

He forgets that Democrats carried on their debate to impeach Richard Nixon while we still had American soldiers fighting and dying in Vietnam. When Democrats gathered at the White House to cheer their disgraced, impeached leader, it was they who looked ridiculous.

JOHN BARCHILON

Thousand Oaks

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As usual, Schneider’s analysis is excellent. Combining broad perspective with penetrating insight, he simultaneously illuminates and perforates arguments on both sides of the issue, providing a balanced feast of food for thought. But he misses one key point: Dispossessed voters need not wait for 2000 to manifest their will. They can do so now. No one should be surprised if a number of congressional Republicans find themselves facing recall efforts in the coming months.

BRIAN DALTON

Santa Barbara

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I visited the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. There’s an actual-size mock-up of the Gipper’s Oval Office workplace in the museum there, and it was impossible for me to not imagine the gross high jinks of an unworthy tenant. I write this as a man who never voted for Reagan and cast his faith in Clinton twice.

It’s impossible for even the most strident Clinton apologist to stand in this diorama 3,000 miles from the real oval McCoy and insist the president’s troubles are purely political. It’s not about sex. It’s not about lying or perjury. It’s about integrity.

WILEY C. ROSE

Temple City

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How dare the Republicans in the House impeach the president against the will of the American people! Just whom do they think they represent--the NRA, the tobacco industry and the anti-choice coalition or us? Oh, wait a minute. Strike that. Dumb question.

SUE WILLIAMS

La Palma

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Bill Clinton should not be impeached, censured or reprimanded for having consensual sex and lying about it. But he should be impeached, along with most presidents since World War II, for waging war without a declaration of war by Congress.

These wars include Korea, Panama, Cuba, Grenada, Libya and Iraq.

PATRICK T. HANCOCK

Los Angeles

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After voting to impeach President Clinton, the Republicans in Congress need to become intimately acquainted with the word “recall,” as it is now their political future, or lack thereof.

RICHARD V. McCUNE

Los Angeles

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Overturning an election through impeachment should be saved for high crimes against the United States. Not something as trivial as lying about sex.

RON KOBAYASHI

Orange

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Majority Leader Trent Lott and his ilk won’t have the fortitude to stand up to the far right and advocate bypassing a trial. The Republicans will be judged harshly by history for letting themselves be controlled by zealots despite the great damage done to the Constitution, the rule of law and to the office of the presidency.

MONA DAVIS

Cypress

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We just have to live with the impeachment vote. And so does the Republican Party.

THOMAS J. WALLS

Glendale

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Don’t blame the Republicans. Don’t blame Ken Starr. President Clinton could have ended this process so many times in so many ways. This debacle is his and his alone. From a Democrat for life.

SELBY JESSUP

Los Angeles

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God deliver us from the righteousness of hypocrites.

ANA ESTHER ESCANDON

Pacific Palisades

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I now understand what GOP stands for: Get Our President.

MICHAEL HESSE

Westlake Village