Respect for Law, Defense of Presidency Cited as Impetus for Votes

Here are excerpts from the comments of senators explaining their votes on the impeachment of President Clinton.

Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

The president’s defense in this case flies in the face of the most fundamental need of an organized, constitutionally structured society. If we adopt this relativist view of the enforcement of law, who is to say where it stops? Certainly this century gives us some horrific examples of the effects on nations when the application of law becomes a relative event, when leaders determine what illegal acts are justified, and society tolerates those acts and looks the other way.

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Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

Clearly, the framers intended the House and the Senate to use the impeachment power cautiously, and not wield it promiscuously for partisan political purposes. Sadly, in this case, Republicans in the House of Representatives, in their partisan vendetta . . . have wielded the impeachment power in precisely the way the framers rejected.

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George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

Voted to convict on both articles:

The president has undermined the fundamental principle that we are a nation ruled by laws and not by men. There is no way in good conscience that we as a nation can have a lawbreaker remain as president of the United States when his conduct in office has included the very same acts that have resulted in the impeachment of federal judges and have sent hundreds of people to prison. Ours is a nation of equal justice under the law.

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Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

Impeachment and removal from office must be viewed as an extreme or radical step because it would undo the decision of the American people to choose a president for a full four-year term under our Constitution. The people choose their leaders in America, and we must not lightly reverse their will. To overrule the voters, the offense must be grave and the case must be very strong.

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Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

In voting to acquit the president, I do so with grave misgivings for I do not mean in any way to exonerate this man. He lied under oath; he sought to interfere with the evidence; he tried to influence the testimony of key witnesses. And while it may not be a crime, he exploited a very young, star-struck employee who he then proceeded to smear in an attempt to destroy her credibility, her reputation, her life.

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Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

Popularity is not a defense in an impeachment trial. . . . What if a president committed the same acts as those alleged in this trial but he was presiding over a weak economy, a stock market at a three-year low, 12% unemployment, 16% inflation and a nation worried about their job security and families? I wonder if this would be a straight party line vote. I just wonder.

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Phil Gramm (R-Texas)

Voted to convict on both articles:

In an impeachment process steeped in partisanship, I have tried to screen out my own strong partisan sentiments by asking a simple question: Would I vote to convict President Ronald Reagan or President George Bush if they had committed the acts that President Clinton has committed? The answer is a sad but firm yes.

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Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

If he is acquitted by this Senate, he will not as some have suggested “get off scot-free.” To stand as the only popularly elected president to be impeached will relegate him as the Hester Prynne in the pantheon of our chief executives. Senators should not allow their decision to convict this president to be influenced by the false and ludicrous notion that he will emerge from this national nightmare unscathed if we vote to acquit.

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Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah)

Voted to convict on both articles:

This great nation can tolerate a president who makes mistakes. But it cannot tolerate one who makes a mistake and then breaks the law to cover it up. Any other citizen would be prosecuted for these crimes.

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Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

Impeachment will fail. And it should. It lacks the fundamental legitimacy only a bipartisan consensus can provide.

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John McCain (R-Ariz.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

If a clear majority of the American people were to demand the conviction of the president, should I vote for his conviction even if I believed the president to be innocent of the offenses he is charged with? Of course not. Neither, then, should I let public opinion restrain me from voting to convict if I determine the president is guilty.

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Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

President Clinton . . . has brought dishonor upon himself, deeply hurt his family, and grievously diminished his reputation and standing now, and in history. But the diminishing of Bill Clinton must not lead us to diminish the presidency for his successors as our nation moves into the new millennium.

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Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

His cold, calculated actions betrayed the trust vested in him by the American people and the high office of the presidency. The president of the United States looked 270 million Americans in the eye and lied, deliberately and methodically.

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Mike DeWine (R-Ohio)

Voted to convict on both articles:

By obstructing justice and committing perjury, the president has directly, illegally and corruptly attacked a co-equal branch of government, the judiciary. The requirement to obey the law applies to all of us, in all cases.

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Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

Voted to convict on both articles:

What would we be telling Americans, and those worldwide who see in America what they can only hope for in their own countries, if the Senate of the United States were to conclude: The president lied under oath as an element of a scheme to obstruct the due process of law, but we chose to look the other way? I cannot make that choice. I cannot look away.

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Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

You and I and the American people can apply any standard we want our president to meet when we go to the polls on election day. Only the Constitution can supply the standards to use in deciding whether or not to remove the president, and, in my view, this case does not meet that standard.

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Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

If this trial was only about one man’s actions it might be easier. But this trial is about so much more: the office of the presidency, the precedent of lowering the bar on the importance of our nation’s rule of law. It’s about the oath Bill Clinton took when he was sworn in as our president, to uphold our nation’s laws. And it’s about the oath the president took when he swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before the federal grand jury.

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Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

And truly, the call to do nothing is seductive. I hear it, too. We are so comfortable, so prosperous, that it is difficult to be bothered with unpleasantness. But as the youngest member of this body, I believe we must hold firm to old truths. The material blessings of peace and prosperity are but the fruit of liberty that does not come without a price, a liberty sustained only and finally by the rule of law, and those willing to defend it.

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James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

And here we have a president who not only misused his power to seduce a college-age intern, but who has also engaged in extensive similar misconduct outside of his marriage. It is not just Monica Lewinsky. There is Gennifer Flowers, Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Dolly Kyle Browning, Beth Coulson, Susan McDougal, Cristy Zercher--the list goes on and on. This president has a consistent pattern of using and abusing women.

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Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

In the end, the people’s perception of this entire matter as being driven by political agendas all around, and the resulting lack of support for the president’s removal, tip the scales for allowing this president to serve out the remaining 22 months of his term, as he was elected to do.

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John Ashcroft (R-Mo.)

Voted to convict on both articles:

The prosecutors have done more than show that the president lied and tampered with witnesses. They have proven the elements of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. These federal crimes are not technical violations of an obscure law. They are crimes as old as the nation. They strike at the heart of the integrity of our government.

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Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.)

Voted to acquit on both articles:

Senators, do not take the imprudent risk that removing William Jefferson Clinton for low crimes will not in the end jeopardize the Constitution itself. Censure him by all means. He will be gone in less than two years. But do not let his misdeeds put in jeopardy the Constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend.