Viewers Deserve the Trial--the Whole Trial--and Nothing But

Jay Leno opened his Thursday night monologue on a familiar note. “Today was the start,” he said, “of Impeachalooza ‘99!”

Or Impeachalooza ’99 lite.

That depends on how much of the impeachment trial of President Clinton--whose testimony is scheduled to begin this week--is accessible to TV viewers.

“I’d love to be a fly on the wall today,” a CNN anchor said Friday morning as all 100 members of the U.S. Senate were meeting in private to draft a format for Clinton’s trial that they vowed would untie the cords of partisanship and free them to be the true patriots that they are.

That was last week. More importantly, what about this week?

That’s when Americans should have a chance to be flies on the wall during each step of the process leading to the Senate deciding the possible sacking of a president for the first time since 1868, when Andrew Johnson escaped that political gallows by a single vote. Late-night jokes notwithstanding, this is epic for the U.S.

Surely all of the trial will be televised, right? It will be televised in its entirety, right? It most definitely will be televised from start to finish--with no recesses for off-camera debate, yes? All logic dictates that this should happen. This is a no-brainer. No smoky back rooms or sealed-off chitchat to darken further this chapter of U.S. history, especially after such a titillating buildup.

Said humorist Harry Shearer on CNN Friday: “We’ve had 11 months of the hype, we’re at least entitled to see the show.” The entire show.

You wish.

That issue remained undecided at the close of business Friday.

The trial “will be open under the rules,” Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) promised on C-SPAN last week, referring to impeachment rules dictating no secrecy during the presentation phase of the trial. That translates to TV cameras beaming it live to your homes. And not just from C-SPAN2--now in its 14th year of televising Senate legislative sessions--but potentially from everyone who’s anyone in TV news. PBS already has announced gavel-to-gavel coverage, and the all-news channels will do the same.

But how “open” can even “gavel-to-gavel coverage” be when impeachment rules require senators to deliberate secretly?

Various Senate officials have indicated that, indeed, TV cameras will be switched off and observers ejected from the chamber once the case is presented and senators begin their discussions.

What?

Puleeeeze!

C-SPAN Chairman Brian P. Lamb is equally underwhelmed by the prospect of TV and the public being excluded from this crucial step in the potential unraveling of the Clinton presidency. “Anything that happens in a taxpayer-supported government is important to see,” Lamb said by phone from Washington. “This town spends $1.7 trillion of the people’s money every year, and every bit of it, except for national security and intelligence items, should be [publicly] discussed.”

Acting on that principle, Lamb wrote Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) last month reminding him of the “openness” of each step leading to Clinton’s trial, including his grand jury testimony, the House Judiciary Committee hearings and the debate of the full House on articles of impeachment.

“The Senate should adopt the same degree of openness for its role in this matter of such great importance to every American,” he wrote. “That openness can be achieved simply by not turning off the Senate-controlled cameras as the senators turn from hearing the evidence to considering it as jurors.”

Lamb added on the phone that he wasn’t lobbying Lott, just saying of the plans to switch off cameras during deliberations: “This is the worst time to shut her down. This is when we really want to stop and listen to your reasoning, no matter how long it takes. And then when you vote, everyone will be in on the discussion to the very end. Why leave us out of this very important process?”

Yet that’s what the Senate will do if it does debate Clinton’s future behind closed doors.

Lamb has not heard back from Lott or seven other senators to whom he sent copies of the letter. One is Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who speculated on C-SPAN last week that the rules secluding the Senate during deliberations were enacted “to keep it like a jury.” However, legal experts agree the Clinton trial will differ strikingly from other trials, and that in no way will the Senate resemble or operate like conventional juries.

The Senate could allow the public to witness those deliberations by changing or suspending impeachment rules governing them, a position that Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have been advocating, reportedly without much support.

Hatch said that banning TV from deliberations also would erase a temptation for senators to “play politics” for the camera, and thus allow them to discuss Clinton’s fate in a “dispassionate way and determine what is in the best interest of the country.”

With the country excluded from seeing or hearing them do it.

To be decided is whether witnesses will be called to testify, and if so how many, who they will be and whether the rules will be changed to accommodate them. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently endorsed suspending the rules to allow the Senate to question “infamous” witnesses--read Monica Lewinsky--privately.

“I don’t think the children or the families of America should be subjected to that kind of testimony,” he said. As if anything they’d hear from her is not already available in prime time.

And besides, viewers who are offended can always turn off Lewinsky. It’s the American way. Government in secret is not.