Impeachment Ceremony

As I watched the Jan. 7 solemn march of Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and his wrecking crew into the Senate chambers, I felt an irresistible urge to giggle. When each senator walked off with his/her souvenir pen, I was dumbfounded. The impeachment hearings have become a cruel joke the Congress is playing on the citizens of the United States.

At the end of each phase of this debacle, I keep expecting Rod Serling to appear, advising us that we have just had an experience in the twilight zone. My greatest fear is that the Senate will be overcome by the same single-minded, partisan hatred that poisoned the House and that this craziness will continue into the year 2000. Enough!

PENELOPE HELENICK ADDY

Sherman Oaks

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Why are senators allowing Hyde to con them into hosting a peep show?

JUDITH F. STANTON

Dana Point

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Watching a 96-year-old with a bad hair-dye job [Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.] posing around a blinking clown [Chief Justice William Rehnquist] in a lord high executioner costume (that he designed himself!) purporting to watch a nonpartisan removal of a twice-elected president in its initial stages, what a clown show.

Is it any wonder that a majority of the American people despise the Congress and laugh at the press? Or that the entire civilized world is appalled at the same time as it laughs at this formerly great country? Any way to impeach the Congress before 2000?

RICHARD MILES

Los Angeles

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It’s about sex, stupid!

Everyone inside the beltway and the press as well need a serious reality check. In this world, most people will lie about sex, especially extramarital sex. If every American who lied about sex lost his/her job, the majority would be collecting unemployment. The only difference between President Clinton and the average citizen is the fact that we don’t have a government prosecutor with an unlimited budget peering into our personal lives. That’s why polls have consistently rejected impeachment.

Any politician who says he never lied is a liar.

HARVEY NAPUCK

Redondo Beach

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So now the battle is joined in the Senate. The forces of evil versus the forces of good. Moral relativism versus moral absolutism. Pragmatism versus principle. Cunning versus conscience.

There is no middle ground. Votes based on polls and election fears instead of truth will be duly recorded. History will force us to remember. She will not be kind.

CHARLES HAIGH

Redondo Beach

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Your Jan. 8 editorial (“Shamefully Clueless”) sagely describes the “muddle” attending the Senate’s opening of the impeachment trial, but why is the reason for this embarrassing impasse not articulated by you? It appears obvious to us that the Clinton haters insist on calling witnesses who will further humiliate the president in spite of their knowledge that a guilty verdict is out of reach.

Those senators caving in to the Christian right on this issue are not enhancing their reputations as jurors or as intelligent representatives of the voting public.

CECIL MEALEY

Sun City

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Paul Conrad’s Jan. 8 cartoon regarding Monica Lewinsky, “Who wouldn’t believe those lips . . . those lies,” is the best argument yet for why witnesses need to be questioned at the impeachment trial. When the trial is over, the left is planning to assert that none of the allegations were proven or true, and the obfuscation campaign has already started. I guess the DNA is a lie too, right?

I have doubts about forcing Clinton from office, but I don’t want his guilt to be erased or diminished by Conrad or anyone else who sacrifices truth for political expediency.

NOELLE DONFELD

Pacific Palisades

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After seeing the spectacle on the Senate floor, I have come to the conclusion that resignation is the only way to spare our country the horrors of this ordeal. Now is the time for the honorable thing to be done. The 55 Senate Republicans need to resign.

ROB SHIPE

Los Osos