THEN AND NOW

With a top Republican indicted last month, pundits and politicians who spouted off about the Clinton impeachment have been voicing fresh takes on perjury accusations.

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Commentator Christopher Hitchens

Then: “He’s prepared to employ and exploit his Cabinet, the Pentagon, the U.S. Office of the United Nations, the entire White House staff on what is not public business.... I think he should be cuffed and taken downtown.”

-- discussing President Clinton on “Meet the Press,” Nov. 29, 1998

Now: “One must be forgiven for wondering what any of this gigantic fuss can possibly be about.”

-- in the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 31

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Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)

Then: “The standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray.”

-- at a Feb. 5, 1999, news conference

Now: “I certainly hope that, if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality.”

-- on “Meet the Press,” Oct. 23

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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Then: “The nation is being ill-served by this political water torture that’s taking place in a highly calculated, highly partisan way.”

-- on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 20, 1998

Now: “Today’s indictment of the vice president’s top aide and the continuing investigation of

Karl Rove are evidence of White House corruption

at the very highest levels, far from

the ‘honor and dignity’ the president pledged to restore to Washington just five years ago.”

in the New York Times, Oct. 29

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-- STEPHEN W. STROMBERG