Interview: Views on Clinton’s Impeachment
The impeachment of Bill Clinton is one of the “weirdest episodes'; in our political history. He is the only elected President of the United States ever to be resulted in the passage of impeachment (Johnson was not elected, Nixon resigned to prevent impeachment). The reason for his impeachment is that he lied under the oath during the testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit, and to grand jury during Monica Lewinsky investigation. He even abused power and lied to the Congress in an attempt to cover up a series of indiscretions, which resulted in the passage of four articles of impeachment. These incidents later turned out to be a political soap opera and ended with Clinton’s presidency preserved, but it is a soap opera that many believed it could be prevent from happening.
Clinton’s impeachment made headlines news across the nation ever since it was revealed to the public. Unfortunately, many people still have a long way to know what went on behind the close door of the impeachment. The majority do not have an idea if the Congress is making the right move or not to impeach our President. Hence, many do not realize how the impeachment might affect our nation politically. To answer this, I conducted an interview with my high school physics instructor, Mr. Arnold Burkert. I interviewed him as a person who strongly dislikes the notion of Clinton’s impeachment. My goal of this interview was to write a paper about the impeachment by using public opinion and attitude toward one of the “weirdest episodes'; in our political history. As a supplement to this interview and to write this paper, news magazine articles related to this assignment were also used as in a supporting role.
The first remark my instructor made in this interview was that the Congress had made a bad judgement to pass the impeachment. He reasoned that Clinton managed a healthy economy and gained strong approval in the national polls. He believes Clinton’s offenses were personal and minor. Although his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky was reckless behavior, the Constitution doesn’t have anything that says one should be impeached for reckless conduct. The Constitution can only impeach President Clinton if he commits treason, bribery, high crimes, and misdemeanors. Therefore, he believed Clinton’s impropriety is not related to the Congress or even us, the people, which means his faulty action is not impeachable according to the rules of the Constitution.
The “Whitewater” scandal was a real estate scheme by the White Water Development Corp. Both President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton were involved in the scandal to make a land deal. Many people were involved in the scheme, which was held in the 1980s in Arkansas. Bill Clinton and his wife maintained their funds by the support of the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, which represented the Clintons in the overthrow of their Whitewater shares. The Clintons were being investigated when there were improper campaign contributions, political and financial favors, and tax benefits.
After the Watergate Scandal in 1972, the House Judiciary Committee needed to decide whether or not to start the process of impeaching President Nixon. As a new member of the committee, it was Barbara Jordan’s job to convince everyone else to vote for the impeachment of Nixon. In Jordan’s speech, pathos is effectively used to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Nixon. Through the use of rhetorical questions, repetition, first person pronouns, and dramatic imagery Jordan impacts her audience’s opinion on the impeachment of Nixon.
Before Clinton was elected President he had an encounter with Paula Jones in a hotel room. After Clinton took office Paula Jones then sued Clinton for sexual harassment. A short time later Monica Lewinsky began her intern at the White House. Clinton and Lewinsky began a sexual relationship. Judge Kenneth Starr was the investigator of Whitewater. President Clinton denied any sexual relations with Lewinsky. On October 8, 1998, the House would vote to have an impeachment and won. Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction to justice. Bill Clinton would end up not getting kicked out of office by senate.
On the turntable of American politics Dick Morris has established himself as a masterful disk jockey. However, his ability to artistically mix campaign messages has earned him a scratched personal reputation. The rhetoric of Dick Morris transcends partisan boundaries to such a degree that it lacks foundation. His career has earned him praise but at the expense of intense scorn. His political strategy and poll based campaigning have earned him a reputation as both a genius and amoral. In many ways the controversial aspects of his messages reflect contemporary discussion of American politics. The flaws of his character reveal some of the flaws in our representative system. The recent Impeachment Trial of President Clinton has also brought attention to flaws in our representative system. Dick Morris's political commentary on the Impeachment and the work of his career offers insight with which to examine a growing discontent among the American public towards our nation's politics.
The recent scandal in the White House has brought my attention to the American Presidents as people and Presidents. Looking into the American history and her presidents I have found out that presidents are not just political figures but that they are also people. In my research I will compare and contrast two of the American presidents - Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon was in one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever seen. The Watergate Scandal is now well known throughout history today. This issue led to Nixon resigning only 2 years in his 2nd term. Did President Nixon make the right decisions? Can anyone really trust the government after a situation like this? Some Historians believe that this changed the course of history, and that we can never truly trust the government again. While others believe that Nixon didn’t make the right decisions; however, this should not change the way the people look at our government. The government and the people need to keep a strong trust.
Impeachment is the ultiomate punishment for a president. It is a long and complicated rout to removing a public official from office. The Constitutional process Article II, section 4 specifies the procedures to be used to remove a public official from office(CNN/All Politics). The constitution states that and president found guilty for bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. There has been a long debate on what should be considered a high crime. Different people in the House share different views. Ultimately it is up to the Hose to decide to drop the charges or further the investigation. If the public official is found guilty a two thirds majority vote from the Senate is necessary. The most recent president to face an impeachment hearing was Bill Clinton. A previous case involving Richard Nixon, Watergate, was held in 1974. Rather than facing an embarrassment with impeachment Nixon chose to resign in disgrace.
On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.
Kenneth Burke suggested rhetoric could be analyzed using five elements, act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. Two of these five elements stand out from the rest as most crucial to the speaker’s rhetoric during the impeachment crisis (Nichols 1963). Agency and purpose were the most important facets of James Carville’s rhetoric. Carville’s purpose was to rally support for President Clinton while advancing his carrier and benefiting financially. The agencies he used to accomplish his purpose were several concise complaints against Independent Councilor, Kennith Starr, his aggressive rhetorical assault against Starr, Carville’s image, and the media which Carville used to bring his message to the American public.
Out of all of the current presidents in our time the most interesting president to explore was President Richard Nixon and out of all of them he was the only one in term to resign. That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment to be executed to the fullest extent of their nature. His poor choices and decisions led to his resignation. Although he did have some good qualities in helping the U.S. the bad however override the good. In the CRS (Congressional Research Service) It states: “ Obstruction of justice is the impediment of governmental activities. There are a host of federal criminal laws that prohibit obstructions of justice. The six most general outlaw obstruction of judicial proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1503), witness tampering (18 U.S.C. 1512), witness retaliation (18 U.S.C. 1513), obstruction of Congressional or administrative proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505), conspiracy to defraud The United States (18 U.S.C. 371), and contempt (a creature of statute, rule and common law). Simple perjury in a federal investigation or judicial proceedings carries an extensive fine and up to 5 years in prison.” This was the first article president Richard M. Nixon was charged with by the House of Judiciary Committee. The vote was 27 to 1 for Nixon to be charged with the first article of impeachment, which was Obstruction of Justice. In denial of his liability in part taking in the Watergate scandal by saying he wasn't involved in the scandal He pointed finger at others that were involved in the break-in. However, tapes were found of conversations that proved his involvement and he was going to be impeached. Before he was charged, he made a resignat...
One man’s bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one man’s vote he would have been forced out.
In conclusion, President Clinton’s apologia was a successful speech considering its overall effectiveness on the general public. The speech repaired his image and turned the public sentiment tilted more strongly toward his side by emphasizing that he mislead people only because of his embarrassment and his desire to protect his family. While there are still weaknesses in the speech, the public opinion polls conducted later suggested that the majority of Americans were fairly satisfied with his debate, and again proving that his apologia speech accomplished his aim and purpose.
Linda Tripp, due to her key role in the Impeachment Scandal has become one of the most controversial figures in current politics. Is she a villain or is she a hero? Looking at Tripp’s actions before, during, and after the Impeachment Scandal the question arises; were these actions legitimate or were they improper? An important factor in answering this question is the audience’s reaction to Tripp’s behavior along with an analyzation and critique of her actions.
Only three times in the 226 year history of the office of the President of the United States has the idea of impeachment reared its head. Only twice has a president been impeached, and only one president has been driven out of office due to possible high crimes and misdemeanors. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton both were impeached by the House of Representatives, and faced trial in the Senate. Both presidents were acquitted of their supposed transgressions, and were allowed to remain in office. Richard Nixon, despite never experiencing impeachment, vacated his office due to increasing pressure to resign and spare the Senate from going through the process due to his obvious guilt. Nixon was actually in violation of his duties as President, but Clinton and Johnson were impeached by political rivals. Nixon’s actions were considered in such grave violation of the Constitution, that he did not keep his office, whereas Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton stayed.
Lately, the top story in the news day after day, months after months have been about William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill. Who could blame them, there is nothing better than a story out of the ordinary, especially one with presidential status. For the past months he has been the most talked about figure, being the essential topic for news, talk shows, late night comedy and even going as far as the big screen. Talk about 'Primary Colors' and 'Wag the Dog.' What has gotten to me the most however, were the constant flow of Republicans, along with a few Democrats, who just want to say how shocked and embarrassed they are along with the people of the United States.The president had not just become the most talked about figure, but also one history had ever seen, so far that is, breaking the record and becoming a topic of conversation and debate 'twenty-four seven.' The people, who I think were most affected by this crisis and feel very sad for, are the Republicans, since they had lost severe amount of sleep over the president's bedroom crisis. They had to perform their republican duties by shocking our brains with the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. We had to ignore the rest of the world news and its issues while they plough through the valley of lies, abuse of power and something they called high crimes and misdemeanors.