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Jewish World Review /Feb. 8, 1999 /22 Shevat, 5759
Don Feder
Dems' triumph over Constitution complete
(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) WE KNEW ALMOST FROM THE OUTSET that Bill Clinton has no moral compass. What
we didn't know was just how far his party would go to protect him from the
consequences of his criminal conduct.
Whatever the future holds in store for the Democrats, this will stand to
their everlasting shame.
Can this be the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, of gutsy
Harry Truman (who took the heat and knew exactly where the buck stopped), of
Hubert Humphrey, who defied public opinion of his day by calling for equal
rights for all Americans on the floor of the Democratic National Convention
in 1948?
Is this the party of country lawyer Sam Ervin, tenacious in his defense of
the Constitution against another president who thought himself above the
law?
Last week, a solitary Democratic senator (Russell Feingold, a maverick from
Wisconsin) voted with the solid Republican majority against dismissal and in
favor of calling a short list of witnesses.
The best that the party has to offer stood by their felon. Connecticut Sen.
Joe Lieberman, he of the pious pronouncements on the president's disgraceful
conduct, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (once dubbed the conscience of the Senate)
and West Virginia's Robert Byrd -- that fair-weather friend of the
Constitution -- all voted to dismiss the case. Adding to his dishonor, Byrd
offered the resolution.
But, mark this well, not a single Republican defected. Liberals like Sen.
Susan Collins (Maine), John Chaffee (R.I.) and James Jeffords (Vt.), who
rarely side with their party's majority on any issue, cast their lot with
Jesse Helms and John Ashcroft.
Even if they're out of sync with the Republican philosophy, GOP moderates
know what's at stake here: the integrity of our system of government.
This refutes the latest White House spin -- that by pushing the case
against Clinton, congressional Republicans are kowtowing to their party's
right-wing base.
When was the last time Olympia Snowe took her marching orders from Gary
Bauer? John Warner will not have the Christian Coalition's support even if
he single-handedly persuade 12 of his Democratic colleagues to vote to
convict. Unlike their counterpart, the Republican Party from left to right
is standing on principle.
At every stage of the process, Democrats have been a rigged jury, so
stubbornly biased as to make the 12 who acquitted O.J. Simpson seem
impartial by comparison.
In 1974, all but four House Republicans voted in favor of a "resolution of
inquiry" into Watergate. In 1998, only 31 House Democrats approved a
similarly open-ended inquiry of Clinton's criminal misconduct by the
Judiciary Committee.
Democrats on the committee, from Barney Frank to Maxine Waters, played the
obstructionist game to the hilt, then voted solidly against reporting
articles of impeachment to the full House.
Following a debate in which they carried on like temperamental tots
(actually whining because the majority would not allow a vote on a
resolution of censure, as meaningless as it was unconstitutional), with the
exception of five brave souls, Democratic representatives voted against the
articles of impeachment, then scurried to the White House to applaud Vice
President Al Gore when he called the perjurer in chief one of our "greatest
presidents."
After taking an oath from the chief justice of the Supreme Court to fairly
consider the evidence and reach an impartial verdict, Democratic senators
immediately betrayed their opposition to conducting a real trial.
Two days of abbreviated presentations followed by a vote on adjournment was
their preferred scenario. A trial with witnesses was beyond their
comprehension.
It took the Democrats decades to arrive here, to reach the point where they
would gleefully shred the Constitution to save their president.
This is no longer the Jeffersonian party of limited government, but the
party of $1.77 trillion federal budgets and the highest level of taxation in
our history.
In place of Jackson's fierce defense of American independence, the party
now clamors to cede ever more of our sovereignty to world government and
condones the treasonous transfer of military technology to China.
Its defense of quotas and other race-based privileges would astound the
late Minnesota senator.
Democrats are willing to ignore perjury, to wink at obstruction of justice,
to tolerate the nation's chief law-enforcement officer actively working to
subvert our legal system.
Having dealt representative government a thousand blows in this century,
the Democrats' triumph over the Constitution is now complete.
2/03/99: Blood of victims will drown out breakfast prayers
2/01/99: Without a home the heart knows no rest
1/29/99: Poster boy for term-limits
1/27/99: The 'so-what' defense in the City of Saints
1/25/99: Whose choice?
1/21/99: Censure worse than nothing
1/18/99: Words can`t dignify a dishonored presidency
1/13/99: Conservatism "with a heart" is conservatism without a head
1/11/99: If he isn't removed, watch out for Bill!
1/07/99: We can learn a lot from Teddy
1/05/99: Monica and a call to modesty
12/30/98: Will Bubba get away with it again?
12/28/98: Zionist dream alive and well on West Bank
12/18/98: Impeach or abandon the Rule of Law
12/16/98: Clinton moves Middle East closer to war
12/14/98: Why we lost interest in the homeless
12/10/98: No place at table for conservatives
12/07/98: The day America lost its innocence
12/02/98: Pilgrims Pilloried in streets of Plymouth
11/30/98: Caribbean dogpatch not a good candidate for statehood
11/25/98: Will Vermont force gay marriage on the nation?
11/23/98: The ACLU wants your kids to get a love life
11/18/98: Why liberals hate tobacco and guns more than drugs and crime
11/16/98: "Pleasantville" a countercultural morality play
11/13/98: Ads are a tough sell for abortion
11/09/98: Why gutless Republicans lost
11/06/98: Historians against the Constitution
11/02/98: Loving response to a hateful conference
10/28/98: Professor Death will fit right in at Princeton
10/26/98: Plymouth caves to Pilgrim foes
10/21/98: On '98 election, keep a critical eye on polls
10/19/98: Clinton could yet be 'prosperity president'
10/16/98: Working families -- Dems love 'em (stuffed)
10/09/98: Majoring in 'weirdness'
10/07/98: Friends of Billy Clinton
9/29/98: Letter from ex-soldier highlights defense peril
9/28/98: Answering arguments against impeachment
9/18/98: The nation that doesn't exist
9/14/98: Bubba isn't the only one who should be ashamed
9/11/98: Resolution of Clinton crisis will define national character
9/09/98: We're still just wild about Harry
9/07/98: Mexican banditry didn't end with Pancho Villa
9/02/98: Clinton forgives us!
8/31/98: Ashcroft's plain talking touches responsive chord
8/26/98: Public opinion be damned
8/24/98: Why liberals condone Clinton's lies
8/20/98: Time to move on -- to impeachment
8/12/98: With Bubba in the sexual privacy zone
8/10/98: The truth won't set Clinton free
8/06/98: Truth about Hiroshima is incontrovertible
8/04/98: Clinton not the first hollow president
7/30/98: "Small Soldiers" -- a fractured Vietnam allegory
7/27/98: Crime wave hits hometown
7/22/98: Love in an Internet fishbowl
7/20/98: Ads bring ex-gay movement out of closet
7/15/98: Brian and Amy -- the children of Roe
7/13/98: Why are we scared of obnoxious 'activists?'
7/6/98: Fonda still resists reality
7/1/98: New York blesses domestic partnerships
6/29/98: Teddy and Calvin stood for virtue
6/24/98: Will Clinton betray Taiwan?
6/22/98: Big tobacco? What about big casinos?
6/15/98: Religion -- God for what ails you
6/10/98: Planning Clinton's China itinery
6/8/98: Republicans' Custer offers advice
6/4/98: Oh, Dems Christian-bashers!
6/2/98: Goldwater did conservatives more harm than good
5/27/98: A Clinton-hater confesses
5/15/98: Giuliani's assault on marriage
5/13/98: Hillary knows what's best for everyone
5/11/98: To honor her would not be honorable
5/6/98: Conservative chasm: pragmatism vs. worship of marketplace
5/4/98: Anglo-saxon me
4/29/98:
Needle exchange programs are assisted-suicide
4/27/98: Chretien's mission of mercy to Fidel
4/22/98: School-choice is a religious freedom issue
4/20/98: Corporate execs deliver body parts to Beijing
4/14/98: National sales tax --- looks better all the time
4/13/98: The U.N. sinister? Hey, where did that idea come from?
4/8/98: Unions fight workers rights in 226 campaign
3/30/98: Africa's leaders should apologize
3/25/98: GOP shouldn't look to media for advice
3/22/98: You should care about Clinton's 'private life'
3/19/98: Color-coded reading, product of obsessive minds
3/16/98: Amendment will end exile of G-d from our public lives
3/9/98: Havana will break your heart
3/2/98: Vouchers Terrify Teachers' Union
2/25/98: Presidential politics starts at a resort hotel
2/23/98: Hillary's support comes at a price
2/18/98: How many times must we say "no" to gay rights?
2/16/98: Enoch Powell spoke the truth on immigration
2/11/98: Bubba behaving badly
2/9/98: A conservative dissent on the flag-burning amendment
2/5/98: We get the leaders we deserve
2/2/98: Send a signal that could penetrate boardroom doors
1/27/98: State of the president: hollow rhetoric
1/25/98: For Monica's playmate, we have no one to blame but ourselves
1/22/98: At Yale, bet on yarmulke over gown
1/19/98: Commission tackles America's fastest-growing addiction, gambling
1/15/98: Capital punishment and the hard case: no exceptions for Karla Faye Tucker
1/12/98: Partial-birth abortion and the GOP's future: the "big tent" meets truth in advertising
1/8/98: IOLTA: the Left's latest scam to crawl into our pockets
1/5/98: Connect the dots to create a terrorist state
1/1/98: The Unacceptables of 1997: Long may they rave
12/28/97: Hypocrisy is a liberal survival mechanism
12/23/97: Chanukah is no laughing matter
12/22/97: No merry Christmas for persecuted Christians around the world
12/18/97: Bosnia, Haiti, and how not to conduct a foreign policy