GOP Badly Split On Impeachment
Republicans are split over where to go now with the impeach-Bill-Clinton business. Badly split. Simply put, they don't know what to do with the whole issue.
Some Democrats, most especially Democratic members of the House of Representatives, are in somewhat the same quandary. But it is the Republicans who control both houses of Congress, it is the Republicans who began the long, involved and costly effort to investigate the Clintons, their friends, and friends of their friends, it is the Republicans who chose Ken Starr as special prosecutor, and, in the end it is Republicans who will decide what, if any, punishment the president is to have for lying to cover up sexual encounters outside of his marriage.
Many Republicans in the House still want the President impeached. They want a trial in the Senate, and, if possible, a conviction that would remove Bill Clinton from office.
Whether there are enough Republicans who still feel strongly enough about that to make it happen, we may be about to find out.
The new Republican Speaker of the House, Louisiana's Bob Livingston, now says he wants an up or down House vote, if there is to be one, before the end of the year.
That means they'll have to hurry. If hurry is the word for a process that, overall, has dragged on for well over four years.
This is a critical time, another critical time, for the Clinton presidency. Things are looking relatively good for Bill Clinton's chances just now. But, relatively is the key word, and things could change dramatically at any time.
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