Nixon and Clinton: Then And Now
President Clinton is the target of just the third impeachment effort in U.S. history.
The first occurred in 1868, when Andrew Johnson was accused of violating the Constitution and the Tenure of Office Act by removing the secretary of war. The Senate fell one vote short of ousting Johnson, who completed his term.
The next took place in 1974, when Richard Nixon was accused of crimes stemming from the 1972 Watergate break-in. After months of preliminary hearings, the House Judiciary Committee on July 27, 1974, voted 27-11 in favor of the first article, obstruction of justice. On July 29, it passed the second, abuse of power. The following day, it approved a third and final article, defiance of committee subpoenas.
Among those who cast the votes was Wayne Owens, a former Democratic congressman from Utah who served on the House Judiciary Committee in the Nixon era. Owens told CBS This Morning Senior Correspondent Hattie Kauffman that the charges against Mr. Nixon were entirely different from those against Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Nixon's fate was sealed when he was forced to surrender tape-recorded conversations in which he is heard ordering the CIA to obstruct and halt the FBI investigation of the break-in. He resigned Aug. 9 rather than face almost certain ouster.
"Then, we knew - and the world knew, it was obvious - that the president had directed the cover-up, that he had instructed John Dean to lie, that he told them how to lie to the grand jury and ordered him to pay off Howard Hunt,"Owens said. "He himself had been the director of the entire cover-up, the whole impeachment was worthy of the presidency. It was dramatic."
Owens characterizes President Clinton as a man guilty of personal misconduct. He said Mr. Clinton was pursuing his lower instincts and trying to cover up personal misdeeds.
The political climate of that era was far different too, Owens said.
The House vote 410-4 to go to impeachment 24 years ago," he said. "This time, it was a straight party-line vote. Most of the votes have been straight party line. I attribute that to the nature of the evidence.
"People - and I think most of the Congress - really recognize personally that Bill Clinton is guilty of personal misconduct and trying to cover up personal misdeeds and that it had nothing to do with the presidential office."
Asked what he would do if he were still sitting on the Judiciary Committee today, Owens said, "I would argue, as I expect most of the Democrats on the committee will, that this isn't an impeachable offense.
"You don't punish every crime with capital punishment. You don't punish somebody who steals a car by putting him to death."
Censure, an option that has been much discussed in Washington, would not have been appropriate in the Watergate case because of he nature of the offenses, Owens said.
But, he added, "Here, it is a real option, you have very prominent Republicans like former President Gerald Ford calling for censure. It would be a very serious punishment and it would fit the offense."