In a message dated 6/14/01 8:03:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
<< That's cute and all, but would you like to volunteer to describe the
partisan advantage had by the Republicans in pursuing impeachment? What
was the goal? >>
OK, this ought to be fun.
The GOP knew it could not get the votes to convict, so the point that
removing Clinton only harms the Republicans in 2000 by putting Gore in office
is moot. It wasn't going to happen in any case.
The impeachment rallied the GOP faithful and brought in great wads of cash
from very rich people with a very strong hatred of Bill Clinton. People like
Richard Mellon Scaife, who financed entire private "Get Clinton" operations.
It enabled GOP congressmen to go back to their districts and brag to their
right-wing base that they'd done their best to get that scoundrel out of the
White House. For some, that didn't work out so well, but that's due more to a
miscalculation by GOP strategists than to any self-sacrificing nobility on
their part.
It weakened the Democratic Administration for the next two years. Never a bad
thing if you're the opposition party.
It cast a shadow on Al Gore's 2000 campaign. It also forced Gore to either
embrace Clinton and risk backlash from a scandal-weary public, or shut
Clinton away and deny himself the talents of one of the best campaigners in
recent history. Either way, a win-win situation for the GOP in 2000.
Last but not least, it put a blot on the legacy of Bill Clinton, a man whom
many GOP leaders and supporters hate with a passion surpassing all rational
thought.
Patrick Sweeney
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
