Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [526]
Gore took a deep breath: James Bennett, “Impeachment: The President—Clinton Impeached; President Digs In,” New York Times, 20 Dec. 1998; Baker, The Breach, 255.
the Hillary factor: Sally Bedell Smith, “White House Civil War,” Vanity Fair, November 2007, 296, 298, 352, excerpted from Sally Bedell Smith, For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton—The White House Years.
“Al’s intense sense”: Charles Burson, interview by author.
“He wouldn’t have done that”: Frank Hunger, interview by author.
President Clinton himself: Bill Clinton, interview by author; Bill Clinton, speech on the South Lawn of White House, 19 Dec. 1998.
A second act of courage: Gerald R. Ford, “The Path Back to Dignity,” New York Times, 4 Oct. 1998. In early October, Ford had authored this op ed for the New York Times, urging the Republican-dominated House to forgo impeachment for the good of the nation. The thirty-eighth president proposed that Bill Clinton should be required to appear in the well of the House—the same spot where Clinton usually appeared to thunderous applause as he delivered his State of the Union address—and be forced to endure “not an ovation from the people’s representatives, but a harshly worded rebuke as rendered by members of both parties.” Under Ford’s plan, Clinton would be required to “accept full responsibility for his actions.… No spinning, no semantics, no evasiveness or blaming others for his plight.” If this could be accomplished “without partisan[ship] or mean-spiritedness,” Ford argued, “[it] would be the first moment of majesty in an otherwise squalid year.”
“whether we could do something jointly”: Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, “A Time to Heal Our Nation,” New York Times, 21 Dec. 1998. President Carter, as early as September 22 at a town hall meeting in Georgia, had indicated that he had serious concerns about the House’s pressing for an impeachment, particularly because he believed that conviction in the Senate was nearly impossible and that forcing impeachment proceedings would be bad for the country (Jimmy Carter, Emory University Town Hall Meeting, Atlanta, 22 Sept. 1998, transcript of comments, Starr personal papers, Sept. 1998).
As Hyde himself: Henry J. Hyde, interview by author. It was hard to fathom that a censure measure would amount to an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers if the president himself consented to it. As Ford and Carter correctly noted in their op ed piece, history was filled with creative accommodations among the three branches of government. The Framers of the Constitution would certainly not have mandated that Congress go through a draining, divisive impeachment trial if the president himself agreed to accept a public rebuke on the floor of Congress.
Former President Ford later disclosed: Gerald R. Ford, interview by author.
Ford held strong views: Ken Gormley, “Explaining the Pardon,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1 Jan. 2007.
“He [Clinton] was very rational”: Gerald R. Ford, interview by author.
Perhaps it was Bill Clinton’s: President Clinton, in a Rose Garden speech on December 11, while steering clear of any admission of perjury or lying under oath, did make clear that he would accept “rebuke and censure” from the American people and Congress, if that was what they decided was fitting (Bill Clinton, Rose Garden Statement, Associated Press, 11 Dec. 1998).
“There was never any rancor”: Gerald R. Ford, interview by author.
Ken’s mother, Vannie Mae Starr: Lisa Sandberg, “Starr’s Mother Dies at Her Home,” San Antonio Express-News, undated, Roberta Mahan papers.
For the weary independent counsel: Ken Starr, interview by author.
“the Starr Cemetery”: Billie Jeayne (Starr) Reynolds, interview by author.
The Time piece began: Gibbs, “Men of the Year,” 76–78.
Chapter 48: Thirteen Angry Managers
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was sitting: Trent Lott, interview by author.
“mishandled in the House”: Tom Daschle, interview by author.
Quietly, the Senate had already: Robert Dove, interview by author.
President Johnson, a