Impeaching Clinton: Partisan Strife on Capitol Hill

by Rae, Nicol C.; Campbell, Colton C.

• ISBN13: 9780700612826
• ISBN10: 0700612823
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas

Summary

Why did congressional Republicans obsessively pursue the impeachment of President Bill Clinton when the 1998 midterm elections and public opinion polls suggested that the majority of Americans opposed it? Some claimed indignation over perjury, others outrage over immorality. But as Nicol Rae and Colton Campbell show, the driving force behind the impeachment was nothingless than the intensifying partisanship of American politics. "Impeaching Clinton offers a fascinating case study of how the American political system operated during the 1990s and of the critical factors underpinning the political process. It particularly examines the congressional aspect of the drama to show that the Lewinsky affair was simply a trigger--that the context for impeachment had been set over the course of two decades of partisan warfare. Drawing on new interviews with six of the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee in 1998, Rae and Campbell reexamine why the House Republicans acted in defiance of electoral rationality on the impeachment issue, demonstrating that they took t

Author Biography

Nicol C. Rae is professor of political science at Florida International University Colton C. Campbell is associate professor of political science at Florida International University

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Preface	xi
1. A Rancorous Partisan Atmosphere	1	(22)
2. Congressional Guillotine	23	(32)
3. Ignoring Electoral Outcomes: Republican Members of the House Judiciary Committee	55	(20)
4. Standing by Their Man: Democratic Members of the House Judiciary Committee	75	(22)
5. House Floor Debate	97	(25)
6. Herding Cats to Trial	122	(29)
7. Conclusion: Lessons Learned	151	(8)
Appendixes	159	(22)
Methodology	159	(1)
Congressional Time Line: Impeachment and Trial	160	(1)
President Clinton's Response to Questions by Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-III.)	161	(13)
Articles I, II, III, and IV	174	(3)
Senate Vote on Article I: Perjury	177	(2)
Senate Vote on Article II: Obstruction of Justice	179	(1)
Quantifying the Impeachment Proceedings	180	(1)
Notes	181	(28)
Bibliography	209	(16)
Index	225