"When You Take an Oath, You Must Keep It"
"WHEN YOU TAKE AN OATH, YOU MUST KEEP IT" Last Thursday, for only the third time in the nation's history, the House of Representatives approved the beginning of a presidential impeachment inquiry....
...But we must define our nation's...
...When the president took an oath to tell the truth, he was no different at that point from any other citizen, both as a matter of morality and as a matter of legal obligation...
...I believed him to be the "Man from Hope" as he was depicted in his 1992 campaign video...
...We cannot define the president's character...
...Having deliberately provided false testimony under oath, the president, in my judgment, forfeited his right to office...
...I have voted for more than three-fourths of the president's legislative agenda—and would do so again...
...Moreover, the president has always treated me with courtesy and respect, and he has been more than responsive to the concerns of my constituents...
...I urge an affirmative vote on the resolution...
...My blunt criticism of the president has nothing to do with policy...
...Speaker: Franklin Roosevelt once said that the presidency "is preeminently a place of moral leadership...
...In the House of Representatives Thursday morning, October 8, 1998 Mr...
...Contrary to his later public statement, his answers were not "legally accurate...
...I voted for President Clinton in 1992 and 1996...
...And if, in disgust or dismay, we were to sweep aside the president's immoral and illegal conduct, what dangerous precedent would we set for the abuse of power by some future president of the United States...
...Last January 17, the president of the United States attempted to cover up a sordid and irresponsible relationship by repeated deceit—under oath—in a federal civil-rights suit...
...Paul McHale Democrat of Pennsylvania...
...I want my strong criticism of President Clinton to be placed in context...
...The president later deceived the American peo-ple—and belatedly admitted the truth only when confronted, some seven months later, by a mountain of irrefutable evidence...
...We cannot excuse that kind of misconduct because we happen to belong to the same party as the president, or agree with him on issues, or feel tragically that the removal of the president from office would be enormously painful for the United States of America...
...At issue was Bill Clinton's grotesque and illegal manipulation, in the Monica Lewinsky matter, of the English language, the Oval Office, and the executive and judicial branches of the federal government generally...
...He allowed his lawyer to make arguments to the court based on an affidavit that the president knew to be false...
...McHale, for his part, was the only House Democrat, during Thursday's two hours of debate, to offer unqualified criticism of Clinton's appalling conduct...
...they were intentionally and blatantly false...
...Because he refused to excuse the inexcusable, and because he spoke for principle and not for party, Rep...
...The question is whether or not we will say to all our citizens, including the president of the United States: When you take an oath, you must keep it...
...All 227 Republicans present in the House chamber voted in favor of this necessary inquiry, Resolution 581...
...McHale also spoke for this magazine...
...His actions were not "inappropriate...
...They were predatory, reckless, breathtakingly arrogant for a man already a defendant in a sexual-harassment suit—whether or not that suit was politically motivated...
...It was with a deep sense of sadness that I called for his resignation...
...They were joined by 31 of the House's 206 Democrats...
...Unfortunately, the president's misconduct has now made immaterial my past support or agreement with him on issues...
...By his own misconduct, the president displayed his character and defined it badly...
...What is at stake is really the rule of law...
...I am convinced that the president would otherwise have allowed his false testimony to stand in perpetuity...
...Among those 31 were the only two congressional Democrats who have so far proved honorable enough to call on the president to resign—Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Paul McHale of Pennsylvania...
Vol. 4 • October 1998 • No. 6
