Letters to the Editor Reader responds to guest column on impeachment, politics
As a student of the American Civil War I feel that I must correct Don Brunell’s guest column, “It’s time Dems, GOP work together,” published in the Nov. 7, 2019, issue of the Camas-Washougal Post-Record.
Brunell states “Before Nixon, only Andrew Jackson had been impeached and removed from office.” It was Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson, and he was not removed from office. The Senate failed to convict him by one vote — there were 35 senators for and 19 against Johnson’s removal.
As for Nixon, it is true that President Richard Nixon was advised that he would be impeached and probably be convicted, but it was not a sure thing.
Finally, regarding President Bill Clinton, while his affair (with an intern) was at the center of the news, members of Congress who I know will tell you that the “crime” was his perjury when denying the affair under oath, not the affair itself. (Editor’s note: The House of Representatives voted in December 1998 to impeach Clinton on grounds of perjury to a grand jury by a vote of 228 to 206 and for obstruction of justice by a vote of 221 to 212. Clinton was acquitted on both counts in February 1999, after Senate failed to get the two-thirds majority votes needed to convict him and remove him from office.)
Regardless of these minor points, I applaud Mr. Brunell’s goal — getting some work done. I was working at the House as a consultant, managing the Y2K program during Clinton’s impeachment process. We did other things then as well.
