When it came to whether or not Clinton should be impeached it didn’t matter how you contacted The Congressman, it came through us, and it was all weighted the same.
Factual, well-researched letters made the same impact as crazy, profanity-laden tirades sent on fast food paper napkins.
Do you believe politicians read those letters? Nope. But their interns do.
For weeks, Peter and I would add up those yea and nays and update Archie. Presumably, he passed along the numbers to The Congressman, but I get the feeling if he did, it didn’t matter. There was more going on behind the scenes that we couldn’t even imagine.
I later read that then-House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, threatened to remove The Congressman as chair of the International Relations committee if he didn’t vote the Republican Party line for impeachment.
According to the account, The Congressman was close to tears as DeLay threatened him. I don’t think that quoting constituent poll numbers would have helped.
It was sick fun reading the irrational musings of the constituents. The impeachment war was probably the one time that such letters weren’t immediately thrown out as irrelevant smut.
People had unyielding feelings about what “it” constitutes.
People had unyielding feelings about what was cheating.
People had unyielding feelings that if the President wasn’t punished for lying under oath, all of the other people currently being prosecuted or formerly convicted for perjury should be freed.
People had unyielding feelings that this was a waste of government time and taxpayer money.
People had unyielding feelings.
It was black and white. No fifty shades of grey here.
On September 9th, we watched on the communal office TV as Starr’s 445-page report and eighteen boxes of “impeachable offenses” supporting evidence were delivered to the House of Representatives.
But the public had two wait two more days.
Then, after months of speculation and anticipation, the Starr Report was released to the public online during the late afternoon of Friday, September 11th: a date that should have lived on in infamy for no other reason than because of the report’s publication.