Our House

[H2O Man]

9. I'll start with

your last question. It's actually a very interesting topic.

It has to be viewed in several overlapping ways. The republican Senators generally got over it fairly quickly. They viewed Nixon as a toxic ball & chain on the party. As new Senators began taking office in the Reagan era, they were happy that the Democrats didn't go the impeachment route with the Gipper, even though they knew the Gipster had committed impeachable acts.

The House republicans were a different story. Even many who would have voted to impeach Nixon had a large, boulder-sized chip on their shoulders that carried on. Many of the newer ones from the Reagan-Bush era were intent upon getting "revenge" as soon as they saw any opportunity. And, as we saw, that carried through to Clinton. That's not to suggest Clinton didn't mess up -- he did. But it was not the type of thing the impeachment process was intended to address. Indeed, while it was technically about lying under oath, it was evident that they were really upset that Bill got a BJ from a young lady.