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Put the Blame Where It Belongs

By Abigail Thernstrom
Posted Monday, Dec. 14, 1998, at 3:30 PM ET

Dear Steve:

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Intrigued by your partisan balance point. The Democrats blame the Republicans in the House for the current impeachment mess, but in fact they should be turning on the President himself, who managed to lead his party to such incredible congressional losses in 1994. Of course Clinton's tenure in office wouldn't even be a question if he hadn't made the very unsmart decision to lie under oath. But, that aside, a Democratic majority would have served as a shield. Why he remains the hero of his party, when Gore would surely serve its interests better bewilders me--along with so much else.

I can't quite figure out why this has become quite the partisan matter that it has. So few Democratic defections. But the parties do seem more ideologically defined than they were in 1974. And of course new information on Nixon, which Republicans found very sobering, kept pouring out. Which suggests that members of Congress break ranks on impeachment questions when the culpable action is way over the line--as you rightly say Nixon's was. When it's arguably more debatable, partisan loyalties stick.

And then there is the matter of public opinion, and the degree to which the views of the public encouraged Republicans to do what was right and turn against their own President in '74. I can't remember when exactly American voters tilted in the impeachment direction; I remember it was very late.

One more thought on the question of public opinion: A whole bunch of articles have appeared in the last few days purporting to take the public's temperature, and they all consist of stringing together quotes from a bunch of "ordinary citizens" who say what the reporter undoubtedly wants to hear. It's the sort of journalism that drives me nuts. Will somebody please whisper into the ear of editors that this is worthless information. Polling data, folks. It's the only thing that counts when the question is what the American people think.

And I have one last point to make on the historical record question. Clinton as Jefferson. Clinton as FDR. Clinton as Eisenhower. Analogies made by academics at the edge of desperation, it seems to me.

Abby