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Decter and Podhoretz

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from: Midge Decter

Last Words on Impeachment

Posted Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999, at 1:06 PM ET

We promised each other that we wouldn't devote another one of these Breakfast Table sessions to the impeachment, but last night I saw two Senators, a Democrat, Tom Harkin, and a Republican, Arlen Specter, declaring to the TV cameras that they weren't going to vote for conviction. In neither case was this a surprise, since I expected that ultimately not even a majority, let alone the necessary two thirds, of the senators would do the right thing. However, the senators decided in advance to hold their final debate behind closed doors, so that they would feel freer to speak their minds. And what do you know? These moral giants, along with a fair number of their colleagues, couldn't wait to go public and thereby undermine the very proceeding they themselves had agreed upon.

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960
from: Midge Decter

Last Words on Impeachment

Posted Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999, at 1:06 PM ET
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Midge Decter is an essayist and social critic who publishes in a variety of magazines and appears most frequently in Commentary. Norman Podhoretz is editor at large of Commentary magazine and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. His latest book, Ex-Friends, was published this month.
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