Impeaching Clinton: Partisan Strife on Capitol Hill

Impeaching Clinton offers a case study of how the American political system operated during the 1990s and of the criminal factors underpinning the political process. In particular, it examines the congressional aspect of the drama to show that the Lewinksy affair was simply a trigger - that the context for impeachment had been set over the course of two decades of partisan warfare. Drawing on interviews with six of the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee in 1998, Rae and Campbell re-examine why the House Republicans acted in defiance of electoral rationality on the impeachment issue. The authors unravel the web of partisan politics to reveal how the pattern of events was determined, from the decision to open an impeachment inquiry to the eventual acquittal of the president. The book also considers the Judiciary Committee from the perspective of the Democratic minority, who helped shape media coverage and public opinion and the eventual Senate outcome. They show how the Senate was able to bring closure to this highly polarizing proceeding. The Clinton impeachment was the most extreme manifestation of partisan warfare in our time. This book aims to expand our understanding, not only of a particular constitutional crisis, but also of a dynamic that still prevails in congressional politics.