Tom Charles Huston Quotes

Under public pressure resulting from Harkin and other legislators’ complaints, Ashcroft was forced to appoint a special prosecutor and withdraw from the case. The special prosecutor verified that the leak had come from the administration and prosecuted the Vice President’s Chief of Staff for lying before a grand jury and covering up the scandal.

Harry Hopkins was the special assistant to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt through the two great American crises, the Great Depression and World War II. Although he was a social worker with not a shred of political experience, Hopkins was originally selected by the President to operate the national relief program in the midst of the Great Depression. Soon he had spent more money than any human being in history without a taint of scandal. He had never been elected nor was he even ratified by the Senate. He also paid virtually no attention to members of Congress as he became the most successful manager in American Government history. Soon he became FDR’s most important aid. Then he and his wife actually moved into the White House and lived there with the Roosevelts and was a favorite of not only FDR but Eleanor Roosevelt as well. When WWII began the leading military and diplomatic leaders advised the President not to provide military aid to England or Russia believing that these countries could not hold out and the weapons would fall into German hands and be used against American soldiers. Roosevelt sent Hopkins to Europe to assess the military situation despite the fact that he had never had a single day of military experience. When his war advice contradicted that of the leading generals and admirals, many people were scandalized, especially when FDR took Hopkin’s advice above that of the generals and diplomats. Massive assistance was sent to those countries and indeed both were able to hold out just as Hopkins had predicted. No one in American politics before or since had that much influence or power. Most historians see that particular phenomenon as a unique combination of two extraordinary men at an extraordinary time and virtually impossible to replicate.

In England, the King was above the law. However, impeachment was a tool that could be used against his favorite ministers. In debating the United State Constitution one of the first questions to be determined was whether impeachment could be a tool used against the President or like, England, only the other government officials. Franklin urged the President be included. See also Mason: {584246}.

This quotation has much more meaning that similar statements of dozens of other people who claimed Bush should be impeached. The reason is that Fine was a strong conservative wanting to impeach a conservative President and he was the person who drafted the articles of impeachment against President William Clinton which passed the House but Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. So Fine was generally seen as a partisan for Republican Conservatives like Bush and a man who acted strongly against Clinton, and yet he observed in this quotation that Bush’s crimes were more serious. See {583797} for a concurring view on impeachment of Bush.

Weyrich and many other extreme religious conservatives are often loose with legal and political facts. Actually President Clinton was impeached by the Republican Controlled House of Representatives, but was acquitted by the Senate which decided that he was not guilty of what his political enemies had accused him of or those things were not of sufficient import to warrant impeachment. What Weyrich probably meant was that if there had been a moral majority in America, Clinton would have been convicted and removed from office. Ironically, the Republican Speaker of the House which impeached Clinton had been Newt Gingrich, who abandoned his first wife and was having an affair with a staff member. Livingston who was then elected speaker of the House also was committing adultery as were many in the group who found Clinton morally wanting for his sexual activity with am intern and his attempted coverup. They too, tried to cover up their scandalous behavior.

The debate was about the unlimited pardon power of the President. Madison argued that the check was the impeachment power. However, Presidents had tended to make large numbers of pardons just before they leave office so the impeachment power works only as a check for the beginning and middle part of their term.

Jefferson and many others thought the original drafting of the Constitution was deficient in not explicitly protecting rights from the government. See {586024}. When it came time for ratification, it was clear that ratification would not take place unless that was remedied and the Bill of Rights made the ratification possible by satisfying many critics of whom Jefferson was but one. Note that the protection sought was from the President and the Congress.