The Conservative Revolution 319sion that they do not want to drive the president out of office just because
he’s not faithful to his wife, and they turned off all the rest of it.”
Kenneth Starr submitted his evidence of Clinton’s improper behav-
ior to Congress in thirty- six boxes of documents in September, shortly
after it had returned from recess. Starr declared that the President’s ac-
tions may indeed “constitute grounds for impeachment.” After all, he
had lied to a grand jury under oath. A good bit of this evidence was
placed on the Internet at the direction of Newt Gingrich, and, said
Bob Livingston, a Republican leader in the House of Representatives,
“I’m convinced, with the wisdom of the American people that they
sensed a degree of unfairness there. Public attitude switched from be-
ing totally against Clinton to against the Republicans.” On October 8 ,
1998 , the House adopted a resolution, 258 to 176 , instructing the Judi-
ciary Committee, chaired by Henry Hyde of Illinois, to examine the
evidence and decide whether the president had committed impeach-
able offenses “or whether it was just something personal and not a mat-
ter of national concern.”
Hearings by the thirty- seven-member committee were quite heated,
and as far as the Republicans were concerned, insisted Henry Hyde,
the charges “had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with
perjury and swearing under oath.” But the Democrats on the commit-
tee and in Congress “were successful in defining the issue as a very
personal one that lying about is not uncommon,” that sexual misbehav-
ior was not a high crime or misdemeanor. They further warned the
Republicans of a backlash. “As you judge the president of the United
States,” cautioned Representative Charles Rangel of New York, “the
voters will be judging you on November 3 rd.”
And indeed the electorate demonstrated its dis pleasure by reducing
the number of Republicans in the House by fi ve members. “Instead of
gaining seats” as they expected, said Livingston, who served as chair-
man of the Appropriations Committee, “we lost five. I was furious.
That’s because I’d worked my butt off all year to campaign and raised a
ton of money. And they were all turned into anti-Clinton ads and that’s
not what I’d raised them for. I said that I’d raised the money to spend
on pro-Republican ads. We didn’t talk about what we had done right.
We talked about what he [Clinton] had done wrong. And we blew it.”
Livingston then decided to challenge Gingrich for the speakership,