320 a short history of the united states
but Gingrich, knowing he was sure to lose (there had been a previous
failed effort to unseat him as Speaker) resigned both his seat and as
Speaker. The Republicans then chose Livingston as Speaker- designate.
The irony is that both Gingrich and Livingston were involved in adul-
terous affairs themselves, as they later admitted.
At the urging of the leadership, the Judiciary Committee agreed on
December 11 – 12 that Clinton had in fact “committed perjury and ob-
structed justice.” Furthermore, the committee declared that “it would
be a dereliction of duty if we didn’t proceed... with impeachment
with a view towards removing him from office.” The vote was 21 to 16
for impeachment, but the committee members realized that a success-
ful prosecution of their charges would be a long shot at best, since re-
moval by the Senate required a two-thirds vote.
The committee presented its report to the full House of Representa-
tives, and for thirteen and a half hours over two days, December 18
and 19 , the members heatedly debated the merits of the fi ndings. The
Democrats insisted that censure was the appropriate action to take, but
on a procedural vote that suggestion was defeated. Then, it was re-
vealed that the Speaker- designate, Bob Livingston, had also commit-
ted adultery, whereupon he announced his resignation. In his place the
Deputy Whip, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, was elected Speaker by the
full House on January 6 , 1999 , thanks in large part to the efforts of the
Republican Whip, Tom DeLay of Texas.
The House then proceeded to vote on the impeachment issue, but
the outcome was predictable, given the size of the Republican majority.
The vote was 228 to 206 on the perjury charge and 221 to 212 on the
obstruction of justice charge. A thirteen-member committee, chaired
by Henry Hyde, was approved to serve as managers of the impeach-
ment trial in the Senate. To their surprise and dismay, these members
found the Senate unsympathetic to their efforts. We were “the prover-
bial skunk at the garden party,” declared Hyde. “Nobody wanted us.
The senators wanted to get it over with in a hurry and following the
polls and finding that this impeachment was not the most pop ular
move in the world,” they wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
“There was nobody really enthusiastic for what we were doing, includ-
ing our own [Senate Republican] leadership.”
The trial in the Senate began on January 7 , 1999 , with Chief Justice