“CLINTON SURVIVES… ” “AND THE WINNER IS” So appeared the headlines in the middle of February. It would have been more appropriate if they had said “THE PEOPLE SURVIVED…” and “THE CONSITUTION IS THE WINNER…” The first is easily understood, but the Constitution was a winner? Why, because of the strong constitutional brakes found therein. One commentator says, “Clinton saved by his 18th-Century defense team”. They, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Mason saw the dangers of runaway partisan fervor. The key brake was the word “high” in “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Another was to divide the impeachment duties. It made sure the Accusers were not also the judges. Between them both, the Senate could not find the case for impeachment proven. I had promised my self not to ruminate about the national scandal, but my legal curiosity got the best of me. I discovered that the present Chief justice and Presiding officer at the impeachment hearing had written a book entitled, ” Grand Inquest: The Historic Impeachments of justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson.” It was first published in 1993 and then reissued in 1999. (Not surprisingly!) After having read it, I look forward to seeing what the Chief justice has to say about these most recent proceedings. It is a well-written bit of history. I particularly liked his review of the events that lead up to both Impeachments. Some of the things I learned were: (1) the process of impeaching was borrowed from the English law but that they, some four or five years after the Founding Fathers adopted it, let their law lapse. They had used it in order to remove appointments by the King and apparently they now had the power to do so without impeachment, (2) the two-thirds vote required was to avoid a political majority removing a President because of politics only. It included the condition of “high crimes and misdemeanors or Treason” for the same reason, (3) the impeachment move against justice Chase was allegedly initiated by a suggestion from President Thomas Jefferson to a friend in the House. The midnight judges appointed by lame-duck Adams angered him. It was an example of Thomas J., the politician.
“The impeachment (Clinton’s) has been less about danger to the nation than about disgust with the President’s attitude. Failure to convict and remove him will reaffirm the limited role the Constitution gave the impeachment mechanism: to shield the nation against rogue Presidents, not punish Presidents who are rogues” (L.H. Tribe, Const. Law Prof. Harvard, written the day before the decision). So now we shall wait and see if the Chief justices pens a sequel covering the latest “Grand Inquest”.
It is now assured that Clinton will go down in History. It is something all Presidents aspire to see happen. I am sure he would like to be remembered for a million things other than as the first elected president to be impeached, but it will probably not be so.
The Lieutenant called us to the center of the dormitory that had been our home for the last twelve weeks. ‘We’ were the officer candidates in Quantico Training Center in the year 1954. He wanted to give a farewell message. The long awaited day had arrived. We would leave this building, march to the auditorium, and receive our gold bars as Second Lieutenants in the U.S.M.C. or now just the “Corps”. It had been a tough twelve weeks. The mental harassment was equal to the physical beating our bodies took. Having just prior thereto spent three years in Law School where exercise consisted of walking to and from classrooms; the physical trial alone made this a great day. But the brain washing that had me fearful of not making it topped that. My fear was always that if you failed you headed for Parris Island and boot camp as a private. All in that room had shared my fear. We may have thought the OC training was tough but we were positive the boot camp was tougher. So as we gathered before the Lieutenant, all these things were in our heads. He said he had a farewell message in the form of a story. It went like this. A Marine Colonel ran his home with three sons the same way he ran his Battalion. His boys were 12, 10, and 8 years of age. One night upon coming home his wife informed him that the kitchen window had been broken. He advised the boys that immediately after dinner he would hold
Mast. Mast is a military hearing or the first step in the Navy and Marine Corps towards a court-martial. After dinner each boy in turn enters the room where their father, the “Colonel”, sat facing them from behind a desk, they saluted and said: “Reporting as order, SIR!” They were then asked, “What do you know about the Kitchen window?” The first two (ages 12 and 10) answered the question, “Nothing SIR!” The youngest after having been asked the question said, ” I broke it SIR!” The Colonel then said, ” Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence?” The boy answered, “Yes, SIR!” “And what is that?” To which the boy replied, “How do I get out of this chicken-shit outfit?” The room burst into a roar of laughter. It was just as many of us felt on that morning. It was a good farewell message, so good it still brings a laugh when I think about it now more than forty years later.
March is the month of St. Patrick’s Day. “Patrick’s gift to the Irish was his Christianity-the first de-Romanized Christianity in human history, a Christianity without the sociopolitical baggage of the Greco-Roman world, Christianity that completely enculturated itself into the Irish scene. Through the Edict of Milan, which had legalized the new religion in 313 and made it the new emperor’s pet, Christianity had been received into Rome, not Rome into Christianity! Roman culture was little altered by the exchange, and it is arguable that Christianity lost much of its distinctiveness. But in the Patrician exchange, Ireland, lacking the power and implacable traditions of Rome, had been received into Christianity, which transformed Ireland into Something New, something never seen before-a Christian culture, where slavery and human sacrifice became unthinkable, and warfare, though impossible for humans to eradicate, diminished markedly…As these transformed warrior children of Patrick’s heart lay down the swords of battle, flung away the knives of sacrifice, and cast aside the chains of slavery, they very much remained Irishmen and Irishwomen. Indeed the survival of an Irish psychological identity is one of the marvels of the Irish story. Unlike the continental church fathers, the Irish never troubled themselves overmuch about eradicating pagan influences, which they tended to wink at and enjoy. The festivals continued to be celebrated, which is why we today can still celebrate the
Irish feasts of May Day and Hallowe’en.” (T. Cahill “How the Irish Saved Civilization”) This paragraph in Cahill’s book sticks with me and it puts to bed the old concept of a St. Patrick just driving all the snakes out Ireland. He certainly did a great deal more.
I am happy to report June has recovered from her mouth surgery. We want to thank all of you have sent notes of inquiry and offers of prayers. It worked this time she had a lot less an ordeal than the first time. She’s just happy that hopefully there will be no “next” time.
I attended a luncheon on the last Saturday in February at a restaurant in Clearwater Beach. The alumni of West Catholic Girls sponsored it and they invited the alumni of West Catholic Boys. The present president (we called him principal) of West Catholic Boys was present since he happened to be in the area, visiting friends. There were thirty-six, about a dozen of who were men, attended it. It was a quite a surprise to find my high school having regional alumni here on the West Coast of Florida. As Imogene Coca would say “Isn’t it a small world!”
We’ll bid adieu and hope to add a note to each.