Living History by Unknown (the lemonade war series txt) 📗

be strong and not give in to bitterness and anger in the face of pain and injustice. His message dovetailed with the support I was receiving from my prayer group, especially Holly Leachman and Susan Baker, who came to visit and pray with me, Secret Service agent Brian Stafford, then head of the President’s Protective Division, and Mike McCurry, the President’s press secretary through the hardest days. Each went out of his way to check in on me and see how I was faring under the pressure. Democratic members of Congress called to ask what I wanted them to do. One Congressman said, “Hillary, if you were my sister, I’d punch Bill Clinton right in the nose!” I assured him that I appreciated his concern, but I really didn’t need that kind of help. Some Republicans confided that they disagreed with their party’s decision to pursue impeachment.

On October 7, a delegation of freshmen House members came to see me in the White House. Once again, we met in the Yellow Oval Room as sunlight streamed through the windows. They were worried that the Republicans would force an impeachment vote before the midterm election. I gave the best pep talk I could. “We can’t let them hound the President out of office,” I said. “Not like this. You’re members of Congress. Your job is to protect the Constitution and do what’s right for the country. So let’s walk through this.” Then drawing on my experience twentyfive years earlier, I explained what the Constitution said about impeachment, how the framers envisioned the impeachment power would be used and how it had been interpreted in the more than two hundred years since. As we closed the meeting, I also assured the members that if it came down to a vote, both the President and I wanted them to heed their consciences and their constituents; we would understand, whatever they decided.

The consensus among Democrats and the few remaining moderate Republicans on the Hill was that censure―a vote of reprimand―would be the most appropriate response to Bill’s behavior. But powerful Re publicans were adamantly opposed to the compromise.

Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, derided the notion of censure as “impeachment lite.” Hyde was particularly intransigent. He blamed the White House for a September 16 piece in Salon, an Internet magazine, that reported that he had carried on a lengthy love affair during the 1960s, while he was married to his late wife. Hyde called his infidelity, which took place when he was in his forties, a “youthful indiscretion.”

He was outraged and indignant that the media had exposed such a personal transgression, and Republicans called for an investigation of the magazine. Despite my many political and ideological differences with Hyde, I was sympathetic to his distress, although mystified that he didn’t see the double standard in his reaction.

I spent the fall crisscrossing the country on a campaign marathon. I urged people to vote as if their lives depended on it. I concentrated on areas where the races were tight and my own popularity high. As I had six years earlier, I campaigned hard for Barbara Boxer, who was defending her Senate seat against a strong challenger in California, and for Patty Murray, the effective “mom in tennis shoes” Senator from Washington. I also tried to help Senator Carol Mosley Braun in Illinois. Before the end, I made stops in Ohio, Nevada and back in Arkansas on behalf of a dynamic young Senate candidate, Blanche Lincoln. “We have to send a very clear signal to the Republican leadership in Congress that Americans care about the real issues,” I told a crowd in Janesville, Wisconsin.

“They care about education, health care and Social Security. And they want a Congress that cares about what they care about.”

I poured my heart into Representative Charles Schumer’s campaign to defeat New York Senator AI D’Amato. An intelligent and doggedly progressive Democrat, Chuck Schumer was one of Bill’s most steadfast supporters. D’Amato had chaired the Whitewater hearings in the Senate, where he had paraded blameless White House secretaries, ushers and a babysitter in front of the committee, finding nothing but saddling them with legal bills. D’Amato was vulnerable to Schumer’s vigorous challenge.

I was in New York attending a fundraiser for Schumer when I realized my right foot was so swollen that I could barely put my shoe on. When I got back to the White House, I called Dr. Connie Mariano, who, after a cursory look at my foot, whisked me off to Bethesda Naval Hospital to determine if I had developed a blood clot from my nonstop flying around the country. Sure enough, I had a big clot behind my right knee that required immediate treatment. Dr. Mariano told me to stay in bed taking blood thinners for at least a week. Although I wanted to take care of myself, I was determined not to cancel any of my campaign stops. So we compromised. She sent along a nurse to administer the medicine I needed and to monitor my condition.

As voting day approached, the GOP launched a massive ad campaign that focused on the scandal. The scheme was unsuccessful. Voters seemed to be more disgusted with Republican political tactics than with the President’s personal life. I believe we would have picked up additional seats if more Democrats had called the Republicans on their fervor for impeachment. But going against Washington’s conventional wisdom was too big a gamble for most candidates to take. The pundits were still predicting a Republican surge.

On Election Day, the exit polls started coming in, and Bill was in an upbeat mood. He sat with staff members in John Podesta’s West Wing office, monitoring the results. John, a smart, no-nonsense political adviser, who had served in Bill’s first Administration as Staff Secretary, recently had returned as chief of staff after Erskine Bowies ended his tenure. An aide had shown Bill how to follow the returns on the Internet, and he sat at John’s computer eagerly surfing political websites.