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

unable to move, the casualty of accumulated tension and, as it turned out, footwear.

One of the White House physicians who examined me called in a physical therapist from the Navy. After the Navy therapist examined me, he asked, “Ma’am, have you been wearing high heels a lot lately?”

“Yes.”

“Ma’am,” he said, “you shouldn’t wear high heels again.”

“Never?”

“Well, yes, never.” He looked at me curiously, and asked, “With all due respect, ma’am, why would you want to?”

It was both comforting and odd to spend the holidays doing the same things we always did, despite the specter of an impending Senate trial hovering in the room like an uninvited and unwanted guest. I received hundreds of letters of support. Among the most thoughtful was a message from Lady Bird Johnson, who had been following events from her home in Texas:

Dear Hillary,

You made my day! When I saw you with the President on television with you by his side (was it the South Lawn?), reminding us of the country’s progress in many areas such as education and health and how far we have yet to go, I sent a prayer your way. Then I learned that you went to Capitol Hill to speak to Democrats and rally their support.

It made me feel good, and I think that is a gauge for what a great many of our nation’s citizens think.

Cheers to you and Admiration,

Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird’s words of experience and kindness warmed my heart. It was reassuring that someone who understood the pressures I was under recognized why I was so determined to support my husband.

Once again we spent New Year’s Eve at the annual Renaissance Weekend at Hilton Head, South Carolina. So many friends and colleagues went out of their way to encourage us and to thank Bill for his leadership as President. The most moving tribute came from retired Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., former Chief of Naval Operations during the Vietnam War. Admiral Zumwalt gave a short speech addressed to Chelsea titled “If These Were My Last Words.” He wanted her never to lose sight of her father’s accomplishments, even as the events in Congress threatened to overshadow them.

“Your father, my commander in chief,” he said, “will be remembered as the President: Who reversed fifteen years of decline in our military strength, thus ensuring the continuing viability of our armed forces… who stopped the killings in Haiti, Bosnia, Ireland and Kosovo…. who moved the peace process forward in the Middle East… who initiated debate and action to improve social security, our education systems and health care coverage….”

Admiral Zumwalt also told Chelsea that her mother would be remembered “for opening the eyes of the world” to the rights of women and children and for my efforts to improve their lives, as well as for my support of my family in crisis. His words were an invaluable gift to Chelsea-and to me.

Sadly, those were the last words Chelsea would hear from Admiral Zumwalt, who died a year later. He will be remembered by his country as one of the great patriots and humanitarians of his generation, and by me and my family as a true and steadfast friend.

The Senate trial began on January 7, 1999, soon after the 106th Congress was sworn in.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist arrived in the Senate Chamber dressed for the occasion.

Instead of the usual plain black judicial robes, he wore an outfit he had designed, down to the chevrons of gold braid on its sleeves. In response to questions from the press, he said he got the idea from the costumes in a production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera Iolanthe.

How fitting that he should wear a theatrical costume to preside over a political farce.

I studiously avoided watching the trial on television, in part because I viewed the entire process as a colossal miscarriage of the Constitution and partly because there was nothing I could do to affect the out come. Bill’s case was in the hands of a superb legal team―the White House lawyers, who included Counsel Chuck Ruff, Deputy Counsel Cheryl Mills, Lanny Breuer, Bruce Lindsey and Greg Craig, who had left a top job at the State Department to join the White House staff, and his personal lawyers, David Kendall and his partner, Nicole Seligman.

I had met with the legal team to offer suggestions about strategy and presentation, but there wasn’t much I could contribute other than my support. Because the vote to impeach in the House was considered similar to an indictment, Republican members of the House were sent to the Senate as managers or “prosecutors.” They were supposed to present “evidence” of the impeachable offenses while Bill’s lawyers would defend him. No live witnesses were introduced. Instead, the House managers relied on grand jury testimony and depositions they conducted of Sid Blumenthal, Vernon Jordan and Monica Lewinsky.

Sid Blumenthal has written a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his experience during the impeachment in his book, The Clinton Wars.

The Constitution requires that two-thirds of the Senate vote to convict the President before he can be removed from office. It hadn’t yet happened in American history, and I did not expect it would happen now. No one involved seriously thought that sixty-seven Senators would vote to convict, so perhaps the House managers saw no reason to conduct even the semblance of a professional prosecution. There were few rules governing procedures or the evidence presented in the managers’ case. As a result, the proceedings bore little resemblance to a real trial―it was more like a group tirade denouncing my husband.

Throughout the five weeks of the spectacle, the President’s lawyers made a presentation on the law and the facts that I believe historians and legal scholars will turn to when trying to understand this regrettable moment in American history. In a stirring argument, Cheryl decisively repudiated the House managers’ position that acquitting the President would not only undermine the rule of law but also the nation’s civil rights laws. Mills, an African American, proclaimed: “I’m not worried about civil rights,