1999 Truth per Hutchinson, McCain, Lugar, and more - 2006?

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Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:44:15 -0500

1999 Truth per Hutchinson, McCain, Lugar, and more - 2006?

 

 

 

 

Truth per Hutchinson, McCain, Lugar, and more

By zestygrapher | bio

 

http://www.tpmcafe.com/user/11430/recent

 

What is truth? In January of 1999, several United States Senators

outdid themselves in calling for `truth' `honesty' and `integrity in

the oval office. Anything less would confuse our children and destroy

our society.

 

Here is my second diary from researching the Congressional Records, I

have pointed out statements that are so powerful they still

reverberate today. As with my first diary, I did not take their

statements out of context, or play with quotes to change their meaning.

 

Although the words were spoken about another President in another time

undoubtedly, these fine leaders hold the same standards for truth,

justice, and honesty today. Just in case they have forgotten, feel

free to pass this on to friends, politicians, political groups and

anyone else you know that might want to help remind them now.

 

Senator Kay Hutchinson

 

The President of the United States engaged in a pattern of

conduct, performed acts of willful deception, and told and

disseminated massive falsehoods, including lies told directly to the

American people…, therefore, vote ``Guilty'' on Article II of the

Articles of Impeachment of the President in this proceeding.

 

 

 

SENATOR MCCAIN

 

Whether the President, who swore an oath to faithfully execute his

office and deliberately subverted--for whatever purpose--the rule of law.

 

Ordinary citizens don't enforce the laws for the rest of us.

Ordinary citizens don't have the world's mightiest armed forces at

their command.

 

Ordinary citizens do not usually have the opportunity to be

figures of historical importance.

In my former profession, those who violated their sworn oath were

punished severely and considered outcasts from our society. I do not

hold the President to the same standard that I hold military officers

to. I hold him to a higher standard.

 

Presidents are not ordinary citizens. They are extraordinary,

in that they are vested with so much more authority and power than the

rest of us. We have a right; indeed, we have an obligation, to hold

them strictly accountable to the rule of law….

 

Just as the President is self-evidently the nation's chief law

enforcement officer…It is self-evident to us all, I hope, that we

cannot overlook, dismiss or diminish the obstruction of justice by the

very person we charge with taking care that the laws are faithfully

executed. It is self-evident to me.

 

 

SENATOR LUGAR

 

In times of war or national emergency it is often

necessary for the President to call upon the nation to make great

economic and personal sacrifices. In these occasions, our President

had best be trustworthy--a truth teller whose life of principled

leadership and integrity we can count upon.

 

Of particular concern are the implications of the

President's behavior for our national security. The President of the

United States is the most powerful person in the world because we are

the strongest country economically and militarily, and in the appeal

of our idealism for liberty and freedom of conscience.

 

Our President must be strong because a President

personifies the rule of law that he is sworn to uphold and protect. We

must believe him and trust him if we are to follow him. His influence

on domestic and foreign policies comes from that trust, which a

lifetime of words, deeds, and achievements has built.

 

Some commentators have suggested that with the President

having less than two years left in his term of office, the easiest

approach is to let the clock expire while hoping that he is

sufficiently careful, if not contrite, to avoid reckless and

indefensible conduct. But as Senators, we know that the dangers of the

world constantly threaten us. Rarely do two years pass without the

need for strong Presidential leadership and the exercise of

substantial moral authority from the White House.

 

 

MR ABRAHAM

 

The President's role and status in our system of

government are unique. The Constitution vests the executive power in

the President, and in the President alone. That means he is the

officer chiefly charged with carrying out our laws. Therefore, far

more than any federal judge, he holds the scales of justice in his own

hands.

 

In the wrong hands, that power can easily be transformed

from the power to carry out the laws, into the power to bend them to

one's own ends.

 

The very nature of the Presidency guarantees that its

occupant will face daily temptations to twist the laws for personal

gain, for party benefit or for the advantage of friends. To combat

these temptations, the Constitution spells out--in no uncertain

terms--that the President shall ``take care that the laws be

faithfully executed,'' and the President's oath of office requires him

to swear that he will do so.

 

MR. DOMENICI

 

Truthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the

Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in

New Mexico. Many of you in this chamber have joined me in declaring

the annual

 

<i>``Character Counts Weeks.''</i> This program teaches

grade school youngsters throughout America about six pillars of good

character. Public and private schools in every corner of my state

teach children that character counts; character makes a difference;

indeed, character makes all the difference.

 

Guess which one of these pillars comes first? Trustworthiness.

 

Trustworthiness.

 

So what do I say to the children in my state when they

ask, ``Didn't the President lie? Doesn't that mean he isn't

trustworthy? Then, Senator, why didn't the Senate punish him?''

 

 

 

MR. BUNNING

There is one central, elemental ingredient that is

necessary to the

 

success of our ability, as a nation, to govern ourselves.

That is

 

<strong>trust.</ strong>

 

Before a President takes office, he swears a solemn oath,

to <i>``preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United

States.''</i>

 

We accept his word on that.

 

When the Vice President, United States Senators and

members of the House of Representatives take office, they are required

to take an oath <i>``to support and defend the Constitution of the

United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.''</i>

 

We trust that they will live up to that oath.

 

We administer these oaths and we accept them as binding

because government, at least in this nation, is, above all else, a

matter of trust. Trust is the glue that holds it all together. If that

trust is destroyed or tarnished, it seriously undermines the basic

foundations of our government.

 

When he lied and when he tried to hide his lies… He broke

faith with the American people…he also violated the sacred trust of

the office of the President. And in so doing, he violated his oath of

office.

 

Senator Gorton:

 

If we say that some perjuries, some obstructions of

justice, some clear and conscious violations of a formal oath are free

from our sanction, the Republic and its institutions will be weakened.

One exception or excuse will lead to another, the right of the most

powerful of our leaders to act outside the law--or in violation of the

law--will be established.

 

Our republican institutions will be seriously undermined.

They have been undermined already, and the damage accrues to all

equally-- Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives. Quotes

were taken from the Government Printing Office Records of the Senate

Trial in January, 1999.</p><p> Volume 145, pages 2380-2571</p><p> <a

 

This was regarding the House Resolution 614, asking the

Senate to impeach President Clinton.</p><p> </p><p>Posted at my blog: