Voters’ Wrath and Impeachment

* Re “Beware the Wrath,” editorial, Dec. 15: Thankfully, our history is filled with lawmakers who are “out of step with the people they claim to represent.” Leadership and principle have successfully overcome the majority’s prejudice and isolationism to maintain our freedom. Putting self-preservation as one’s highest goal, as the president will soon prove, is ultimately self-destructive.

DAVID ARMSTRONG

Santa Monica

*

I couldn’t agree more with your editorial. The danger to our republic lies not in the president’s lies but rather in elected officials ignoring their constituencies. I have been corresponding with my congressman, David Dreier, expressing my concerns over being so disenfranchised.

It’s time for all elected officials to start listening to the electorate. We put them there, and we can take them out of office. President Clinton, warts and all, was lawfully elected president and the electorate wants to keep him there.

TOM REINBERGER

Glendora

*

I am outraged at being called a small but vocal extremist by The Times simply because I don’t want a felon in the White House. I believe that when Bill Clinton launches missiles at another country, or when he sends troops to Iraq, nobody in the country is confident that his motive is the good of the country.

DAN BALDWIN

Norwalk

*

What a sad, sad day for America when the president orders military action [against Iraq] for the sole purpose of delaying the impeachment vote. Shame on you, Mr. Clinton!

TOMMY CHENG

Torrance

*

It is clear that President Clinton is guilty of the following articles of impeachment and will be duly impeached by Congress for the following egregious acts:

I. Balancing the budget sooner than expected.

II. Leading the U.S. economy to the longest peacetime expansion in history.

III. Being the most effective president of the last half-century.

IV. Not being a Republican.

Clearly these constitute a major breach of his constitutional duties and he should be removed from office. Flaunting his competence in the face of this Congress clearly cannot be tolerated further.

CARLOS E. GARCIA

Thousand Oaks

*

I believe that the president has an ongoing and total disregard for the truth. There is no way we can trust this man. He should be impeached.

LARRY BAUMANN

Mission Viejo

*

Why don’t all of us Republicans who think that the impeachment of the president for such minor “high crimes and misdemeanors” trivializes our Constitution in favor of party politics do what I have done? Recently, I changed my party registration to Democrat.

ROBERT L. BLOCK

Westchester

*

I followed the impeachment hearings closely. The minority Democratic members did everything possible to throw a life preserver over to the other side by urging them to adopt a strong censure resolution instead of impeachment. I am confident that almost all the Republicans will vote to impeach President Clinton. However, they will act contrary to the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the American people.

As a Democrat, I am quite pleased because their vote for impeachment will ensure the return of the Republican Party to minority status. In the event that they should succeed in forcing President Clinton out of office, I would like to join with them when they break out the champagne. A Democratic Congress plus 10 years of Al Gore. I just could not thank them enough!

ANDREW SCHINDLER

La Mirada

*

Some advice to the 435 members of the House of Representatives: When you vote on impeachment, vote your conscience or vote according to the will of the constituents you represent, but for goodness sake, stop the wimpy “party-line” allegiance.

JORDAN L. AUSTIN

Port Hueneme

*

What irony that those same unctuous and self-righteous members of Congress who compromise their votes (and thereby the public interest) for political contributions (and deny it over and over in the most sanctimonious terms) would now throw out a president whose crime, if any, involved an effort to avoid embarrassment over a personal transgression! A plague on all their houses!

FRED VENDIG

Los Angeles

*

If the Republican zealots dare to disenfranchise the American people by removing our duly elected president, just wait for the march on Washington. It’ll make the Million Man March seem like a neighborhood block party.

JULES BRENNER

Hollywood

*

Aren’t we witnessing in these impeachment hearings cultural, not political, hostilities: the rigid righteous of the ‘50s venting their anger at the triumph of the creative rebels of the ‘60s?

DOLO BROOKING

Santa Monica

*

I am as saddened by the spectacle being made of the institution of the American presidency as anyone, but one nice feature has come out of this mess. I enjoy seeing pictures of the president without his usual, “Well, Ah fooled ‘em again” smirk.

WALT SHULTZ

Tujunga

*

I read that undecided Republicans wanted an admission of guilt from Clinton. Since he didn’t admit in his statement that he lied, they will vote for impeachment.

What are we to make of this? Is it now an impeachable offense to apologize incorrectly? His offenses are considered by Republicans to be “high crimes and misdemeanors,” so grave that they warrant his removal from office. Yet, if he would just say the right thing now, they would let him off.

NANCY BARTH

Beverly Hills

*

No on impeachment; no on censure; no on a fine; no on a legal and political farce.

T.J. SKUJA

Los Angeles

*

No wonder Hollywood favors Clinton. He’s such a great actor.

BEA FORBES

Palos Verdes Estates

*

Forget the president--how am I supposed to explain the Republicans to my kids?

JOHN J. FLYNN

Culver City

*

Let’s see: President Clinton is involved in a highly risky trip to the Middle East with a plan designed to ensure Arabs and Jews move closer to peace. The Republicans are involved with a highly risky Tripp in a plan designed to divide the middle--east and west--and ensure there is no peace anywhere. Am I even getting close here?

TONY MOTZENBACKER

Los Angeles

*

“Punditry: Hit-and-Miss Blood Sport” (Dec. 16) repeats a story from the Washington Post that I had failed to respond to a student asking for an appointment, while I did return the call of a student posing as a television producer. The story, however, is a hoax. The individual involved in the story is not, and has never been, a student of mine. More importantly, the individual never left a message or asked for an appointment. All messages to my office are recorded and logged. This does not mean, of course, that I am without sin. This just does not happen to be one of them.

JONATHAN TURLEY

Shapiro Professor of Public

Interest Law

George Washington University

Law School, Washington

FO