At exactly 9:01 Ray La Hood took the Speaker's chair and called for the blessing. Rev Jim Ford, the house chaplain, gave the prayer -- making certain it did not excuse the President's actions in any way.

One of our editors' own Congressmen, Rep Pallone of New Jersey, led the pledge of alligence - ..."with liberty and justice for all" -- unless you are the President he must have thought to himself.

Everyone put on a sober face.

Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) rose to raise a privileged motion. The motion is on impeachment and she asks to cast a vote on the matter -- because the delegate from the District is not usually allowed to vote, as she does not represent a state. That would add one more vote against impeachment for Mr. Clinton. Her plea is based on protecting the voters of DC who voted en masse for Clinton.

She does have the legal right to ask to vote here. "The decision to expel a President is as important as the decision to elect the president," she says. (DC voters are allowed to vote for president and vice-president.)

LaHood, of course, denies her the vote, starting the impeachment debate off on a note of injusctice.

David Bonior rose making a motion to adjourn -- the motion failed.

During the vote, a variety of Congressman came out to talk to press incluing Rep Tom Lantos of California who likened the Congress to Hitler's and Stalin's parliaments.

After the vote denying Bonior's motion, House Resolution 611, "The GOP Coup-d'Etat Lynching Motion" (otherwise known as "Impeachment Resolution") was read by the clerk.

Paul Hayes, the House Clerk -- who bears an uncanny resemblance in both appearance and voice to wrestling announcer "Mean" Gene Okerlund -- read the articles of impeachment -- "willfully corrupting the justice system of the United States" because he lied under oath in the Jones extortion case; willfully corrupted and manipulated the judicial system by lying under oath in his answers to interrogaties in the Paula Jones case, lying under oath in the Paula Jones extortion case and his corrput efforts to manuputate Lewinksky's testimony; and by such conduct deserves trial and removal from office; in violation of his constitutional oath and in violation of his constitutional duty has corrupted and impeded justice and cooked up a scheme to cover up matters in a Federal Civil Rights action [the Paula Jones extortion plot case] he corrupted a witness -- Lewinsky -- to file a perjurious statement, he corrupted Betty Currie in the same way, and engaged in a scheme to conceal evidence (the gifts), then participated in a effort to get a job for Lewinsky in order to make her give false testimony -- giving a false affidavit to a judge, That he related a false and misleading account to a potential witness in that grand jury proceeding (some of his aides) and these false statements were repeated to the grand jury, In all of this Mr. Clinton has betrayed his trust as President to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Paul Hays, the clerk, could hardly keep from laughing as he read the lynch mob charges. He went on reading the fourth article in that as President, the President refused to respond to Adulterer Hyde's 81 questions -- which of course is wrong, because he did -- and the GOP also claims that he filed perjurious statements in his answers to the 81 questions and exhibiited contempt for the inquiry.

Ha, ha, ha -- yes -- as do about 200 million other Americans.

The reading sealed the fate of the Republican party. Guilty.

Interesting that La Hood is the acting Speaker. Neither child-support stealer Newt Gingirch nor Adulterer Livingston had the nerve to preside over this witch trial.

Adulterous Hyde gets up and talks about the four hours he has to talk about this pap. He then proposes new rules giving ten minutes to each side in proponent and opponent speeches. Basically he gives each member 30 seconds!

Hyde groans on and excuses himself for producing no fact witnesses. He claims "we have the facts, and we have them under oath."

Of course that is not true. What they have is "he said, she said" hearsay.

In the final analysis, he said, this is "a vote on the rule of law, for the alternative is the rule of power."

Wasn't that rich? There was Hyde standing there -- unconcerned with the rule of law at all -- but excercising his sheer power achieved by luck, and as a lying adulterer rises up and accuses a fellow adulterer.

What a society.

You are an adulterer, Mr. Hyde.

You lied over and over again about it.

You lied to your wife, you lied to your children.

You threatened to beat up the husband of your lover when he tried to break into the apartment you provided as you love nest.

You lied to the voters of your District over and over again as you sought and sought again a high office while all the time you were engaged in sin -- and serving not as a role model for children in your district, but a role model for teenaged hoodlums who think women are there to use, abuse and then cast aside -- as did you for your political benefit.

Your wife, now dead earlier than she might be save for your lies and your adulterous condcut now rolls in her grave at your hypocrisy.

Resign, you hypocrite. Resign now.

Hyde, so fat and filled with satanic intent, breathed heavy as he spoke. He was killing himself, straining his evil heart as he went on an on about the history of this nation -- a history he now flaunts in disgrace. He looks to Arlington Cemetary and says "Let us not betray those men... let's not betray our children's hope..." There is a mountian of details, he said, that read like a novel. It really happened. Read the report. It really happened. This is not a vindictive camapign. We are trying to make our founding father proud [to have stood for slavery and against universal suffrage]. "Catch the falling flag as we keep our appointment with history."

Uproarious -- what a lying hypocrite he is.

The GOPers gave him a short and embarrassed ovation for his puffing efforts.

Richard Gephardt took the floor.

Can we trust this man who wants the presidency for himself? Let's see.

He said this vote is taking place on the wrong day and we are doing it in thewrong way. He is disappoitned by the majority in the timing. Well, what about the materiality of their charges? "When our young soldiers, men and women, are in harms way, we should not be considering about removing our commander in chief."

Oh Brother -- what a lame speech.

While he rose with a good question, he failed to take the initiative and attack the hypocrisy of Hyde and his henchmen.

But then he got to it: "Let us stop the slash and burn politics of Republicans he generalizes."

In all, he was, as expected, a dud. Too little, too late. We wonder what he really wants the outcome to be?

Asa-Boy Hutchinson, accused of felonies himself in his home district of Arkansas, rose next to lynch the President. He speaks about perjury. "The facts are the a Federal Civil Rights suit [The Jones Extortion Suit] was filed and the Presidetn lied under oath and Starr began his hunt for something -- anything. Remember, there was a uniform warning to the Presdient "Do not lie under oath." Asa calls out the names of Alan Dershowitz and Dick Morris! as "friends" of the President who warned him. Asa spoke at about 100 MPH and could hardly be understood. He gives the Title 18 law on perjury -- but he quotes the law on criminal cases, not on of impeachment proceedings which are not criminal cases. He says, yes, it is impeachable -- then quotes another adulterer, Alexander Hamilton, to back himself up. It was a riot. The president moved beyond the private arena when he lied, he said. Paula Jones had a right to pursue blackmail he implies. If the president lied under oath in a federal civil rights case against a "fellow Arkansan" -- Paula [The Extortionist] Jones.

David Bonior was next. His points: the men and women of America's armed forces are engaged in battle and risking their lives for us. Bonior's Republican colleagues are obsessed with a different target: the President of the United States. They are trying to force him from office, he said. What kind of signal does this send to our troops and the world? To force an impeachment vote is to completely ignore the will of the American people. He is doing the job they elected him to do. It is a grave mistake to rush into impeachment. Why can't we just pause for a minute and come to our senses. The American people are looking for another solution -- condmenation perhaps but not impeachment. A solution that brings us together, not divides us.This is wrong, unfair and unjust. Let us vote on censure.

Applause. Boring.

Rep. Frost (D-TX) was up next. The republicans have denied the House the opportunity to vote on censure, he said -- even though President Ford and Senator Dole have urged censure.

Well, of course -- they are not Neo-Nazis.

Frost talked about sending the ultimate mixed message to Saddam.

Then Rep. Bob Menendez fired into the fairness of the process, saying that Clinton "is the President, not your personal enemy." He pushed censure vigorously. "you will reap the bitter harvest of the partisan seeds you sow today... Let he who is without sin in this chamber cast the first stone!"

Menendez was forceful and vehement.

Then Barney Frank began -- accusing the chamber of "selective moralizing" and lighting into the GOP for their double standard regarding both Caspar Weinberger and lame duck Speaker Gingrich. He told the GOP that they were ignoring the will of the people -- censure -- and degrading and lowering the bar on impeachment using partisan power.

Chet Edwards did not have the same fire in the belly as Frank -- he did fire at Barr, saying "this process raised the question 'Who is a real American?'" Edwards was too polite when he enumerated the unfairness of the HJC hearing process -- and stumbled as he was gavelled.

Frank yielded two minutes to the eloquent Rosa DeLauro. "For me, this is no longer about the President's actions... We might have given voice to our views in a censure resolution." But the people have been deprived this, she said. She brought up Ben Franklin's famous impeachment as an alternative to assassination, then called the current process a political assassination. She was restraining her obvious anger over the situation.

Sensenbrenner yielded for five minutes of lunacy from Gekas -- but not before he brought up the ridiculous point that the hearings over Nixon happened during the Vietnam War. Gekas called Clinton's facing written interrogatories (which he called "in-dur-ogutories") from the Jones lawyers "the moment of truth." He decided to spend most of his time accusing Clinton of committing perjury to the in-dur-ogutories "countless times."

"I want to honor the Constitution today," began Ed Bryant, as he called on the President to resign, as he went on to support Article 2. "On numerous occasions, the President lied under oath." It was obvious that the GOP were reading from talking points written by the Department of Redundancy department.

Rick Boucher (D-VA) spoke about misuse of the impeachment processs -- and predicted "there will be a polarization" in politics and the public and "a lowering of the standards of imnpeachment" along with financial turmoil.

And Ike Skelton echoed Bonior, comments, saying it was a discredit to our men and women in uniform to impeach the President -- then fired into the lack of standards in the current deliberations and the misuse of the word "other" in "other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) said "We are at a crossroads of participatory democracy and personal partisan destruction.... The spirit of history is upon us." In spite of the President's personal failings, said Lewis, the people want Clinton to be President -- but some even in the chamber did not accept Clinton as President. "Some have been too quick to pick up the hammer of impeachment," he added -- a shot at Tom "The Hammer" DeLay! He invoked the spirit of forgiveness.

As C-SPAN continued covering the hearings, CNN cut in with a tape of Hillary Clinton saying that most Americans support and respect the President, and during this holiday season Americans ought to practice reconciliation and come together.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bobby Scott was calling accusations of perjury "immaterial minutia" and firing a broadside at the HJC for not allowing material witnesses for the President to be heard.

Conyers said he was "witnessing... a republican coup d'etat in prosecc... we are using the most powerful tool at our disposal, impeachment, in a highly partisan manner... [the current process] downgrades impeachment to a partisan tool." He expressed his anger at the impeachment process during battle abroad, calling it a threat to security.

This was one of the most forceful and powerful statements the too-soft-spoken Conyers has yet given on the current crisis.

Sensenbrenner yielded the balance of time to Barr (R-Planet Remulac) -- who said that the rule of law was under fire, saying that "the right to walk into a courtroom and right a wrong" was under attack!! It was hilarious -- he even invoked the words of John Kennedy. "This is the fundamental right that William Jefferson Clinton tried to deny an American Citizen" [who looks to have committed perjury five times in her sworn complaint]. "I know this as a former US Attorney" [one who knows a few things about operating fast and loose with the law]. He laid out his case for "obstruction and pattern for obstruction," falling back on the weak case of a "pattern." barr has spent way too much time with the Sratt report -- he must actually believe it! He called article three alone a "three-legged stool."

As the gavel fell, he was paged back to Planet Remulac. The more you listen to the guy rant, the more he does sound like Beldar Conehead!

Hick Rep. Sam Johnson said about our figghting forces abroad, "Y'know, they're fighting to uphold the Constitution." Well, gee, that must include protecting it from a fraudulent lawsuit used in a seditious manner.

Hyde brought up Johnson's seven years in a POW camp in Vietnam -- and naturally got a round of inappropriate applause.

We applaud Johnson for his service. we deplore his shallowness at not seeing how DeLay and Hyde are using him -- as their patriot meat puppet.

Senator-Elect Schumer had his say, repeating much of what he has been saying since September -- the president's conduct and concealment were deplorable. "On my last day in the House, I have to ask myself 'What has brought us to this?'" It goes deeper than conservative hate of Clinton -- "We are now routinely using scandals to fight ideological battles we cannot win at the ballot box." The tactic of using scandal to dishonor elected politicians is wrong -- as happened to Republican John Tower. "The ledger today is pretty even.... History will show that we have lowered the bar on impeachment... so cavalierly [that] when Republicans win the White House, Democrats will demand payback." He was cut off as he raised the comparison of the escalating cycle of revenge written of thousands of years ago in Aeschylus.

This was the most thoughtful commentary of the day.

Duke Cunningham talked about how hard it would be to bring up impeachment resolutions if Iraq invaded Kuwait -- or because of Christmas. America wants this resolved, he said, and this is why they want it done. Cunningham got emotional about his own military service, saying "our military men are fighting and dying."

The problem for Cunningham is that our military personnel have not suffered one fatal attack by Iraq so far.

Nadler was recognozed next. Nadler, like King, is an uptempo motormouth -- and skewered the argument that perjury is as impeachable as bribery. "You mayy have the votes, you may have the muscle, but you do not have the support of the voters. This coup d'etat... will live in infamy."

Lindsey Graham (R-Peyton Place) addressed Article 4 -- or more accurately "dressed" Article 4 to look as if it rose to the level of Watergate wrongs. he found Clinton guilty without benefit of trial of sexual harassment in the trumped-up Jones case in his tirade, then accused the President of "planting stories" on others -- a follow-up to his yet-unsupported rant during the hearings that the White house had been "badmouthing" Monica Lewinsky as a "stalker."

He will surely live to eat his words, look the fool, and see his "rise" in the GOP reverse immediately.

His argument that Nixon "took away power" from Congress and that Clinton did the same -- by not providing information to Congress -- was stupid. He said something about "leaving your common sense at the door" -- something he did before today's debate.

Hey Lindsey -- ever heard of "separation of powers?" It didn;t apply for Nixon. It did for Clinton. You lose.

Rep. Tom Barrett spoke with force. The ability to vote conscience "is being strangled... by partisan politics... It is hypocricy not to allow [members] to vote their conscience" and vote for censure.

Charles Canady rose to say that it was unfair to compare the Speaker with Clinton "The committee did not find the Speaker guilty of making false statements." Of course, the committee was made up of Gingrich cronies.

Steve Boo Yer said that if the President were to accept censure, he would be violating the Constitution -- it was hysterical!

We'd like to see where in the Constitution such a situation is not allowed. he talked about a "bill of attainder" -- biut the fact is such a censure would not constitute "attainder" if the President consents to it.

Rep. Steny Heuer (D-MD) is an old-fashioned rhetorician -- and gave a fiery case that America will withstand the failings of one man -- the President -- but the abusive use of impeachment does threaten the President.

We missed James Rogan (R-CA), but caught some of Meehan's comments, including his recounting of an historian's characterizing the Johnson impeachment as a bad decision guided by passion -- as the currebt impeachment was guided by partisan passion. "Will censure now be derided as unconstitutional?" That would muzzle the House. he ended with the words "I fear for America today."

He's not the only one.

Bill Hefner, completing 24 years in the House, gave one of the most personal speeches of the debate. he talked about the gravity of the decision, and his own two conversations with the President. He went to the media to talk about his conversations -- but was rebuffed. They are too busy running the "finger-wagging' or "hugging" clips. Have they ever repeatedly run his "I have sinned... I have asked forgiveness of my family..." clips that way?

Bravo, Bill. it's about time someone said it besides us!

Hefner ended by slamming the GOP for blocking the censure alternative.

Hyde called a procedural motion for debate until 10 PM this evening, followed by one hour tomorrow, then a vote to recommit. he was trying to look so fair, underlinginng the words "to be controlled by one proponent and one opponent."

Of what -- his own tawdry affair that broke up a family?

sensenbrenner began his argument that censure was unconstitutional -- using as his evidence a book by Jimmy Breslin, "How the Good Guys Won."

We know Breslin is a highly respected constitutional scholar... not.

Sensenbrenner made his rambling, unfocused and damning mremarks, ending with "I rise to support impeachment, yadda, yadda, yadda."

Another snore.

Shiela Jackson Lee laid out a coherent, point-by-point argument against impeachment -- that the allegations of perjury don't hold water, and that any fellow congressperson in the same situation as the President would not be punished. She urged the President not to resign -- we are not a Parliamentary government -- and her fellow congresspeople to vote for censure.

LaHood broke in (this was the third time) to urge those in attendance to maintain silence and decorum.

Tom Bliley (R-VA) rose to argue "Is this that different than Watergate?" After hearing his lame-o comparisons, we'd have to say "No way."

"To say this is just about sex is to say Watergate was about a third-rate burglary" -- a truly stupid comment. This impeachment coup is about an attempt to set up the President with a phony "civil rights' suit. Watergate was about high crimes and misdemeanors. Bliley is about eight gallons short of a full tank.

Rep. Diana DeGette nailed the entire GOP saying that "we have heard a lot about the rule of law" -- but this is an impeachment! Rule of law is reserved for the courts -- this is about allegations of high crimes and misdemeanors. "It is no wonder that we are losing the public trust... we will have wantonly crippled the President... this House of Representatives [and the Constitution... in what is slipping toward a parliamentary system!... This is unworthy of our institution." It was a surprisingly eloquent speech from a congressperson who seldom shows up on the radar.

The entirely incoherent Elton Gallegly was next -- his main point: "Lying under oath IS -- and I believe I know what 'is' is -- an impeachable offense."

We'd like to see him prove that it is impeachable... that IS, if there IS any proof that Clinton lied as oppose to using precise language to slip from the grasp of political hatchetmen.

Robert Wexler rose to make his point; impeachment is not the ultimate censure, and abuse of impeachment will weaken the Constitution. "To impeach for other than the highest crime is a distortion of the Constitution... the sovreignty of our government trumps [this abuse]... Don't think for one moment that this is a free vote, that the Senate has the ultimate power... This vote is bigger than Bill Clinton, bigger than all of us... it is about curtailing our privacy."

Tom Campbell said he can believe that the Iraq attacks were not politically timed because of what the CIA Director told him -- but he would not believe it if he heard it from the President. He went into the expected "it's not about sex" -- then started a rant about sex harassment.

Maybe Campbell should look at the facts and the evidence that shows that Jones harassed Clinton with a politically motivated lawsuit.

Asa Hutchinson added that he did not feel that the GOP was "lowering the bar" --that they were "maintaining a standard" based on perjury charges.

Huh?

Steve Rothman made an animated but rambling speech on what impeachment was intented for -- but caught our ears toward the end when he said the impeachment was "motivated by [people] who hate Bill Clinton and his policies" -- underlining the word hate. He called it "a blatant abuse of majority power driven by the juggernaut of the majority party and their so-called moderate members."

He raised the ire of GOPers on the other side when LaHood twice had to gavel the house back to order -- the price of speaking truth to power.

And Maxine Waters fired into a very partisan and righteous tirade, calling the "inpeachment coup d'etat... extremist radical anarchy couched in political language." And she fired not only at hard righters in general but the Christian Coalition and Starr's "abuse in the collecting of so-called evidence... Clinton is not guilty of high crimes -- but of being a populist leader oprning government access to the poor and minorities... he's not a southern good ol' boy or a Washington insider." On Ken Starr: "I recognize abuse of power when I see it. You are guilty." She then decried "the meanness that drives this coup d'etat... one of the most despicable acts committed by this body in its history."

We missed Fazio and Kevin Brady to turn up the sound on MSNBC as Baghdad again sounded air raid alarms.

But we returned in time for the erudite Barbara Kennelly, who emphatically said that the Starr-based charges were being used to "lower the bar" on impeachment. She even fired a few shots at Truman for closing down steel plants and sending troops to Korea without congressional consent -- but there was no impeachment there. Impeachment, she said, should be a means of last resort -- this impeachment is an assault on the checks and balances of the Constitution.

Our own Dave "Doctor" Gonzo lived across the street from Kennelly's law offices in Hartford when he was a college student. His comment "Same old Barbara -- lawyerly, smart, a little dry but right on the money."

Kenny Hulshof said that what was said would be paragraphs and footnotes to history, but the decision wouldn't -- do not grant a pardon to this president. Hulshof is destined for footnoteship.

It sounded as if Zoe Lofgren was going to reprise many of the points she made in the HJC hearings.. until she said "they [the GOPers on the HJC] have dcided to discard our history... to 'get' our president when they say they are doing the opposite... In 1868 it was also Radical Republicans who abused impeachment... The country is waiting for grownups to walk into this cahmber and stop this madness' but GOP moderates including Ford and Dole "have been ignores by the majority party." She invoked the spectre of the election-litigation-impeachment cycle that the GOP has unleashed. Some on the other side say that they are justified, but "some Americans believe aliens will arrive in spoacecraft but that does not make it so." Is she talking about Twilight Zone congressman Bob Barr?

"It is you [the GOP] who threaten our system with this cynical motion," Lofgren said toward the end of her comments which received some of the loudest applause of the hearings. We repeat what we have said in the last few weeks: Lofgren is a rising powerhouse in the Democratic party.

A shame CNN and MSNBC were covering the Baghdad air raid. This was the best speech of the debate.

Nancy Johnson, one of the GOP moderates strongarmed by Tom DeLay (our favorite campaign cash corruption instructor), made a sadly effete speech. We hope she surprises and votes against impeachment. We think she won't.

Joe Kennedy argued that "at its core, this is about an individual who had a wrongful affair. He lied about that affair and he has asked forgiveness." Kennedy spoke eloquently about forgiveness -- and the people who will not grant it, people who are fighting Clinton's agenda -- "and that's what this is all about." talkinbg about morality is healthy -- but not id the subject is only sex. What about kids who don't have enough food? We cut food Stamps. What about inner city schools? They're still a wreck. The truth is that there are too many people in poverty, hungry, and these issues don't receive a tiny fraction the House gives to impeachment. the President has put the wood to the GOP -- taking leadership in taxes, crime and other issues, and the GOP is dumbing down impeachment to punish the President.

That, Kennedy said, is immoral. Let's forgive him, recognizing he is righting a wrong.

Lamar Smith started his comments with "Let's return to the Constitution" -- then proceeded to flee by comparing the present flap to Watergate. Same stuff he said in the hearings. We won't bore you the way this pathetic numbnutz did us -- but he did make us laugh when he brought up the campaign slogan used by Chuck Schume: "Too many lies for too long."

Unfortuantely for Smith, that is the formula the GOP has used since 1994 to retain the House!

CNN ran Smith. MSNBC was running a press briefing by Joe Lockhart. We took a break to call the take-out Chinese place.

We spaced out on moo shu pork until Peter King took the podium. "Where are we going with this nation?" He was critical of Democrats for their conduvct during hearings on Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas -- but said that he believes the President did not commit high crimes. he questioned what might happen if another President's civil depositions were subject to scrutiny by a Special prosecutor. "As republicans, we have failed our obligation. I will vote against impeachment."

He said in three minutes what most would take six to say.

And it was at about this point that the hearings became redundant.

The self-righteous Sue Myrick related a tale of a kid who asked his parents about whether threr was going to be a new Presidential election, and when the parents said "no, we have a President," the kid said "No we don't. He lied."

Our question to Myrick -- who brainwashed the kid? Some juvenile equivalent of rush Limbaugh? What pap.

She ended her comments with the words "The children are watching."

Watching C-SPAN? Don't count on it. They're watching Barney and Teletubbies.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. gave a rapid-fire speech in which he not only criticized the GOP not only for impeachment foolishness, but for the business of "returning rights to the states" -- at the expense of most Americans. he compared today's conservative Republicans to the Republicans who attacked LBJ and FDR: "They are impeaching social security. They are impeaching a woman's right to choose. They are impeaching medicare. They are impeaching medicaid."

Rep. Canady ridiculously assailed the issue of tax fraud as an impeachable offense against Nixon -- an article that did not get voted out. A waste of hot air.

And things got a bit monotonous until rep. Ed Marley gave a shouting, animated speech assailing the impeachment process as being changed from "high crimes and misdemeanors' to "ANY crimes and misdemeabnors" -- which he illustrated with a huge printed poster board. He ended his rant by saying that "the GOP stands for Get Our President." It was a rabble-rousing speech that garnered loud applause.

At the end of Rep. Harris Fawell's impassioned rant about "wilful and wanton violations of perjury" he asked what he should say to his seven grandchildren.

How about "The President did something wrong. He is very, very sorry. he apologized. He has set a good example of what to do -- take responsibility if you do something wrong and apologize."

And the hearings droned on -- Bob Barr took time to say that Democrat members of the committee had not even done a direct review of the evidence -- forgetting, no doubt, that copies of much of the relevant evidence was provided them. A few minutes later, Conyers would turn Barr's very words against him by pointing out that Democrats were barred from access to evidence.

The next interesting moment came when Nancy Pelosi first lit into the hate propelling the impeachment witch hunt, then returned to the handling of the investigation of Newt Gingrich -- in which investigation exculpatory evidence was immediately reported to the investigating committee and gingrich. No such thing happened in the impeachment inquiry -- in fact, exculpatory evidence such as Lewinsky's saying that no one asked her to lie was buried! "Stop this hatchet job, stop this hatred."

Peter Deutsch is not the most inspiring speaker, but his skewering of the "Wag the Dog" scenario was priceless: "Is the United Kingdom part of a conspiracy? Are the 30 nations of UNSCOM [who send investigators to monitor Iraq] part of a conspiracy?" This one needed a Bob Wexler to deliver -- but Deutsch caught our ear.

John Boehner, sounding more oafish than usual, declared "I have no choice but to vote for impeachment and send this to the Senate."

And the low-key Thomas Sawyer of Ohio drew parallels between Ken Starr and Oliver Cromwell in recounting the words of Thomas More, up against a prosecutor looking to find a law, any law, to throw at More.

Bob Barr then lied that "there is no such thing as entrapment." Of course, he is referring to highly selective interpretations of particular laws and court rulings -- and, even more stupidly, ignores the fact that impeachment is a political, not legal, process.

And not much later, Conyers corrected the legally mistaken Barr by pointing to a broad ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court specifically recofgnizing that perjury traps exist when a prosecutor sets them under general circumstances.

Barr sniped back some five minutes later to Conyers that "there are three things a person can do in front of a grand jury: tell the truth, take the fifth, or lie... President Clinton chose to lie."

Wrong again, Bobster -- a person can also give very carefully worded answers that are in fact the truth but are evasive. THIS IS LEGAL. And what do you have to say about that Ninth Circuit ruling?

But the hearings were getting strangely redundant -- at a time that one would usually get the choicest sound bites for the evening news, we got retread after retread of the same comments.

For well over an hour, we heard a roster of lesser-known representatives largely recount the same material between the procedural motions, so we decided to look in on both MSNBC and CNN at 6 PM. The impeachment loome large as a story, but the US and UK had begun a third evening of bombing -- both CNN's dignified Bernard Shaw and MSNBC's John "The Ghoul" Gibson were talking war (we stayed with Bernie, who was talking with Defense Secretary Cohen).

Of course -- if both sides were saving their heavyweights, they would be seen well into "prime time" so as not to be cut off by the lastest round of missile strikes!

Okay -- we'll admit it -- pretty much nothing worth repeating happened after 6 in the House of Representatives.

The news networks all shifted to mostly-Baghdad coverage. None of the heavy hitters would be hitting the podia in the House this evening.

Besides, it turns out the real action was a new bit of spin being released to the media. See if this doesn't remind you of GOP behavior during the committee hearings: according to a couple news sources, just under a dozen Republicans impeachment "undecideds" were allowed to review "secret" documents from the Starr stash being stored under Judiciary Committee (read: Judiciary Committee republican) control.

The buzz is that they were given a gander at testimony by one of the "Jane Does" who allegedly claims that Clinton "forced" himself on her.

Back on the floor of the House, however, the move only served to generate more partisan division, including some "fightin' words' from Judiciary Committee Democrats. Ranking Minority Member John Conyers said, "We had not allowed any Democratic members to go over there, because we didn't know that they were permitted to attend... [it is] an incredible violation of our democratic rights."

So the secret war to "bring down" Clinton continues on many fronts. The debate resumes tomorrow, with voting expected to follow.

-- The Editors