Huckleberry and all that "process stuff"
by digby
Unless video emerges of Trump speaking Russian and doing the Cossack dance, Lindsey Graham's not interested:
He used to be a tad more ... concerned about the integrity of the presidency:
Back in the day, House impeachment manager Graham was especially strident on this particular sexual "process"
... God knows he's a polarizing figure. God only knows what's in his heart. I'm having to judge Bill Clinton based on evidence. And I would like to speak a few minutes to what I believe is the unshakable, undeniable truth. And much of it is about sex.
This idea that the President of the United States when he testified in Paula Jones' deposition, a lady who brought a case against him for sexual harassment, that he gave testimony that was legally accurate is a total falsehood. The idea that the definition of sex did not include oral sex and they did not ask right questions and if they did he would have told the truth offends me. This idea of what "sex" meant came up after this blue dress, in my opinion.
Why I believe the definition of "sex" as being propounded by the president to this very day is a lie is based on the conduct he exhibited after the deposition. On January the 17th he would have us to believe they did not ask the right question and the definition excluded oral sex. I would suggest to you that's a fabricated tale. Then on January the 24th we have a talking point paper from the White House telling people how to respond about the allegations against the president, and one of those questions was "Does sexual relations include oral sex?" The answer was yes...
What I believe is that his press accounts to Mr. Layer (sp) and to Roll Call indicate that improper relationships, there was no artificial definition, this is -- oral sex is not included. I believe that's a falsehood, that's a fraud...
Should he be impeached? Very quickly; the hardest decision I think I will ever make. Learning that the president lied to the grand jury about sex, I still believe that every president of the United States, regardless of the matter they called to testify about before a grand jury should testify truthfully and if they don't they should be subject to losing their job.
I believe that about Bill Clinton and I'll believe that about the next president. If it had been a Republican, I would have still believed that and I would hope that if a Republican person had done all this that some of us would've went (sic) over and told him, You need to leave office. I understand that the dilemma that all of us are in about that. His fate is in his own hands.
Right quickly, Mr. Chairman. Thirty years from now they're going to judge what we've done and how partisan it's been and whether or not this made any sense. I just want you to know as you look back and look at these tapes and find out what we're doing, there's one member of Congress, there's a lot of us here, believe the president has lied to us to this very day, that we can't reconcile ourself with that, that it was in a lawsuit with an average, everyday citizen's legal rights at stake.
And the most chilling of all things, to me, was the episode after he left the deposition, he told Mr. Blumenthal that the -- Monica Lewinsky was basically coming on to him, he had to fight her off. He told Betty Currie, She wanted to have sex with me and I couldn't do that. The most chilling thing was, for a period of time, the president was setting stories in motion that were lies. Those stories found themselves in the press to attack a young lady who could potentially be a witness against him.
To me, that is very much like Watergate. That shows character inconsistent with being president, and every member of Congress should look at that episode and decide, is this truly about sex? Is Bill Clinton doing the right thing by continuing to make us have to pursue this, have to prove to a legal certainty he lied? The president's fate is in his own hands. Mr. President, you have one more chance. Don't bite your lip; reconcile yourself with the law.
He had been one of a handful of Republicans who wanted to release some additional "evidence" to the public about whether or not Lewinsky orgasmed in the encounters so that the "definition" of sex, which included "intent to arouse" could be proven:
Sources said that the documents covered by the committee's action included statements by Lewinsky to the FBI and grand jury, some of her letters and e-mail, Secret Service records relating to the president's and Lewinsky's movements on certain days, a chart detailing Lewinsky's trips to the White House and public events, memos, telephone records, White House logs and news clippings.
Before convening the committee Thursday, Hyde and ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) had agreed to 155 deletions in the printed material, under guidelines aimed at protecting the privacy of innocent third parties, removing redundant or irrelevant sexual references and striking material being used in ongoing criminal cases, and anything relating to official duties of the Secret Service.
But GOP members, who outnumber Democrats on the committee 21 to 16, rejected an attempt by the minority to delete 25 additional references, according to committee records. Among these were more explicit material relating to sexual interaction between Clinton and Lewinsky, the manner in which Clinton undressed her, and details about their telephone sex, according to sources in both parties.
Republicans on the committee approved, 20 to 16, a motion by Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) to restore three deleted references to a cigar in Lewinsky's sworn testimony to the grand jury, according to information provided by the committee and other sources. One Republican, Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) joined the Democrats in opposing the Barr motions...
Republican sources said that material related, for example, to Lewinsky's orgasms, was left in specifically to address the question of whether Clinton aimed to arouse Lewinsky -- a key component of the definition of sexual relations at testimony by Clinton in the sexual harassment suit brought against him by Paula Jones.
One sign of GOP nervousness came after Judiciary Committee Republican Bob Inglis (S.C.) proposed that the generic description of one deleted item -- which was not included in Starr's published report -- be changed to indicate more specifically the form of sexual contact that it dealt with. Only five other Republican members, Barr, Ed Bryant (Tenn.), Edward A. Pease (Ind.), James E. Rogan (Calif.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) joined Inglis in pushing for the disclosure. The tally defeating the motion was 28 to 6, according to the committee.
He was obsessed with the orgasms, couldn't stop talking about them. His whole cornpone Hamlet act, which went on interminably, was based on the question of whether or not Clinton and Lewinsky had actually had sex.
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cheers --- digby
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