[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 120 (Friday, September 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SOLEMN CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES PLACED UPON CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Wise) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the greatest responsibility 
that a Member of Congress can face is the question of whether or not to 
go to war, to commit men and women of this country to armed conflict. 
The next greatest responsibility after that is the matter of 
impeachment of the President of the United States. With the delivery of 
the report by Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor, to this body, that 
process of deliberation began, so a new set of rules, a new stage is 
set for the 435 Members of this House of Representatives, and it is 
every bit as solemn and every bit as important and every bit as somber 
as those deliberations that this body has had to make in matters of 
war. Remember, it has only been several times in our Nation's history 
that we have been to this stage.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not know at this moment what are the allegations in 
the report that Mr. Starr delivered to the Congress. To my knowledge, 
perhaps just a few people know, and no one in this body knows. Soon the 
world will know via the Internet. We will all be reading and reviewing.
  I do know that what the President has admitted to is wrong and 
distressing. I do know that the allegations in the report, which I have 
not seen, may be even more disturbing. There is no excuse for the 
already-admitted errors in the President's personal conduct, and that 
is something I think that all Americans, including the President of the 
United States by his very statements today, as well as in previous 
days, concur in.
  That is not going to be the issue in front of this Congress and in 
front of this House of Representatives. The issue will be somewhat the 
President's personal conduct. The issue though, more significantly, is 
whether it is grounds for impeachment of the President.
  So impeachment is the proceeding that this body goes about beginning 
today. It is not about polls, it is not about partisanship, it is not 
about personal opinion. It is about whether a standard has been 
crossed, a threshold has been reached, that requires this body, the 
House, to issue articles of impeachment, that then begin in effect a 
trial in the United States Senate.
  With the resolution that passed today, and which I voted for, to 
receive the report, to make it public, I now and 434 other Members of 
this House become in effect grand jurors, because our responsibility is 
to determine whether there is probable cause to vote articles of 
impeachment that the Senate then takes up. That requires under the 
Constitution that we weigh all facts and we measure whether the offense 
is indeed grounds for impeachment.
  I support making these documents public. The first report will be 
made public this afternoon, and then subsequent reports after review by 
the Committee on the Judiciary. I would have preferred, yes, that 
indeed the President had been granted an opportunity to review what is 
in the report, in the same manner that this body has permitted review 
by other officials that have been in similar situations in disciplinary 
actions.

                              {time}  1230

  If the choice is between making public and not making public, it 
should be made public. I just ask that all of us remember that this 
report is not a guaranteed statement of fact; it is allegations by the 
special counsel, and that the hearings that will be held will flesh 
that out further, the extent to which they are valid, the extent to 
which they can be challenged, and that no one should be rushing to snap 
judgment in a serious moment like this.
  This is the second time this century that this process has taken 
place. This cannot be a rush to judgment via polls or talk shows or 
whatever the public whims are.
  So we approach this carefully and seriously with due deliberation and 
reflection.

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