[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 161 (Wednesday, December 8, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8611-S8613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT

  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, our Constitution is a glorious thing. 
It is in fact the envy of the world. One of the most effective and 
elegant elements of the foundation of our government is the provisions 
that provide for the checks and balances of our three branches of 
government.
  It has been an incredible honor to participate in the impeachment 
process that was devised by very wise people very long ago, which 
actually provides the American people the reassurance that the 
Constitution is working the way it was designed to work when it comes 
to the checks and balances of the three branches of government.
  The responsibilities of the modern Congress, both the House and 
Senate, are extensive. I don't need to spend much time talking about 
how busy we are right now. But the fact that we set aside everything 
that we were doing and came together and sat as a Senate and listened 
to the arguments and deliberated extensively about this impeachment 
should be reassuring to every American. I think the results are 
interesting in that it reflects that each Senator made an individual 
decision about the Articles of Impeachment. There was some unanimity on 
some of the counts, but on others it was Republicans and Democrats, 
conservatives and progressives, on both sides of the question. I think 
that shows the extent to which everybody made an independent judgment 
and took their responsibility very seriously.
  I want to take a few minutes now to thank some people who are unsung 
heroes. Obviously, I thank the distinguished vice chairman, the Senator 
from Utah, for his support, experience, and wisdom in discharging the 
committee's duties. He was essential to this process and a great rock 
for me to lean on at many turns during this process. I also thank the 
10 other members of the Impeachment Trial Committee for their devotion 
and diligence and commitment to this important work.
  Then I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about the staff. I 
want to begin with Derron Parks, who is seated with me on the floor of 
the Senate. Derron walked into my office and was hired to be a 
legislative assistant for health care, in the middle of some pretty 
difficult times on health care. Then I said to him, ``By the way, can 
you run an impeachment of a Federal judge, also?''
  As a brandnew member of my staff, he took on incredible 
responsibilities. All of the thanks I have received belong to him 
because he worked hard, he worked smart, he was a great leader, and he 
did a remarkable job of marshaling a bunch of Senators, a bunch of 
staff, a bunch of witnesses, a bunch of evidence, a bunch of legal 
research, and he did it in a way that I think the Senate can be very 
proud.
  Also, I thank Tom Jipping, Senator Hatch's staff person, who helped 
with this as the deputy staff director for the Impeachment Trial 
Committee. He also put in an incredible amount of work and gave a very 
valuable contribution.
  Justin Kim, counsel, was very important because whenever there was a 
disagreement about what was the right road to take in terms of 
historical precedence, rule of law, decisions on motions, he was always 
a good sounding board. There was always more than one smart lawyer in 
the room so that the ideas could be bounced back and forth and somehow 
we could come up with the right answer based on the law, the 
Constitution, and historical precedent.
  Rebecca Seidel was also very valuable to the committee. She is 
another counsel who was essential in this process.
  Erin Johnson, deputy counsel and chief clerk, did, frankly, some of 
the most difficult work, and that was making sure we had a quorum 
during the trial, which was hard, as you can imagine. Keeping Senators 
in one seat for

[[Page S8612]]

an extended period of time is tough. She managed to make sure that we 
always had the quorum the law demanded.
  Lake Dishman, another member of the staff, did a wonderful job.
  Susan Navarro Smelcer, an analyst on the Federal judiciary, CRS, did 
wonderful work for us in terms of allowing us some help on the research 
of the historical precedence and decisions that guided our way.
  Morgan Frankel, Senate legal counsel, was on the floor for the 
conclusion of this impeachment matter. Like Senator Hatch, this wasn't 
his first time to deal with impeachment matters, so he was a wealth of 
information and wonderful help to us.
  Pat Mack Bryan also did great work.
  Grant Vinik and Tom Cabayero were also from the Senate legal counsel 
staff.
  All of the committee members had staff people who helped. I will not 
put all of their names on the record now, but they will be made part of 
my entire statement. I will have more comments on the impeachment 
proceedings that I will insert in the Record.
  I will conclude by saying that I am very proud to be a Senator today. 
There are days when that is not as easy to say. There are times when 
this place is pretty dysfunctional. But I am very proud of the Senate 
and how we conducted ourselves during this very important and grave 
proceeding. I think the responsibility was handled as the Founders 
would have wanted us to handle it, and I think we should all be proud 
of that.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I wish to personally thank the 
distinguished chairwoman of this committee. I have been in the Senate a 
pretty long time, and she has done one of the best jobs I have ever 
seen done. There aren't very many impeachments--or should I say trials 
of impeachment, but of the ones I have seen, she ranks right up there 
in the top. All I can say is she ran a very good committee. She made 
very good decisions, she wasn't afraid to rule, she treated everybody 
with dignity and respect. She expected a lot of the members of the 
committee, which has to be the way, and she is a very intelligent and 
articulate and knowledgeable person. It has been my privilege to be 
able to serve with her and under her as vice chairman of this 
committee.
  This is when you realize how important the Senate is, when all the 
Senators come together and they make decisions such as this, pro and 
con. Nobody should misjudge not guilty votes or guilty votes. I think 
every Senator voted the way he or she felt they should vote, and that 
was important.
  I think much of the credit for the way this was all handled should go 
to the distinguished chairwoman, Senator McCaskill. She is an excellent 
human being, a wonderful leader on this committee, and, frankly, I am 
very proud of her for what she was able to do because this is not easy, 
and it does take a lot of time. It is similar to herding cats, trying 
to make sure you can get all these busy people on the committee or at 
least a quorum every time to be able to do business on the committee. 
She was able to do that.
  I wish to compliment every member of the committee. Every member 
showed up and did a lot of work on this committee--some more than 
others, of course. But every one of the members of this committee 
worked to try to be fair and do what is right and to do justice in this 
matter.
  Having said all that, I wish to pay tribute to Derron Parks myself. 
This young man deserves a lot of credit. To be thrown into an 
impeachment committee, when his main job was to work on health care, 
tested the legal acumen of this young man. I have to say he was one of 
the kindest, most decent, most honorable, most knowledgeable, and most 
intelligent people I have worked with in the Senate. He is a terrific 
person and I am very proud of him.
  Thomas Jipping, on my staff. There are very few people around who 
have the experience Tom has. He is a very good lawyer. He was a 
constant guide and provided me with leadership. I don't think either 
Senator McCaskill or I could have done this without these two leaders 
on the committee.
  The others were equally important to us and did very good work: 
Justin Kim, a wonderful human being; Rebecca Seidel. She worked with me 
long ago on the Judiciary Committee, is a very experienced lawyer and 
did a terrific job. Erin Johnson and Susan Smelcer were both critical 
to the work on the committee; Lake Dishman, who is on our staff and a 
very fine young man, who was willing to go every extra mile he could--
as were all these other folks on the staff--to do what was right; 
Morgan Frankel and Pat Bryan from the Senate legal counsel's office. We 
couldn't have asked for better people, with more knowledge or more 
ability to lead and assist us.
  Impeachment committees--or should I say the trial committee and the 
hearing of this is a very difficult undertaking. You are dealing with 
people's lives, you are dealing with people's reputations, and you have 
to do this in a completely fair and honest way, which I believe we did. 
This is one of the most important tasks the Senate does--extremely 
important--and I think the Senate acquitted itself very well today.
  Every Senator voted his or her conscience today and, in some 
instances, that wasn't easy. Nobody should misjudge anybody's vote. 
Judge Porteous was convicted on all four articles and the vast majority 
of our Members felt that was proper.
  At that point, I have to compliment the attorneys from the House. 
They were terrific. I have complimented them personally, and they know 
how I feel toward them, but the counsel for the House were very 
respectful, very knowledgeable, tremendously articulate in what they 
did and, frankly, acquitted themselves with great dignity and deserve 
all our respect. We should respect counsel representatives. It is not 
easy to impeach somebody in this day and age, but they did, and these 
folks did a terrific job and their counsel as well.
  They are Alan Baron, Harold Damelin, Mark Dubester, and Kirsten 
Konar.
  Having said that, the defense counsel did the very best job they 
could. Jonathan Turley is an imminent professor at George Washington 
University. I have known him for a long time. He is very innovative and 
creative. Some thought, in this particular matter, he was quite 
innovative and creative as well. But let me say he is a very 
intelligent and very knowledgeable man. His other cocounsel deserve 
great recognition for what they did here.
  I feel sorry for Judge Porteous. To rise to the dignified position of 
a Federal district court judge and then have this happen, after 30 
years in public service or more, I am sure is absolutely painful and a 
problem and damaging to his reputation. I wish him well. I hope he will 
analyze these things and make some changes in his life that will be 
better for him and for his family and others. He has a lot of friends 
down there in Louisiana, and I think probably earned a lot of 
friendship, but the Senate has ruled properly in this matter and the 
impeachment should be upheld.
  He should have been convicted of at least one of these articles, if 
not all four. I don't believe he should have been convicted on two of 
them--and there were good legal reasons for not going that far in the 
case of the chairman and myself--but, nevertheless, I respect the votes 
of all my colleagues on the floor. I know they paid strict attention, 
sat through almost all the proceedings and the closed session as well, 
and I commend them.
  Finally, I wish to commend our two leaders. The two leaders conducted 
these proceedings with dignity and with respect, upholding the highest 
standards of the Senate. You can't ask for more than that, and I am 
very proud of both our leaders and others as well.
  It has been a privilege for me to serve on this committee. I have 
tried to do the best I possibly could, and I believe the result today 
is an honest and just result. I just hope this sends a message to all 
our judges on the Federal bench, and others as well, that it is 
important to live up to our responsibilities and to do the things we 
know we should be doing.
  Having said all this, I wish to again thank the staff on this 
committee. What a tremendous bunch of young people, who did a terrific 
job and who deserve the bulk of the credit of any credit that is due. I 
am just grateful to have been able to know them and work

[[Page S8613]]

with them and to love them for the work they have done.
  This is one of the most important things the Senate can engage in, 
and I wish to thank our Parliamentarians. Many times people don't 
realize how important the Parliamentarians are in the Senate. We 
couldn't function without them. We are very blessed to have the 
Parliamentarians whom we have helping us in the Senate. They go 
unrecognized many times but not by me. I have a great deal of 
admiration for them. They keep us out of a lot of difficulties. 
Sometimes they get us into some difficulties--because of the rules, not 
because of them. But I want to pay tribute to them as well.
  This was a just result. It is what I think had to be done. The 
country will be better for it. It does send an appropriate message, or 
messages, I should say, and I feel blessed to have been able to 
participate on this committee and on this Senate floor. It is a great 
honor to serve in the Senate. Days such as this help bring that home to 
me, and I wanted everybody to know it.
  I wish to again thank the distinguished chairwoman and tell her how 
much I appreciate her work.
  With that, I yield the floor.

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