ABC7Chicago.com: Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says retiring congressman

Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says retiring congressman

By Andy Shaw
April 21, 2005 ó Republican Congressman Henry Hyde made some surprising comments Thursday on the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He now says Republicans may have gone after Clinton to retaliate for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Hyde is stepping down after this term.

Hyde’s comments came as he talked with ABC7 political reporter Andy Shaw about his 30 year in Congress.

In an exclusive interview, Hyde delivered a big dose of candor and some reflective second guessing. He said, among other things, he might not try to impeach President Clinton if he had it to do all over again.

The 81-year-old DuPage County Republican, who mastered the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable, will be stepping down in January of 2007 after 16 terms and 32 years.

“I am leaving voluntarily, but it’s because my physical strength is ebbing. Father Time and Mother Nature have been pursuing me, and I’m 81,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, (R)-Illinois.

Hyde is known for his eloquence, courtesy, civility and his fierce partisanship on behalf of conservative GOP principles, including authorship of the Hyde Amendment, which outlawed federal funding of abortions, and leadership of the House judiciary committee in the impeachment of President Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

When asked if he would go through with the Clinton impeachment process again, Hyde said he wasn’t sure. It turned into a personal and political embarrassment for Hyde when an extra-marital affair he had in the 1960’s became public amid accusations of hypocrisy. He called the affair a youthful indiscretion.

“Accusations hurled at me to intimidate me were misplaced, and I regret having to deal with them, but they didn’t intimidate me,” Hyde said.

The veteran DuPage County congressman acknowledged that Republicans went after Clinton in part to enact revenge against the Democrats for impeaching President Richard Nixon 25 years earlier.

Andy Shaw asked Hyde if the Clinton proceedings were payback for Nixon’s impeachment.

“I can’t say it wasn’t, but I also thought that the Republican party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty, our responsibility,” said Hyde.

Hyde’s comments reflect what Democrats have been saying for years about the Clinton impeachment. It will be interesting to see what happens when Hyde’s comments hit the national media.

Hyde’s style will be missed in Washington, as well as his sense of civility, even though a lot of people will not miss his rigid ideology.