Impeachment debate begins
Cannon uses JFK video to bolster call to impeach president

WASHINGTON -- For only the third time in history, the House Judiciary Committee took up impeachment articles to remove a president from office. The proposed articles accuse President Clinton of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

In the same room where Richard Nixon's fate was debated a quarter century ago, Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill, laid the first of four proposed articles of impeachment before the panel for debate. It accused Clinton of perjury before a federal grand jury.The committee also will debate articles accusing Clinton of lying under oath in the Paula Jones civil lawsuit, obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

Majority Republicans were primed to muscle the impeachment recommendation through the committee and to the full House.

Article I contends that Clinton lied before a federal grand jury on Aug. 17 when he was questioned about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern half his age.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, told the committee Friday it must back impeachment of Clinton for perjury or U.S. constitutional law will unravel.

And he used an unusual surprise witness to help him make that point during his opening statement on the final committee impeachment debate: the late President John F. Kennedy.

Cannon presented -- twice, for emphasis -- a video of a statement by Kennedy four days before his assassination. Kennedy said presidents "have the obligation of implementing the orders of the courts."

Kennedy added that if a president did not do that, "he would begin to unwind this most extraordinary constitutional system of ours."

Cannon said, "Our system can take a lot of abuse. It is resilient. It can handle strong, spirited debates over issues, even violent conflicts like the Civil War. "But attempts to make a sacred oath flexible is like introducing solvent into a system that is glued together: the whole system comes apart," he said.

Cannon also quoted early Supreme Court Justice John Jay, who said, "When oaths cease to be sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights become insecure."

"The (first) article does not warrant conviction," said Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, stressing that the president is "a human being." She urged her colleagues to instead vote to censure Clinton, saying it was "right, punitive and just."