Impeachment Process

WASHINGTON - Former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell withdrew yesterday as vice chairman of a new commission to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Democratic leaders in Congress named former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat and foreign policy expert, to replace Mitchell, who said he did not have adequate time to devote to the commission. Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine who served President Bill Clinton as peace envoy to Northern Ireland and the Middle East, said in a letter to Democratic congressional leaders that he could not afford to bow to requests that he sever ties to his New York law firm.

More than 30 years after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest challenges for the civil rights movement -- improving living standards -- still lies ahead, veteran social activist Julian Bond said yesterday."

A House of Delegates committee rejected Wednesday a Republican lawmaker's attempt to impeach Maryland's attorney general over an opinion he issued recently on same-sex marriage. Del. Don H. Dwyer Jr. of Anne Arundel County had asked fellow delegates to initiate the impeachment process for Douglas F. Gansler, a Democrat, who said Maryland should recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Dwyer says Gansler's opinion wrongly overturned state policy on such unions. The House Judiciary Committee rejected Dwyer's effort, voting 15-5 that Gansler's conduct did not merit impeachment proceedings.

Obama pummeled for many months Ron Smith has apparently not had access to a newspaper or TV in the past 18 months. If he had, he certainly would have noticed the pummeling of Sen. Barack Obama over this period ("Media pummel Palin while Obama gets kid gloves," Commentary Sept. 17). It's Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's turn now to have her life and career put under the microscope. Most people outside of Alaska had never heard of this person who was suddenly selected to perhaps be the proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency.

WASHINGTON -- The rhetoric was at times lofty, the task solemn. But the House debate on the impeachment of the president yesterday sometimes played out more as partisan farce than as constitutional tragedy.The day's purpose was steeped in history: the first presidential impeachment debate in 130 years. And indeed, at 9: 30 a.m., when the House clerk read in full the four condemnatory articles of impeachment, a packed chamber sat in rapt attention, as though the proceedings were destined to live up to their billing.

The political jolt being applied to Brazil's fragile democracy is worse than if John F. Kennedy had been hauled before our House Judiciary Committee accused of taking bribes.A popular, reformist young president in Brazil faces formal condemnation by a congressional panel tomorrow. Even if he staves off the impeachment that is likely to follow, Fernando Collor de Mello is already a political cripple, unable to push through his ambitious plans to pull Brazil out of its economic morass. If he is forced from office, there is no Lyndon Johnson in the Brazilian vice presidency to carry out a fallen president's program.

A Maryland House of Delegates committee on Wednesday rejected a Republican lawmaker's attempt to impeach the Maryland attorney general over a controversial opinion he recently issued on same-sex marriage. Del. Don H. Dwyer Jr. of Anne Arundel County had asked his fellow delegates to initiate the impeachment process for Douglas F. Gansler, a Democrat, who said Maryland should recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state. Dwyer believed Gansler wrongly overturned state policy on such unions.

WASHINGTON -- With Republicans of all political stripes voicing their opposition to impeachment, House Judiciary Committee Republicans may be increasingly isolated as they continue their uphill fight to remove President Clinton from office.Impeachment hearings are only a week away, but cracks in the Republican ranks are beginning to show. GOP Sen. Arlen Specter, a prominent voice on judicial matters, called yesterday on the House to drop its impeachment probe, saying it could prove "devastating to the country."

WASHINGTON -- In a move that could anger some on Capitol Hill, Vice President Al Gore has begun consulting with Senate Democrats about President Clinton's impeachment trial and is exploring a role for himself in the procedural disputes leading up to it.In an interview with the Los Angeles Times conducted Tuesday night but embargoed for release until today, Gore suggested that he might have to cast a tie-breaking vote in pretrial motions. Gore, whose only constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate, might be called on to break a tie vote, for instance, in such procedural matters as the admissibility of evidence.

BOSTON -- What sticks in their craw is the polls. The numbers are too large to swallow. The data is too tough to dice no matter how the knives are sharpened. Put this president in a Cuisinart and he comes out whole, bigger than ever.Here is a man who's been impeached. He's on trial in the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors. Yet when the camera pans the seats at the State of the Union address, it's the Republicans who look dour and dyspeptic, as uncomfortable as actors in the Immodium-D ads.And the morning after, his polls are elevated into that 76 percent stratosphere reserved for either our own mothers or the late Mother Teresa.