Fencesitter's comment on Nixon's impeachment

fencesitter:

Ellen as they say, in the Philippines impeachment process is heavily a number game. Most congressmen voting on the floor on important political matters to be decided cast their votes not based on sound moral principles and convictions with only the general welfare in mind but rather based on party line. If I am not mistaken, during Nixon’s time, the US Senate was dominated by senators belonging to his party, and yet after the initial transcribed tapes were made known to them, one after the other expressed their intention to vote based on the evidence presented if the impeachment case reached the senate, forcing Nixon to tender his resignation.

During Nixon's Watergate scandal, the democrats held the majority on the House and the Senate. Democrat Carl Albert was the Speaker of the House from 1971-1977. Democrat Mike Mansfield was the Senate Majority leader at that time.

Richard Nixon is a Republican.

Here's more on which party held the majority during Watergate:

Nixon Resigns

By Carroll Kilpatrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 9, 1974; Page A01

Richard Milhous Nixon announced last night that he will resign as the 37th President of the United States at noon today.

Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan will take the oath as the new President at noon to complete the remaining 2 1/2 years of Mr. Nixon's term.

After two years of bitter public debate over the Watergate scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public and leaders of his party to become the first President in American history to resign.

.....

At 7:30 p.m., Mr. Nixon again left the White House for the short walk to the Executive Office Building. The crowd outside the gates waved U.S. flags and sang "America" as he walked slowly up the steps, his head bowed, alone.

At the EOB, Mr. Nixon met for a little over 20 minutes with the leaders of Congress -- James O. Eastland (D-Miss.), president pro tem to the Senate; Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.), Senate majority leader; Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), Senate minority leader; Carl Albert (D-Okla.), speaker of the House; and John Rhodes (R-Ariz.), House minority leader.

So it was very likely that Nixon would have been impeached by the House because Democrats held the majority, and would have been convicted too in the Senate because of the strong evidence against Nixon.

Yung sa kaso naman ni Clinton, the Republicans held a 55-45 majority in the Senate in 1999 w/ Sen. Trett Lott as Majority leader, but the Republicans could not even get a majority vote to convict Clinton. A few Republicans thought lying about sex didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense, and broke ranks with their own party and to acquit the president, as the 1st article of impeachment failed by a vote of 45-55, and the 2nd one by 50-50.

Here are the Republicans who voted to acquit Bill Clinton in 1999:

In the end, only Republicans split their votes. The Republicans who voted against the perjury count were, for the most part, Northern and Southern moderates. They were Senators John Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins of Maine, Slade Gorton of Washington, James Jeffords of Vermont, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Fred Thompson of Tennessee and John Warner of Virginia. A smaller group of Republicans, all Northeasterners, voted against the obstruction charge: Senators Chafee, Collins, Jeffords, Snowe and Specter.

Yung Senate naman natin, some of the administration senators started out as Arroyo defenders, but because of the tapes and the testimonies of key witnesses (eg balutan, gudani, zuce), and as more evidence on election fraud came out, some have later switched sides or have become less vocal in their defense of Madam Arroyo.

The problem though fencesitter, is that alam ni Arroyo na hindi aakyat ang impeachment complaint sa Senado dahil hawak ni GMA ang mga Tongressman, so resignation is an option she's not seriously considering.

IMO, the House is acting like Marcos's Batasan. Noong 1985, may impeachment complaint rin laban kay Marcos, pero ibinasura lang ito ng mga kaalyado nito sa Batasan.