During the 1998 House debates leading up to the vote on the Clinton Articles of Impeachment, then-Representative/now-Senator, Lindsey Graham said the
following(PDF):
Mr. Speaker, this long and difficult process for all of us in the House is almost to a conclusion. Twenty-five years ago a Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee with a minority of Republicans reported articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. Why? Nixon cheated. He cheated the electoral system by concealing efforts of a political break-in. And his people thought the other side deserved to be cheated. They thought his enemies deserved to be mistreated. Ladies and gentlemen, they were wrong.
If Graham thinks cheating the electoral system is an impeachable offense, then he must be in favor of impeaching President Bush.
According to Graham, Nixon cheated the electoral system by covering up Watergate. So the break-in itself wasn't the problem, but making sure it wasn't discovered until after the election was.
If that's the standard, consider these impeachable offenses by President Bush:
- Asking the New York Times to delay exposing the program of NSA wiretaps.
- Classifying and blocking the release of a report by the 9/11 Commission on hijacking threats that preceded the 9/11 attacks.
- Hiding a report by the Defense Contract Audit Agency that found $108M in overcharges by Halliburton.
Graham also said:
Today Republicans, with a small handful of Democrats, will vote to impeach President Clinton. Why? Because we believe he committed crimes resulting in cheating our legal system. We believe he lied under oath numerous times, that he tampered with evidence, that he conspired to present false testimony to a court of law. We believe he assaulted our legal system in every way. Let it be said that any President who cheats our institutions shall be impeached.
Isn't failing to cooperate with Congressional investigations cheating one of our institutions?