Tuesday, April 13, 1999
Hyde appearance raises $100,000 for Chabot
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde came to Cincinnati on Monday to give Rep. Steve Chabot, one of his House managers in the Clinton impeachment, an early boost in what might be a tough re-election campaign.
The Illinois Republican was the featured guest early Monday at a breakfast fund-raiser that drew about 300 people to the Hyatt Regency downtown and grossed about $100,000 for the Chabot re-election campaign.
Mr. Hyde, who managed the prosecution case in the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton, defended the work of the House impeachment managers, who failed to persuade the Senate to convict on either perjury or obstruction of justice.
“We were not insensitive to public opinion and the polls,” Mr. Hyde said. “We've been called zealots and Clinton hat ers. We are neither. None of us looked forward with any glee to a President Al Gore.
“But we had a duty,” Mr. Hyde said, “and we did it.”
Of the 13 Republican House members who made the case for impeachment in the Senate trial, two of them — Mr. Chabot and California Republican James Rogan — are considered the most vulnerable in the 2000 election, when Democrats hope to regain control of the House.
Shortly after the president's acquittal in the Senate, there were reports that Mr. Clinton had vowed to work for the defeat of House managers.
Mr. Chabot survived a tough challenge from Democrat Roxanne Qualls in a campaign where the candidates spent over $2 million between them. Mr. Chabot said Monday he expects another difficult re-election campaign next year.
“Mine is a district they always go after,” Mr. Chabot said. “They always throw a lot of money at it.”
Hyde press aide Sam Stratman, a Wilmington, Ohio, native, said Mr. Hyde has been attending fund-raising events for the House managers and other House Republicans since the impeachment trial.
Mr. Hyde said he thinks “history will be kinder to us (the House managers) than the contemporary media.”
He also said he and GOP committee members were unfairly criticized for releasing voluminous detail of the investigative material compiled by independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Democratic House leaders, Mr. Hyde said, had asked for the release of all material.
Mr. Hyde said the House managers went out of their way to be nonpartisan because they knew that, in order to gain a conviction in the Senate, they would need to win the votes of at least 12 Democratic senators.
“We couldn't go in there as narrow, bitter partisans and expect to get the Democratic votes we needed,” Mr. Hyde said.
“In the end, we didn't get the Democratic votes.”
The impeachment trial, Mr. Hyde said, “was not about sex. It was about lying under oath. It was about obstructing justice. We sleep very well, knowing we did our job.”
Will Newport bell rattle its neighbors?
Seniors score well on Ohio test
CPS improves on 12th-grade test
New Reds stadium could be delayed
Y2K poses monumental problem for cemeteries
Bridge connects Covington, downtown
Experts say contempt ruling hurts Clinton
Hyde appearance raises $100,000 for Chabot
Junior high kids back at home after fire
Proposed hate crime law takes hits from gay-rights opponents
School secretary pleads guilty to thefts
'Daddy Don't' takes tough look at sex abuse
Pokemon having monstrous impact
Tom Petty still young at his art
$56,000 to mail out mayor proposal
Bellevue getting veterans clinic in June
Campbell Co. school debating dress code
Cheyne Kehoe tells Ark. court his brother bragged of killings
Fairfield taking year off from summer festival
Family faces 2nd tragedy
GOP builds strong base in Boone Co.
Group works to buy fire truck
Kentucky school testing simplified
Lebanon making downtown plan
Man, 19, killed in Price Hill
Mason roads getting overhaul
Office manager pocketed funds
Road may be named after commissioner
Roommates charged in Indiana death
Students part of 'blitz build'
TRISTATE DIGEST
