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, 9 tweets, 2 min read

1) Pres Clinton held a Rose Garden ceremony immediately after the House of Representatives voted to impeach him. (12/19/98)

"Let me express my profound & heartfelt thanks to Congressman Gephardt, the leadership & all the members of the Democratic caucus for what they did today.

2) "I thank the few brave Republicans who withstood enormous pressures to stand with them for the plain meaning of the Constitution & for the proposition that we need to pull together, to move beyond partisanship, to get on with the business of our country ...

3) "For 6 years now, I've done everything I could to bring our country together across the lines that divide us ... But just as America is coming together, it must look, from the country's point of view, like Washington is coming apart.

4) "We must stop the politics of personal destruction.
We must get rid of the poisonous venom of excessive partisanship, obsessive animosity and uncontrolled anger. That is not what America deserves. That is not what America is about.

5) "We have to have some atmosphere of decency & civility, some presumption of good faith, some sense of proportionality & balance in bringing judgment, though we are in different parties.

6) "So with profound gratitude for the defense of the Constitution & the best in America that was raised today by members here & those who joined them, I ask the American people ... to rise above the rancor, to overcome the pain & division, to be a repairer of the breach ...

7) In the Senate, Democrats were united in opposition. Five "moderate" Republicans from the Northeast voted against both counts: Sens. James M. Jeffords (VT), Arlen Specter (PA), John H. Chafee (RI), & Olympia J. Snowe & Susan Collins (ME).

8) Another five Republicans voted against the perjury count but for conviction on obstruction: Sens. Slade Gorton (WA), Ted Stevens (AK), Richard C. Shelby (AL), Fred D. Thompson (TN) and John W. Warner (VA).