To set the stage, on MS-NBC News today, a correspondent named Chip Reid came on with 'breaking news' that Democrats had refused en masse to appear at an informal (private) meeting in Senate chambers about how the Clinton impeachment trial should be conducted. He attested that Democrats claimed that there had never been agreement to any such meeting, and that they would not take part.

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) commented on this situation a few minutes later, again on MS-NBC. He claimed that, since Republican Senators hadn't agreed to any of Democrats' demands for the way they wanted the trial to be conducted in the past (read: they wouldn't make it as easy as possible for the Liar-in-Chief to get off), that Democrats had unanimously agreed that they wouldn't show up at the meeting. Hmmm...partisanship and showboating yet again. Notice that it's the Democrats calling this a partisan process, as they continue to be as divisive of Congress as possible.

Now, this meeting was intended to resolve at least one of the issues of the impeachment trial: whether witnesses should be called in the trial. Democrats don't want any witnesses to be cross-examined in the Senate chamber; they, along with the White House lawyers, want to limit the field as much as possible, to make it easier to defend the Liar-in-Chief. They claim that hearing witnesses' testimony would delay the process too much.

Yet as recently as Monday, it was reported that the White House Home Defense Squad (every one of 'em a lawyer) were planning, among other things, to attack Monica Lewinsky's credibility in the impeachment trial. I see now. They don't want her to be able to answer to their charges, so they can get away with saying anything they want about her in the impeachment trial without fear of rebuttal. Expect dirty tricks from lawyers. Most of them (and all of the White House lawyers, including the Liar-in-Chief) don't give a damn about justice; all they want is to win, especially if it could get their names in the history books alongside such 'greats' as Johnnie Cochran (I use that term with tongue firmly planted in cheek). For all their talk about fairness to the Liar-in-Chief, they apply a completely different standard to anyone who sets themselves against him. It's OK for Clinton to confront his accusers, but not for anybody else to answer the accusations he makes against them? Yet another demonstration of the double standard regarding the office of President of the United States and anyone else who may have committed similar crimes, or who has the audacity to stand up and make allegations against him.

Once again, it simply goes to prove, as the O.J. trial did, that he who has the money (or power, or both) has the justice in this country. There's your double standard.

Stand by, folks. Expect the BS to get piled higher and deeper, as White House lawyers continue to use the fact that this isn't a legal proceeding but a political one to try to set themselves up with the most stilted battlefield possible. And Democratic Congressmen will continue defending the indefensible, compounding lies already told with even more lies.

It's not just Clinton that's being tested here; it's the entire impeachment process. If Clinton gets away with this, it'll be a justification for future Presidents to flaunt and warp the American legal system. If not, it may make future Presidents a little more careful about what they do in their personal life, which is only as it should be. Whether he likes it or not, the President is a role model, and what he does in his personal life, if it should spill over into his job as this issue has, *is* fodder for the examination of the American public. If he doesn't like that, he can resign, and if future Presidential candidates don't like it, then they don't have to run for the office, do they?

I think the Founding Fathers wanted the President to be afraid of being run out of office; that's why they instituted the impeachment process in the first place. Congress has been given the power to check the Executive Branch so that the President doesn't abuse or overuse his power. Now Democrats want either to take that power away from Congress or to make it so trivial that no President will ever fear Congress again.

Thomas Jefferson must be doing 5000 rpm in his grave now.

- The Watcher (This is a critical crossroads in American history. At the end of one road is tyranny, and at the other democracy, and only 100 men will determine which road the country takes.)