In my opinion there were two issues this week that were important, and they were both issues of failure. First, the President failed to adequately answer all of the 81 questions submitted to him by the House Judiciary Committee ( he continued his legalese parsing of words ad infinitum ). Second, Attorney General Janet Reno again decided against appointing an Independant Counsel to look into Al Gore, in campaign finance abuse allegations for the 1996 election cycle ( ignoring tha advice of the FBI director and the head DOJ investigator ). Most of the Sunday political talk shows glossed over the importance of these issues, or dwelled on the positive political results to the Whitehouse and the DNC. A majority of the politicos and pundits declared that the President and Vice President had been vindicated. Are they correct? Will the President get off scott free? Will Al Gore be ultimately freed of the shadow of campaign finance abuses hanging over head ( and be able to reclaim his squeaky clean pre-Buddhist Temple image, for his ' Gore in 2000 ' campaign )?

One third of ' Eat The Depressed ' was on the ethics of Ken Starr, with guest DNC operative Steven Brill. Proving that either the Whitehouse tactics of changing the subject have worked, or that NBC has begun to show it's true liberal DNC supporting colors. Though other issues were touched upon, a major portion was reserved for a discussion of the impeachment affair. In reference to, and as an example of the nature of the President's response to the 81 questions; Clinton's ' the meaning of the word is ' video/sound bite was played. To this and the continued citation of Clinton's pseudo public apology speech of August, Lindsey Graham responded, " ( Clinton ) plays the games to the bitter end and wants to have it both ways ".

Predictably, the two conservatives were staunch supporters of the impeachment process going to the full House of Representitives for an up or down vote, and no censure vote. Ed Bryant thought ' censure should be done by the Senate ', and he said, " I think impeachment is there ". Lindsey Graham said that the President has committed perjury in the Grand jury and he believes the offenses are impeachable; of Clinton he said, " an unrepentant perjurer who should leave his office ". The liberal, Sheila Jackson Lee, quite predictably said, " there is no grounds for articles of Impeachment ".

This left it up to the two moderates, who I believe most accurately reflect the opinion of the majority of the American people. Paul McHale believes the offenses were impeachable, but impeachment is not in the country's best interest, saying, " I wish the President had resigned ". Peter King, " The President has not been forthcoming ", announced that he believes that 15 or 20 Republicans won't vote for impeachment if the articles reach the full House. He opined of Clinton's conduct, " It's wrong, it's criminal, it's indictable, but not impeachable ". It is starting to become fairly obvious that even the Republicans are finally starting to cave in to the polls. But, if that is what the public seems to want...?

' Deface The Nation ' had a typical ' Thanksgiving Weekend ' show, with a panel of ' scholars ' in a discussion of the 90s in general, including: Stephen Carter, Douglas Brinkley, Taylor Branch and David Moraniss. Concepts discussed, but not necessarily reaching a consensus, included. ' Ted Turner and Bill Gates ( not Clinton ) will be remembered from the 90s '. In politics, there has been a ' blurring of the personal and the public '. Clinton ' reads the polls and tries to reflect them '.

After announcing that the administration had been vindicated this week, though increased talk of censure instead of impeachment and the Attorney General's refusal to appoint an independant counsel to look into Al Gore, CNN and it's chief DNC supporting commentator Wolf Blitzer, tried to feint impartiality. Throwing hardballs at Tom Delay, Wolf could only solicit these two quotes of note from him. " It would be a horrible precedent to censure the President...Impeachment is a censure ". " It's worse to be called a Christian than a perjurer ". In a kissy huggy softball game with Abbe Lowell, Lowell said, " Taking all the facts as true, the conduct ( of the President ) is not an impeachable offense ". Trying to mimic the only show CNN airs that attempts to give both sides ( Crossfire ), Dick Thornburgh and Michael Zeldin squared off in a segment. Zeldin said, " he ( Clinton ) has wiggle room ". I say, " Doesn't ' wiggle room ', imply that someone is trying to hide something through semantics "? Thornburgh responded to Zeldin with, " we have a President that just can't give a straight answer ". In reference to what signal Clinton is sending the public through his actions, Thornburgh said, " if the answers are embarrassing, you can lie under oath ". Wolf should change his name to Sheep ( or Shemp, if you get the reference )!

Only ' This Week " touched upon the Attorney General's decision to not appoint an independant counsel for Al Gore's campaign finance abuse allegations, in any great substance. Cokie Roberts announced her question, as a preamble for the program, " Is Reno protecting the administration or following the law? ". Orrin Hatch said that ' he is sure the President committed perjury ', but there is only a 50-50 chance for the Senate to receive articles of impeachment.

It is certainly beginning to look like any articles of impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee will send to the full House of Representitives, will be voted down. I hope the Republican members will vote their conscience, and not on the polls. I don't think an appearance of not having enough votes in the Senate to remove the President from office, should weigh on the decision any representitive will make on his or her vote, on this issue. However you chose to look at this issue, it is starting to seem like it will soon come to an end. I believe this end, will be one of no penalty to our precious fearless leader. Sadly, this may indicate the demise of personal responsibility in America, as we enter the new millenium!

- Bongo ( Is Impeachment dead, or is it decency and morality that have died? )