Room 2141 of the Rayburn building hosts the ' Impeachment Circus ' again this week. The Democrat clown act was almost absent today, as the object of their obfuscation ( Ken Starr ) was not present.

Henry Hyde began with a short opening statement saying that " lying poisons justice ". Too bad John Conyers didn't follow his lead. Conyers called the Burton Campaign Finance Abuse Committee Hearings " discredited ". He called Clinton's testimony " technically true ". He then said, " Even Republican witnesses have said that if the charges are proven, they are not impeachable offenses".

The first two witnesses were common folk convicted of perjury related offenses in ' sexual ' cases, Barbara Battalino and Pam Parsons. They both agreed that honesty in legal proceedings is one of the most important parts of the system. These two offered little fuel for the House Democrat clown act, so they went back to their old tactic of attacking the process itself.

Barney Frank made a big deal about one of the perjury charges being based on a simple lack of recollection that Clinton began his affair with Monica Lewinsky in November 1995 and not February 1996. Obviously, Frank forgot that before February 1996, Monica Lewinsky was still a Whitehouse intern. Yes, there is a distinction between a Whitehouse employee and a Pentagon employee.

Charles Schumer started up the clown act with, " this committee needs help " ( obviously in reference to Battalino being a former VA psychologist ). He then got into the old vast right wing conspiracy thing with a rationalization of attacks on Clinton by " one small segment on the right ". Maybe that was a Freudian slip and he meant this small segment was right ( correct )?

Bobby Scott of the fairness cops ( yeah, right, sure, whatever ) said, " the process has not been fair ".

Robert Wexler, as an introduction to the resident clown queen said, " This hearing has become the theater of the absurd ". Taking her que, Maxine Waters launched into another one of her patented loud and obnoxious extreme clown acts. She used her time to talk about AIDS and revisit her preceived wrongs of Reagan and Bush. Not to be forgotten after her time was done and to try to stir up some vicious partisan rancor, she attempted to interrupt other questioners and the answers! Her efforts went to no avail, as most of the additional Democrats were actually quite civil ( for them ).

The morning session was quite mild, with Republicans using less than their allotted time and being quite non-partisan.

Charles Canady was the only exception, when he called the Democrat defense of Clinton, " the so-what defense ".

Bob Ingliss, in reference to the Democrat propensity to attack the messenger in these hearings, said, " You ( the two witnesses ) have thrown a monkey wrench into the Whitehouse spin machine ".

Ed Bryant, through statistics, pointed out that incidents of lying before the court have been going up.

Steve Chabot made clear the President's possible motivation for " forgetting " that he began his sexual liason with Monica Lewinsky in November 1995 ( while she was still a Whitehouse intern ).

At the lunch break, Bob Barr and Maxine Waters approached the open microphone in the hallway. Amazingly, Barr was quite mellow, just saying that ' perjury and obstruction of justice are serious offenses '. Waters, on the other hand, was once again clowning around, saying of the hearing, " pathetic example of of their inability to call it quits ".

The second and final panel consisted of judges, military leaders, and law professors. It was easy to ascertain who invited whom.

Judge Gerald Tjoflat ( US Appeals Court Judge ) said of perjury, " disrespect for the rule of law is bread ". He also said, " It causes delay and the expenditure of judicial resources ".

Judge Charles Wiggins ( US Appeals Court Judge ) said that perjury and obstruction of justice are impeachable, but the President should be given notice to stop what ever the conduct before any other actions are taken. This is an interesting concept, huh?

Judge Leon Higginbotham Jr. ( retired ) said, " I don't believe this case reaches the level of impeachment ". Amazingly, he characterized the President's conduct to a speeding ticket?

Elliot Richardson ( former Nixon Attorney General who refused to fire Archibald Cox and resigned himself ) looked very aged and knocked his microphone over a few times during his testimony. He said Clinton's conduct was not impeachable.

Admiral Leon Edney ( retired ) said the whole affair was " sending a confusing message " to the armed forces. He thought that " integrity is important ".

Lt. General Thomas Carney ( retired ) said, " A cadet does not lie, cheat or steal ". You draw whatever inference you want from this...

Alan Dershowitz ( who in my opinion doesn't need much clown make-up ) was totally out of control. It was quite obvious that the Democrats invited him to ignite their afternoon clown act, and he didn't disappoint them. He used his opening statement time to go on and on about police department perjury. This denegration of our police as a defense for Clinton, was right in step with his OJ trial antics as a talking head on television. I can't believe this guy is a Harvard law professor, as his BS was an insult to anyone with an ounce of intelligence!

Stephen Saltzburg ( George Washington University Law School Professor ) played the Clinton semantic word games. He said that censure, and not impeachment, was the answer. He also said that Judge Wright should cite Clinton for contempt and sanction him!

Jeffrey Rosen ( George Washington University Law School Professor ) said there should be Congrssional censure and criminal prosecution for the President.

As the questioning went on, it was obvious that the Ken Starr testimony Democrat clown act was not going to be duplicated. Sheila Jackson Lee did attack the OIC investigation, but Bobby Scott got the ' foot in mouth award '. Scott actually had the nerve to advance the question of the validity of the oath Bill Clinton took before the Grand Jury, because it was not administered by the judge? Is this the newest Whitehouse/DNC spin line, or a premeditated action by Clinton's lawyers?

Dershowitz made up for the lack of the Democrat clown act, by errupting into a clown act of his own, degrading the committee and launching into an additional litany about police perjury. At one point, Dershowitz even seemed to directly call Bob Barr a racist ( he positively used the word ' racism ', in response to Bob Barr trying to cut through the legalese crap that was being bantered around ).

Amidst the blind robotic defense of Bill Clinton, Asa Hutchinson finally got Dershowitz to admitt that if the President committed perjury in the Grand Jury proceedings, that it is impeachable. Amazing feat, as Dershowitz danced around the issue until Hutchinson started reading quotes from Dershowitz that were dated from before Clinton's Grand Jury appearence!

Actually, the most interesting part of the hearing was when the Democrats were whining about issuing subpoenas for memos from Louis Freeh and Charles LaBella, to Janet Reno on Democrat campaign finance abuse. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee seemed genuinely scared that there is something very incriminating to Bill Clinton and the Whitehouse in them!

- Bongo ( I want the TRUTH to come out, and Clinton to take the CONSEQUENCES! )