Steny Hoyer in 1998: ‘Our Democracy Will Be Threatened if We Destroy the Due Process’

EXCERPT:

HOYER: “Nor do I for one second believe that this vote is about setting a marker for the young on what conduct will be sanctioned or allowed to stand. Our nation and our sustaining values will survive one man's failings, but our democracy will be threatened if we destroy the due process and high standard that the Founding Fathers established over two centuries ago. The process that the majority has pursued in this matter has been partisan, driven I believe by animus and exceedingly unfair. Like so many other acts of these last two Congresses, it has been unworthy of our duty and of our responsibility. At the beginning of this Congress, after almost 30 years of House precedent, the House Oversight Committee moved to remove, allowed a case to go forward to remove Loretta Sanchez, who had been elected by the people of California to this body. They spent over a million dollars to do so on the expressed theory that they were simply moving the process forward. It was my contention then that there was no case and it was irrefutable at the end that there was no case. Later on, because the President defied them in 1995, they shut down the government.”