Jerry Nadler | We're Lowering the Standard of Impeachment

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) 12/19/98

"Are we going to have a new test if someone wants to run for public office: Are you now or have you ever been an adulterer? We are losing sight of the distinction between sins, which ought to be between a person and his family and his god, and crimes, which are the concern of the state and of society as a whole.

On one level we could say, I suppose, that you reap what you sow. But that gives us no joy. It gives me no joy. And I wish that . . . Mr. Livingston would reconsider. Because I don't think that, on the basis of what we know, he should resign. . . . But the impeachment of the president is even worse. Because again we're losing track of the distinction between sins and crimes.

We're lowering the standard of impeachment. What the president has done is not a great and dangerous offense for the safety of the republic, in the words of George Mason. It is not an impeachable offense under the meaning of the Constitution. And as you heard from Mr. Conyers, the allegations are far, far from proven and the fact is we are not simply transmitting evidence, transmitting a case with some evidence to the Senate, as evidenced by the fact that we already heard leaders of this House say he should resign.

God forbid that he should resign. He should fight this and beat it."