Posted by Jim on February 12, 1999 at 13:50:03:
In Reply to: Is there a site that shows how each Senator voted???nt posted by JRMoore on February 12, 1999 at 13:05:22:
JR,
This isn't a vote list, but you can figure it all out from the text.
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Five Republicans voted to acquit
Clinton on both counts
By ALAN FRAM
The Associated Press
02/12/99 3:28 PM Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Five Republican senators broke ranks Friday
and voted to acquit President Clinton on both articles of impeachment,
preventing a majority vote for removing the president on either count.
Five other Republicans voted "guilty" on obstruction of justice, but "not
guilty" on the perjury article.
All 45 Democrats voted to acquit Clinton on both counts, leaving the
Senate well short of the two-thirds majority that would have been
required on either count to force Clinton from the White House.
House managers prosecuting the case had said they were hoping for
a majority vote on at least one article to demonstrate that most
senators found the case against him compelling. But after the votes
went 55-45 against the perjury article and 50-50 on the obstruction
count, Democrats said the roll calls showed the weakness of the case
against Clinton.
"The fact that neither count got a majority of votes showed it never
should have come to the Senate in the first place," said Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y. "We shouldn't have spent our first six weeks on this
issue."
All five who voted to acquit Clinton on both counts are moderates and
had announced their intentions in advance. They were Sens. Susan
Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania,
John Chafee of Rhode Island and James Jeffords of Vermont.
"I didn't feel in the end they met the burden of proof," Chafee said after
the vote. "If I was in the House, I would have voted to impeach."
Chafee, Snowe and Jeffords all face re-election next year and come
from states that Clinton carried in the 1996 elections, which could have
made votes for conviction politically risky.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the GOP defections
showed that Republicans had worked hard to be fair.
"I would like to note that every Democrat -- every Democrat -- voted
against either article," Lott said. "Republicans voted for one, against
the other. Some of them, of course, voted for both. But if it were a
bipartisan vote, it was because we did have Republicans that voted
the other way."
It was not the first time that the moderate senators had parted
company from their more conservative colleagues. In the past, they
have opposed them on issues such as tax cuts.
The other Republicans who voted not guilty on perjury but guilty on
obstruction of justice were Sens. Slade Gorton of Washington, Richard
Shelby of Alabama, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Fred Thompson of
Tennessee and John Warner of Virginia.
Of this group, only Gorton faces re-election next year. Clinton carried
Washington state in 1996.
Thompson said he believed the perjury accusation was "probably not
the kind of thing the founding fathers had in mind" when they wrote a
constitutional provision allowing for a president's removal for "treason,
bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
But he said the case was "overwhelming" on obstruction of justice.
"That is the kind of thing, I think, the founding fathers would have
approved of," he said.
Specter actually voted "not proved" on both counts, but they were
counted as not guilty votes.
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The Senate web site,, linked below, should have the official totals on Monday.