I think it’s a good day to look at the where the men who served as managers in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial are today. One is a governor, one is a U.S. Senator, two more are judges, two are deceased, and one was indicted on Monday. Obviously, some were rewarded handsomely for their willingness to make a blow job into a constitutional crisis. Some were exposed as adulterers and hypocrites.
Henry Hyde was the chairman of the impeachment effort. He was forced to acknowledge carrying out a five-year adulterous affair with a married woman. He retired in 2007 and died the same year.
Jim Sensenbrenner served in the House until January 3, 2021, when he retired. He’s well known for, among other things, introducing the post-9/11 Patriot Act and then becoming concerned about the excesses of the surveillance state.
Bill McCollum went on to serve as the attorney general of Florida where he distinguished himself by paying $120,000 to clinical psychologist and anti-gay activist George Rekers for his testimony supporting a state ban on gay marriage. Rekers soon after was caught taking a 10-day European vacation with a male escort he bought on Rentboy.com.
George Gekas was a victim of redistricting and lost his seat in 2002. He died in December at the age of 91.
Charles Canady is credited with coining the term “partial-birth abortion.” He is now the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. He was one of the rare Republicans to actually keep their own self-imposed term-limit pledge and did not seek reelection in 2000. Trump reportedly considered him for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Steve Buyer was arrested on Monday and charged with insider trading. One nice detail in the indictment is that he tried to cover his transactions by using financial accounts of both his wife and his mistress.
Ed Bryant had the honor of personally interviewing Monica Lewinsky. He twice tried and failed to win promotion to the U.S. Senate.
Steve Chabot is still serving in the U.S. House of Representatives even though his campaign treasurer was recently indicted for embezzling over a million dollars from his coffers. He’s known to support teaching intelligent design in schools because, you know, the Theory of Evolution is “just a theory.”
Bob Barr’s was the first member of Congress to call for Bill Clinton’s resignation. The staunchly anti-choice congressman’s second wife signed an affidavit that Barr drove her to have an abortion in 1983 and paid for the procedure. In 2004, he left the GOP for the Libertarian Party. He appeared in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, where he was offered cheese ostensibly made from Borat’s wife’s breast milk.
Asa Hutchinson is finishing out his second term as the governor of Arkansas.
Chris Cannon was defeated in a Republican Primary in 2008.
James E. Rogan is now an Orange County, California, Superior Court judge. His constituents did not appreciate his role in impeaching Clinton and elected a man named Adam Schiff to replace him.
Lindsey Graham, who gained promotion to the U.S. Senate, is about to appear before a grand jury in Atlanta to explain why he tried to exercise a coup against the incoming Biden-Harris administration.