Word: trialing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...they were the first to put it into practice. They were proud of the safety that checks and balances guaranteed and believed that only the most dangerous occasions warranted setting them aside. Last week the Senate unwrapped a constitutional mechanism that no one alive has ever witnessed: the trial of the President, prosecuted by the House, before the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice, all the branches of government worshipping together for only the second time in history, and the most momentous thing about it was that it seemed to many people less important than the fact that...
...Senators called on their best instincts and worst fears to drive both sides to unanimity by Friday afternoon: the trial will start this Thursday, with a week or so of arguments and questions from each side, and no witness will appear unless a majority of the Senators agree to call him--or her. In preserving Senate comity, they dealt a blow to both sides: to Henry Hyde and the House managers, who had been bucking all week at the idea that they might not be able to prosecute their case down to the last cigar, and to the White House...
Ever since the House passed this cup to the Senate, no one has known for certain what an actual impeachment trial would look like--which is why the fight over whether to call witnesses and have the full, blowsy tale spill across the plush Senate floor was not some technical dispute. The decision would draw the road map for the year, determining how long this lasts and how ugly it gets and what our politics will look like when it's all over. The White House was passionately opposed to hearing from anyone; the House prosecutors started the bidding...
Most Senators had strong feelings on the matter, but they fell like marbles on the floor, and no one could predict who would roll where. There were Democrats who felt you could not have a trial without witnesses; there were Republicans who were determined to avoid a circus. Many in both parties swatted at Hyde's efforts to shape the rules--he who had argued during the House phase that no witnesses were necessary because the record was so complete. "It's interesting to me that the House is asking for witnesses in the Senate trial that they...
Hardest to convince was the "damn the torpedoes" faction, conservatives who want to barbecue Clinton as long as possible or who hope something might turn up to draw 12 Democrats into the hanging party. Lott had to convince this crowd that a full-blown trial wouldn't pull Democrats in but would drive moderate Republicans out; it takes only 51 votes to adjourn. "You should never damn the torpedoes," said a G.O.P. leadership adviser, "because torpedoes explode...