Sellout: The Inside Story of President Clinton's Impeachment

This book should turn most of you into Libertarians...

David Schippers was the Chief Investigative council for the House Judiciary Committee. His staff's task was to look at the Starr Report, investigate it, and prepare a presentation for the committee and recommend a course of action. He is also a lifelong Democrat. He comes from a family of Chicago Democrats and voted for Bill Clinton twice. That being said, this is not another "right-wing conspiracy" book designed to slam the President. It slams Republicans and Democrats. It also makes you wonder how such a sleazy, self-centered man was able to be elected President not just once, but twice.

One of the main reasons I feel Schippers wrote this book is the fact that there was a lot of show more evidence and information he wanted to present to the Senate and to his own committee that was not possible due to the unreasonable time constraints he was given. This was evident in there not being witnesses and them not presenting the Juanita Brodderick story, Filegate, and Chinagate.

One telling moment from the book goes something like this. The evidence they gathered was sealed in two rooms. There was a Republican room and a Democrat room. Committee members had to sign in and sign out to see any documents. Numerous Republicans went in and spent hours pouring over documents.
NOT ONE SINGLE Democrat looked at any of the evidence. Yet they were the first on television saying, "I haven't seen anything that warrants impeachment." Of course they hadn't seen it. They never looked.

So, the Democrats turned their back on the whole thing to save the party. The Republicans weren't much better.

The Senate Republicans did NOT want impeachment dumped in their laps. They ignored the pleas from Schippers and his staff to "do the right thing". They were afraid of looking like they were after the President. They bought into the spin that if they looked mean, they wouldn't get re-elected. They succumbed to poll watching and public opinion. They rushed through the entire impeachment to get the least amount of evidence out so there would be no way the President could get removed from office.

O.J. Simpson was likeable guy who did a very bad thing. Bill Clinton was a likeable guy who did a whole slew of very bad things. The prosecution at the Simpson trial was given all the time they needed to present their case. They turned an entire country against a well established idol. Schippers and the House Managers could have done the same thing. But their own team never gave them the opportunity, while the opposition wore blinders. show less

An impassioned protest against the lies, perjury, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice which President Clinton used to stay in office; written by a lifetime Democrat who was hired by Henry Hyde to find out what happened and who was appalled when he did. The entire Senate and especially Trent Lott, Ted Stevens, Joseph Biden and Pete Domenici come out looking bad indeed by the time this convincing book closes. NBC news also is taken to task for withholding the story of the rape of Juanita Broaddrick until after the Senate had acquitted Cinton.