LETTERS: WHAT'S HAPPENING IS NO COUP D'ETAT

To the editor:

Several of TV's political talk shows, pundits, and opinion polls are making me considerably ill. They attempt to portray what is going on in Washington as a coup d'etat. According to Webster's dictionar, a doup d'etat is "a violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group." How can the Republicans over throw the government if Al Gore would be the one replacing Clinton? The office would still remain under Democratic control. How can you undo an election of 1996, if Al Gore takes over as president? It doesn't make any sense.

So many Democrats are screaming, "You are going against the will of the people!" The last time I read the Constitution, our country was not founded on the basis of polls, but on the rule of law. We are a representative republic. The government was not designed for rule by the mob (democracy). It was designed for us to elect leaders to represent us. If we are a democracy, slavery would not have been abolished. The majority of Americans at that time were in favor of slavery. It was a Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who stood up against the majority and opposed slavery amid tremendous opposition by the majority of Americans.

By aligning themselves with President Clinton, Democrats are supporting perjury, obstruction of justice, and the trashing of the rule of law. What if a Republican president were in Clinton's place? Would the Democrats be so quick to defend his actions? Would the National Organization for Women be defending a Republican president's exploits in the oval office? They would have immediately cried "sexual harrassment." Political pundits, news commentators and polls would have reflected this outrage of the American people based on the media's propagandic spin.

Democrats are the real partisans in this whole process. They care nothing about the rule of law. Their only concern is political survival at all costs. The attack on Iraq was just the latest example of how our president is completely out of control.

A majority of American who are polled don't even bother to pull the lever on election Day. How can we rely on their assessment if they don't even bother to get out and vote?

If the American people were to follow the impeachment proceedings closely, they would realize that the Democrats are not arguing the facts. The Democrats concede that he lied under oath, since the president's lawyers did not call up any witnesses to dispute the facts. They realize that would have been a losing battle. It has already been established as a fact that twice Clinton denied under oath having sexual relations with Monica, yet a blue-stained dress proves otherwise. Their flawed argument is that perjury and ostruction of justice do not warrant the issuance of articles of impeachment by the House. they believe that censure is the only alternative. Yet these same Democrats voted in 1989 to impeach a judge for perjury. In the same breath, they defend the chief executive officer of the United States and commander-in-chief of the military when he blatantly and unapologetically commits perjury. How hypocritical.

Several Republicans have looked into a censure resolution. However, they are met with resistance by Clinton. He refuses to admit to lying under oath, which has to be the centerpiece of an enforcable censure resolution. Yet the media continue to make Republicans look as if they are the partisans for enforcing the rule of law. Americans who defend Bill clinton have to be blithering idiots and intellectually challenged. They can't see how Clinton time after time refuses to cooperate when given several opportunities to do so. he has put the American people through this impeachment process by refusing to be truthfulk throughout the Paula Jones lawsuit, the Ken Starr investigation and now the impeachment process. Democrats defend his crime by calling Paula Jones a slut, damaging Ken Starr's reputation and recently by calling the impeachment a coup d'etat. Until the American people understand the rule of law, our leaders will continue to act as if they are above the law. I urge Clinton to resign now, and save our country from this embarrassing impeachment trial.

JIM KREWSON

Shawneetown