Pat Robertson Calls for Clinton’s Impeachment

WASHINGTON — Congress should impeach Bill Clinton because resignation is too good for a president who “mocked, demeaned, belittled and lied” to America, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson said Friday.

“While resignation might be easier for America, it’s not best for America,” Robertson told 3,000 religious activists. Some waved signs that read, “Impeach Clinton.”

In scolding tones, Robertson opened the two-day Christian Coalition conference by accusing Clinton of turning the Oval Office into a “playpen for the sexual freedom of the poster child of the 1960s.” He also called Clinton a “debauched, debased and defamed” leader.

In words of warning to Republicans who might be tempted to move cautiously toward impeachment, he criticized politicians who “are sitting in foxholes of political safety, surrounding themselves in polls and commentaries.”

House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders followed Robertson to the lectern but used calmer language.

* Gingrich: “We won’t do an inch more than our duty” for partisan reasons “and we won’t do an inch less of our duty out of intimidation.”

* Senate Republican leader Trent Lott: “I don’t know if (Clinton) will do the right thing, but we will do the right thing.”

* House GOP leader Dick Armey joked that his wife warned him about being unfaithful like Clinton: “You pull a stunt like that on me and you’ll be laying in a pool of blood hearing me ask, ‘How do I reload this thing?’ ” he quoted her as saying.