The main reason Bill Clinton got impeached:

[pnwmom]

the Republicans had never gotten over their utter humiliation with the threatened impeachment and forcing out of office of Richard Nixon.

Ever since then they'd been trying to turn a Democrat into a Nixon-equivalent, and Bill-who-lied-about-a-blow-job was the closest they'd come.

Imagine how they'll feel after DT is forced out of office.

[MineralMan]

1. Nixon was never impeached nor convicted.

He resigned before any of those things were done. The entire thing was ended by Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon. And that was the end of that.

Bill Clinton was impeached, but the Senate did not have the votes to remove him from office.

[pnwmom]

2. Thanks -- changing the sentence.

[newblewtoo]

10. You are correct

but a lot of people don't know much about that period beyond what they 'learned' in "All the President's Men" and that is shameful.

In truth most 'Cant's were still pissed about what they believed was the 1960 theft of Chicago by Mayor Daley which cost Nixon the election (he conceded without recount). I believe to this day that the 1968 Chicago Convention riots were payback to Daley by more than just the SDS.

[Wellstone ruled]

29. You are so right.

Tid bit,one of our Senators at the time a Rethug,let it be known,you took one of ours and we are taken one of yours. Labor meeting in St.Paul.

[riversedge]

3. The process of impeachment was started but Nixon was not impeached. He resigned.

[pnwmom]

6. True. Doesn't change the main point, however. nt

[OnDoutside]

11. Yes, your central point is still valid. It's eating them inside, to the point of bringing themselves

down again.

The wider question is when Donnie and the boys are ousted, what happens next ? Is it bound to happen again in 20-30 years time ?

[riversedge]

18. that is true.

[MrScorpio]

4. Bingo!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Well, while Nixon never got to impeachment or conviction, it still ate at them.

And yes, I think there was definitely a sense of need for payback.

They couldn't do it with Carter because it was a) too soon and b) the guy was literally a choirboy. So instead, they just minimalized him by making him appear weak and undermining him on the hostage situation.

Bill Clinton was their next shot and because he had a few personal weaknesses they figured they'd milk that for all they had.

And let's not forget that Hillary was a staffer for the Watergate investigation, so it was personal with her, too.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. The reason Clinton was impeached was because the GOP had 218 votes.

[pnwmom]

9. They didn't impeach Obama. n/t

[JoeStuckInOH]

15. Yeah, but they didn't have Obama on any thechnicalities, however minor they might be.

Clinton lying about a blowjob, while extremely trivial, was still able to be pursued as perjury.

I believe if Obama had committed any technically culpable acts while the republicans had the votes to impeach, the GOP would have tried in a heartbeat. The OP is 100% right... it's about having the votes and power to seek political retribution through impeachment and has nothing to with the actual ramifications of the alleged acts themselves.

Look at what Nixon and Clinton did compared to what Donald Trump did!?! Trumps actions are 1000X worse in every way for the country and office of President.

And know that as long as the dems don't have enough votes for impeachment themselves then it will NEVER happen no matter what trump does or what evidence is uncovered. If the dems don't win back the house/senate big time in 2018... Trump WILL finish his full term and ride off into the sunset.

[FM123]

8. The Repubs are all about false equivalency. That is their favorite dance move!

[WePurrsevere]

12. Agree about Watergate & Republican 'revenge'. IMO it was also the...

Watergate investigation where Hillary first drew their attention and ire...
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-11-05/how-richard-nixon-created-hillary-clinton

[mopinko]

13. i worry about that. esp if he cuts and runs.

we better send a whooooole lot of people to prison for a long time if anyone on that side is to decide they deserved it.

i would really prefer a big assed impeachment trial. no fake news allowed. no whataboutism allowed.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

14. You're Only Partially Right

Clinton was impeached because he was a Democrat. And after 12 years of Republicans in the White House, they just felt like it was their God-given right to rule over us (you know, kinda the way they feel now). So they investigated Clinton mercilessly for years upon years upon years until they found something..........anything...........they could sink their teeth into. Make no mistake, if they had the votes and even HALF of a justification, they would have done the same to Obama. And had Hillary won, they would have filed articles of impeachment against her literally days after she was sworn in. And they'll do it to whichever Democrat wins in 2020 too unless we take back the Congress.

The bottom line is if you've got a D after your name and there's a Republican Congress, they're going to spend every waking moment looking for some way to impeach.

[H2O Man]

16. There is a lot

of truth to that. I'd add that a portion of the republicans in DC were relieved when impeachment hearings were not held for Reagan, because he had clearly committed impeachable offenses in Iran-contra. But the angry republicans that were led in the mid-1990s by Newt were looking for revenge.

[Major Nikon]

17. The main reason was he got a blowjob from someone other than his wife in the WH

The reason just doesn't get any better. They had absolutely nothing on him criminally because he broke no laws. Neither did he do anything ethically wrong in his job as President.

Their true motivation wasn't all that complicated either. They want to further their agenda of making the rich richer, and anything they can do regardless of how unscrupulous, unethical, or even illegal it is, they will do. In order to accomplish this goal they have cobbled together a core group of supporters that include religious nutbags, gun nutbags, and other assorted groups that are never going to support the left no matter what. As such they will always have a certain percentage of the population that will support them no matter how nefarious their actions.

[pnwmom]

21. Impeachment wasn't a routine thing, prior to Nixon. Other than Nixon, who resigned before

he could be impeached, there was only one other President who had been.

[Major Nikon]

24. The GOP turned impeachment into a partisan strategy

Which is exactly what the founding fathers intended it not to be.

[Jakes Progress]

31. It wasn't even the blowjob.

He got brought up for lying about it. He told a lie about some sex, and since they had just spent several million dollars and several years trying to find out anything - anything at all - that they could hang on him, they set him up by asking the "have you every" question. Then they could say he lied to congress under oath.

By that token, trump could be impeached and his entire cabinet dismissed. Don't you just love the honesty and conviction of the republican party and their voters?

[Major Nikon]

32. That was just the excuse they used

The biggest problem they had was Ann Coulter couldn't legally define a blowjob and nab Clinton in a perjury trap. So they had Clinton on something that was personally embarrassing and difficult to defend himself against.

Their other problem was their impeachment fuckup was a disaster for them politically. Clinton's approval ratings during the impeachment was higher than Saint Ronnie's ever were.

[FSogol]

19. No, the main reason was because he was a likable, successful Democratic politician.

So, they had to destroy him.

[pnwmom]

22. We had had other likable, successful Presidents. Bill was the first one to be impeached.

It was payback.

[FSogol]

28. Really? Who was likeable on a nationwide scale, post-Nixon and pre-Obama?

I do realize Carter won on an populist, anti-Washington themes, but he never matched Clinton's popularity.

[pnwmom]

30. I never said "post Nixon." Nixon's disgrace changed everything. And facing that disgrace,

the GOP has been striving to put the Dems in the same position ever since.

If Bill Clinton was just attacked because he was likable, they'd have gone after John Kennedy, or any number of other Democrats. It was Nixon's humiliation that drove them to retaliate.

[Jimbo101]

20. The Independent Counsel Law expired in 1999 & was never reinstated -

and part of the Clinton Witch hunt (I believe) - was a warning to democrats not to renew it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor#Independent_counsel_law

Unfortunately - it is why we're where we're at not with Trump and the GOP

[Leith]

23. Don't Forget All the Reagan Scandals

Iran Contra, nuns raped and murdered, collusion with Iran about the hostages, HUD grant rigging, Savings & Loan crisis, the list goes on and on.

rethugs were obviously peeved over getting caught so they wanted to attack the political opposition. The charge didn't matter - they wanted blood. They still do.

[blueinredohio]

25. The main reason Clinton got impeached was

Because all republicans were jealous that they didn't get a b.j.

[beachbum bob]

26. If trump keeps going the way he has, majority of GOP would cheer

Removal....

[Orsino]

27. No, the main reason was their need to paralyze a popular Democratic presidency.

It's what they do.