Nicol C. Rae – författare

Impeaching Clinton offers a case study of how the American political system operated during the 1990s and of the criminal factors underpinning the political process. In particular, it examines the congressional aspect of the drama to show that the Lewinksy affair was simply a trigger - that the context for impeachment had been set over the course of two decades of partisan warfare. Drawing on interviews with six of the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee in 1998, Rae and Campbell re-examine why the House Republicans acted in defiance of electoral rationality on the impeachment issue. The authors unravel the web of partisan politics to reveal how the pattern of events was determined, from the decision to open an impeachment inquiry to the eventual acquittal of the president. The book also considers the Judiciary Committee from the perspective of the Democratic minority, who helped shape media coverage and public opinion and the eventual Senate outcome. They show how the Senate was able to bring closure to this highly polarizing proceeding. The Clinton impeachment was the most extreme manifestation of partisan warfare in our time. This book aims to expand our understanding, not only of a particular constitutional crisis, but also of a dynamic that still prevails in congressional politics.

Nicol Rae's engaging account of the Republican revolutionaries' freshman year in Congress persuasively demonstrates that the precepts set forth by Madison in Federalist 10 and 51 are still in force in our remarkably stable political system. The 73 Republican freshmen who entered the House of Representatives after the 1994 election were a well-organized group with majority status and a commitment to change. This book examines the extent to which they were successful in redirecting policy and reforming the institutions of representative government -- and the extent to which those same institutions moderated, and even frustrated, efforts to introduce radical, rapid -- indeed revolutionary -- change. Contrasts are drawn both with the role of the Republican freshmen in the Senate and with the power of the President as manifested in the 1995-96 budget battle. The book is based on interviews conducted by the author when he was an APSA Congressional Fellow in the offices of Rep. George P. Radanovich, president of the freshman Republican class, and Sen. Thad Cochran, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Nicol Rae's engaging account of the Republican revolutionaries' freshman year in Congress persuasively demonstrates that the precepts set forth by Madison in Federalist 10 and 51 are still in force in our remarkably stable political system. The 73 Republican freshmen who entered the House of Representatives after the 1994 election were a well-organized group with majority status and a commitment to change. This book examines the extent to which they were successful in redirecting policy and reforming the institutions of representative government -- and the extent to which those same institutions moderated, and even frustrated, efforts to introduce radical, rapid -- indeed revolutionary -- change. Contrasts are drawn both with the role of the Republican freshmen in the Senate and with the power of the President as manifested in the 1995-96 budget battle. The book is based on interviews conducted by the author when he was an APSA Congressional Fellow in the offices of Rep. George P. Radanovich, president of the freshman Republican class, and Sen. Thad Cochran, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

The elections of 1998 bear out the thesis of this book: so far, the Republicans in Congress are operating more like an old minority party than the new majority party they've become. Still, Congress has changed under Republican leadership and the Republicans have changed, too. This volume of original essays by leading congressional scholars explores the impact of the Republican majority on Congress with attention to the history of the institution and party characteristics present and future. For students and scholars alike, the new majority of an old minority provides a laboratory for political analysis that demonstrates lasting effects. As Republicans learn to govern, the country will no doubt learn something, too.