A coup attempt in Washington?

by Peter H. Merkl

"Was the 1998-1999 Republican effort to impeach and remove President Clinton, with its glaring violations of the constitution and of due process of law, an attempted coup d'etat against our democratic system? This is an investigation, with hundreds of revealing quotes from French, British, German, Italian, and other newspapers, of how differently European journalists interpreted our attempt to impeach and remove our twice-elected president. It is not an effort to defend President Clinton. Contrary to the opinions of the U.S. media, Europeans did not just snicker about U.S. attitudes toward sex scandals - they did little of that - but they critically and knowledgeably examined the obvious abuses of American legal procedures and concepts (for example, perjury) and relevant constitutional clauses. They saw the Republican effort as a five-year vendetta culminating in a quasi-constitutional coup attempt, not just the pursuit of a scandal, and believed an important part of the U.S. media was