(12 Feb 1999) English/Nat
After three days of private deliberations, U-S senators were expected to cast their votes on the two impeachment counts against President Bill Clinton on Friday.
With another Republican senator announcing on Thursday that she would vote to acquit President Clinton, the outcome appeared certain well in advance.
Now, it may be impossible for Republican House Managers to muster even 51 votes for a pyschologically-significant simple majority on either article of impeachment.
What one senator called "this sordid affair" appears to be just about over.
An odd calm has descended on the Senate.
But while the proceedings remain behind closed doors, outside few senators can resist the opportunity to explain their position on the vote.
After thirteen months of press conferences, debates, hearings and trial, there appears to be little suspense over the outcome.
Clinton's acquittal now looks certain, with Republicans unlikely to get even a simple majority for conviction -- far less the two-thirds the Constitution requires.
But many say the affair has left the president with a tarnished image, one that will complicate his dealings with Congress for the remainder of his term.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I don't think there's any question but what Bill Clinton will go down in history as the President remembered as the most accomplished, polished liar we have ever had serving in the White House. I find it very distasteful to have to use those words in public about the President. I have stood on the floor of the Senate with Senator Bird as he has rebuked senators who have called the president a liar, but it came today over and over and over again from both side of the aisle, and people who feel that way about the President, even if they are with him on a policy matter, cannot help but have a different dynamic.
SUPER CAPTION: Senator Robert Bennett, Republican
Yet, that characterization of the president did not prevent Republican Senator Olympia Snowe from announcing she would vote to acquit the president.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There is acknowledgement by everybody that the President's behaviour was deplorable, indefensible, reprehensible. I think he'd find very few advocates or defenders with respect to his behaviour and I think many of us think it's ultimately had an impact on this country. It's damaged the office of the presidency and it's harmed everybody that's been involved."
SUPER CAPTION: Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican
That brings to a total of four the number of Republican Senators already saying they will side with their Democratic colleagues.
Most believe that Friday's vote will come around noon (1700gmt), followed by a statement by President Clinton.
That address to the nation may well prove more of a test for Clinton than the vote that precedes it.
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