Sausage, Anyone? by MARK WATKINS Friday, March 12, 1999 There seems little doubt that many Senators "agonized" over their impeachment vote. They felt uniquely burdened deciding the future of the nation. How curious. Isn't "the future of the nation" what all their speechmaking was about when they campaigned for office? "Take this country into the 21st Century ... Return government to the people ... Resurrect the moral fiber of America! ... etc., etc." Could it be that they truly did not understand the full importance of the office to which they aspired? That their passionate oratory was faked orgasms after all?

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Even more curious is that they struggled over such clear options. There were two choices: do what is right, or not. If they had left it at that, the outcome would have been different, I think. But they added another consideration: what is best for the country. Oh, there's a difference? Since when? To convict and remove was both the right thing to do and what was best for the country, and they all knew it. But they chose to vote the opposite. And their decisions were made in secret. The company line first put forth invoked the legal sanctity of secret jury deliberations. But having already claimed that they are more than mere jurors, that argument is vacuous and cheap and they got called for it. Oh, said the leaders. Well, then, we must deliberate secretly else some of us will posture and blather in front of the cameras and microphones, and this is serious business, you know. Ah. Of course. The truth is the deliberations had to be secret because of the deal-making that ensued, the details of which were to be kept from us ignorants. It's like a Texas politician once said of getting a bill passed. It's like making sausage: you don't want to know how it's done or what's in it. Politics is the art of compromise. The reason the Senate struggled so is that there was no room to compromise. Without the customary options of amending, recommitting, tabling, deferring or reconsidering, these folks simply didn't know what to do except retreat to vote the party line. This, of course, was the ultimate cop-out for they in fact did compromise -- the United States of America. But perhaps those damnable opinion polls were right. Maybe none of this really matters anyway. Let's face it: sausage tastes good. Where's the problem?

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