Letter: Senate needs to declare mistrial

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999 | 12:26 p.m.

They don't want to acquit and they haven't the votes to convict. The Constitution provides for only a "guilty" or "not guilty" vote with a two-thirds majority to convict. The Constitution provides no alternative.

Radical Republicans are looking for a way to bypass the Constitution and convict the president by a simple majority vote.

Other Republican senators are just looking for a way to end the mess the House got them into.

There is a simple and legal solution to their dilemma.

The president was impeached by a lame duck session of the old Congress. Any bill passed by the House but not acted on by the Senate expires when the old Congress adjourns.

Every new Congress has started with a clean slate. This is the first time Congress ever began by acting on "old business."

All the senators need to do is tell the House prosecutors their articles of impeachment are invalid, declare a mistrial, adjourn, and then hope that the House Republicans in the new Congress will realize it is insane to impeach the president when there are not enough votes in the Senate to convict him.

Vernon Bostick