Infinite Monkeys

Henry Hyde, RIP

Henry Hyde, Republican stalwart from Illinois, chief manager of the House prosecution to impeach President Clinton, and author of the three-decade-old amendment bearing his name banning federal funding of abortion, is dead. He was 83.

Vice President Cheney saluted Hyde last year. David Freddoso and John Miller have some fond memories of Hyde's distinguished career. And National Review editorialized in Hyde's honor earlier this month, on the occasion of his Presidential Medal of Freedom. "Hyde’s reputation withstood a severe test during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when he led the House in impeaching Bill Clinton but failed to convince the Senate to remove Clinton from office," NR's editors wrote.

He was attacked repeatedly and often ruthlessly. His determination to press the case nevertheless led to a meaningful punishment for Clinton (the disgrace of impeachment), as the public wanted and as justice demanded.

During the height of the impeachment controversy, Rep. Maxine Waters, a left-wing Democrat, tried to scold Hyde: “History will not be kind to you.” She was wrong. History will remember Henry Hyde for precisely what he was: One of the great congressmen of his generation — or any generation.

My wife (then-fiancé) and I had the honor of meeting Hyde in 1999, when the Claremont Institute gave him its statesmanship award. We escorted him from the reception to his table in the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena. I remember that he was extremely gracious, but that his back was hurting "like hell."

Henry Hyde was a statesman, mind you, not a saint. At the height of the Clinton-Lewinsky hullaballoo in 1998, smut-peddler Larry Flynt revealed that Hyde had an extramarital affair nearly 30 years earlier. Flynt and the press made the revelation under the utterly insipid belief that the Clinton impeachment was "only about sex." It wasn't. Jim Rogan, another House prosecutor who had played the field in his youth, joshed one day on with Hyde about Flynt's exposé. But Hyde turned to Rogan, crestfallen, and said, "How am I supposed to explain this to my grandchildren?"

Whatever his failings -- and Heaven knows we all have them -- Henry Hyde was a better man than Bill Clinton or four-fifths of his colleagues could ever hope to be. May God rest his soul.

Posted by Ben at November 29, 2007 10:39 PM | TrackBack