IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY MUST BE BIPARTISAN

Thirty-one Democrats voted for the impeachment resolution the House passed week before last. Included in their number were two members from western Missouri, U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Lexington, and U.S. Rep. Pat Danner, D-Kansas City. Skelton called it "the saddest vote I ever cast," adding, "I went over it in detail, and it drove me to the conclusion that there should be a formal inquiry." Neither Skelton nor Danner has a strong challenger in this year's election.

The same can't be said of Democratic U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, who is fighting for his political life in his northwestern Illinois district. Evans voted for the inquiry, saying: "To limit in any way the scope or the time of the inquiry, I thought the American people might not have confidence in the process itself."

U.S. Rep. Robert Weygand, D-Rhode Island, who voted for the resolution, said, "We can't ignore wrongdoing and say it's OK." Said U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio: "There will be no accountability without an open hearing. And there will be no closure for the country, for this Congress and for our president without an open hearing."

They are right, of course. This impeachment, only the third of all our presidents, is and must be a bipartisan affair.