Roses Are Red
Violets Are Blue
Here’s the political version
Of what can happen to you!
I originally had another title, and that’s still here. This article seemed to be so long, I expected it to become another article in parts andI surprised myself by still doing just one. Still, we never know when it comes to politics whether this might turn into another series, do we?

Thou Shalt Not Call the Kettle Black: An Early Congressional Valentine – Anniversary of a Failed Impeachment

Seventeen years ago on the 12th of February, the five-week impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton IV came to an abrupt halt with his acquittal in the Senate. Both votes to impeach–for perjury and for obstruction of justice–failed to achieve a 2/3 majority. While the case against him originally had 4 counts, only two passed the House.

According to Wikipedia, “The trial in the United States Senate began right after the seating of the 106th Congress, in which the Republicans began with 55 senators. A two-thirds vote (67 senators) was required to remove Clinton from office. Fifty senators voted to remove Clinton on the obstruction of justice charge and 45 voted to remove him on the perjury charge; no Democrat voted guilty on either charge. Clinton was acquitted, becoming the second sitting United States President to be formally charged with a crime (impeached) and subsequently declared not guilty (acquitted).”

The Wikipedia article referenced a breakdown of votes in the house from Time magazine‘s November 16, 1998 article “Fall of the House of Newt” by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy in which “…the Democrats picked up five seats in the House, while the Republicans still maintained majority control.[Time article footnote #12] The results were a particular embarrassment for House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who, prior to the election, had been reassured by private polling that Clinton’s scandal would result in the GOP gaining as many as thirty House seats.”

Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz for his December 19, 1998 article, “Larry Flynt, Investigative Pornographer,” [footnote #15] and Associated Press’ Jonathan Karl for his “Livingston bows out of the speakership” on the same date [footnote #16, All Politics (CNN)] had noted a surprising move by GOP Speaker-designate, Representative Bob Livingston, to replace Newt Gingrich as House Speaker, when Livingston had announced the end of his candidacy for Speaker as well as his resignation from the US Congress, the result of his own extramarital escapades. During this resignation speech, Rep. Livingston had tried to persuade President Clinton to resign; but instead of that happening, Bill Clinton had not only rejected the suggestion but had encouraged Livingston to rethink his own resignation. [16] Livingston had not been alone among Republican Congressional leaders, including the chief House manager Henry Hyde, all of whom had not only voted for impeachment but had their indiscretions exposed. “Publisher Larry Flynt offered a reward for such information and many supporters of Clinton accused Republicans of hypocrisy.[15]”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HIxodwrKnA

I’ve referenced the Wikipedia article which has a full breakdown of the Senate votes by state, name and party. Pay close attention if you read it to see that the votes weren’t merely split between Democrats and Republicans: Some Democrats voted in favor of impeachment, and some Republicans hadn’t. But the votes never accomplished the mission House Republicans had apparently hoped to see.

The impeachment motion began with the promise of a bang, but the Western-dominated 3rd quadrant–above-the-horizon, of course–chart pointed to relationships. Now it’s important to understand that this matter of “relationships” was not the question of whether President Clinton had been involved in indiscretions like many in the Congress. Although these indiscretions would certainly be examined in the hearings that followed, the proceedings became more of a question of Congress’ having acted as much in union with itself as one might expect with that Mars-ruled Aries rising. Saturn retrograde, conjunct the Ascendant from inside the 12th house, was already forming an 18-minute partile undecaquartisextile (UQSXT) to chart ruler Mars in the 6th, and Mars was also squaring the 9th house Mercury-Venus conjunction to the Saturn-ruled Capricorn Midheaven (MC). The motion itself in the “eyes” of an UQSXT pointed to an effort for recognition and validation perhaps even more than whether the cards of all players were actually being revealed.

As the weeks went by, the question continued to remain in the air: Did President Clinton or didn’t he, and they weren’t talking about Clairol! In the broader perspective of the American voter, when a president has been involved in extramarital “activity,” the question seems to have danced off track from historic timings that had not been addressed with previous presidents. I remember my having read an article somewhere about alleged dalliances of Presidents Kennedy and Vice-President, later President Lyndon B. Johnson, the latter of whom had apparently held a record for randy romps and had a nickname to prove it. But in the midst of these proceedings, President Clinton rejected the idea that he had had an affair since an affair apparently included consummation. He firmly denied it by definition. It also bears noting that many nations had been bewildered by these major events since their leaders were often involved in such things, and no one raised an eyebrow.

On the day of the vote to convict or acquit, Senate was called to order with one more Aries rising. But this time, while Venus was in an interesting 12th house position (often seen as an indicator of indiscretions if all of the other pieces are in place) Jupiter was also in the 12th, a point I see as the angel on the shoulder. The Senate Call to Order chart wasn’t a person rather a government body. Nevertheless, Mars now in Scorpio fell in the 7th house in UQSXT–the only one in this chart!–to the ASC.

Now here’s where things took a surprising and quite delightful turn for me: On the heels of my having read a marvelous article by my friend Robert Wilkinson, I discovered some pretty incredible interactions in the chart. What made this especially profound lies in the semisextile placement of 11th house Mercury at 29 Aquarius 57 and Jupiter in the 12th house at 29 Pisces 55. I had begun to hunt for any undecaquartisextiles I had missed since I could only find that lone aspect Mars to the ASC. Next, I noticed the Mercury/Jupiter midpoint fell at 14 Pisces 56 which was forming a 40-minute partile conjunction to the Saturn/Neptune midpoint at 15 Pisces 36.

This pair of midpoints nudged me in a completely unexpected direction to the placement of Venus at 18°34, forming a  37-minute partile orb between Mercury and Venus, pointing to what Robert identified as the vigintile aspect. Robert wrote in his article on the quindecile (24°) and the vigintile (18°), “I believe the Vigintile and Quindecile are minor but important points in the closing or opening of a cycle between planets. I believe the waxing Vigintile shows us the birth of the possibility of a gift or specialization which then hits the Quindecile point which is one-third of the way to the full gift or specialization reached by the quintile.”

The idea of having an opportunity to work with this aspect in mundane astrology as well excited me, and I went with it to see if it held water, so to speak. I hadn’t seen much written about the Vigintile beyond Robert’s having mentioned it, and nothing at all in the area of mundane astrology. It fit perfectly! The Mercury-Venus placement with the emphasis on 12th house Venus in this case might be said to beg the question of the valentine: Since the Mercury/Venus midpoint tends to indicate thoughts of love and the appreciation of beauty, I wondered what would happen if I considered that as well. Again, I went with it and discovered the midpoint at 9 Pisces 15, where transiting Neptune will be in a mere 6 days, on the 22nd of February 2016!

I have to admit, the moment I spotted these degrees and have noticed how they seem to be especially focused on this month, I wondered whether some of the political mudslinging that takes place this month will again attempt to point fingers at former President Clinton when he was already acquitted.
At 2:39 pm on February 12, 1999, the vote for full acquittal was declared by the US Senate. This time, Mercury ruled the chart with the ASC at 21 Gemini 00 and Mercury at 00 Pisces 10 at the apex of the chart in the 10th house while the 9th house Sun was second in line for apex position at 23 Aquarius 33, conjunct the South Node. Please be aware, btw, these are all confirmed times with which Ive worked based on the news or the Congressional Record, so I consider them about as valid as they get. When the acquittal announcement came out, the dominances–while still understandably Western, above-the-horizon–had shifted to offer a 3rd and 4th quadrant split. The decision had been made, and it was set in stone. The acquittal chart, in fact, showed the closest UQSXT–between 6th house Chiron and the Ascendant–at exactly 3° of orb. There really was no guessing at the time. The Senate was convinced of its vote.

Saturn had moved to 28 Aries 34, forming a 22- minute partile conjunction from inside the first house of the impeachment motion chart. All of the pieces began to close in to offer a clear understanding that there wasn’t going to be a guilty verdict, regardless of how hard those initiating the proceedings had tried. Of course, the original title of this article–Saturn had moved to 28 Aries 34, forming a 22- minute partile conjunction from inside the first house of the impeachment motion chart. All of the pieces began to close in to offer a clear understanding that there wasn’t going to be a guilty verdict, regardless of how hard those initiating the proceedings had tried. Of course, the original title of this article–Thou Shalt Not Call the Kettle Black: An Early Congressional Valentine – Anniversary of a Failed Impeachment— really does say it all, doesn’t it?

But no, we aren’t done yet. After all, we’re in the midst of a new Presidential campaign season. These issues are again in the news even though Bill Clinton can’t run for a third term–not even after all of these years. On the other hand, remember Hillary is running. Whether or not you like her as a potential presidential candidate, in all fairness to yourself and the voting booths as they begin to take increased prominence in each of the United States, do take time to familiarize yourself with the history of that impeachment, of who voted how as well as the parties and how the split went down. Also keep in mind that an air of calling the kettle black was present back then: Many of those who tried to impeach President Clinton soon admitted to their own sexual escapades outside of their marriages.

For that matter, Washington itself tended to have those closed-door whispers going on in ways that even the likes of Ashley Madison might not have been able to show as competition. (For that matter, we’ve recently heard of former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer’s latest troubles in a brief accusation of his so-called assault on a prostitute who later recanted her charge. Like those in Congress, he stepped down when his extramarital activities had become public. While his wife stood by him, she apparently later divorced him.) I’m reminded of what we can call sideline events in the political arena simply because they leave a sour taste when those pointing fingers at others for their wrongdoings are guilty of these very same things. Those same people resigned their Congressional offices after admitting their wrongdoings.

As for me, I’m not going to be judge and jury for these matters. That’s between the individuals involved and their choice of their higher powers. But it behooves each voter to be as fully informed and aware as possible: Faulting a current candidate for a spouse’s wrongdoings–or not–especially from so long ago is simply not fair. Those involved are presumed to be adults since one must be over the age of 35 to be elected to the highest office in the land. Spouses are not each other’s parents, responsible for what their other half has done. It’s time to let that past remain where it is because the current candidates weren’t involved–other than one having been and remaining a spouse, and what happened (or happens) between them behind their closed doors still holds the sanctity of their relationship until which time it ends up in a court of law. Their marriage wasn’t on the drawing board for his guilt or innocence. Hopefully this vote won’t be part of anyone’s current or historic choice of candidate in November either.

There are no coincidences, remember, and the following will prove this to be so. I began this article with thoughts related to Valentine’s Day historic news and found so much more:

I’ve shown you Congress’ valentine to President Bill Clinton, but next came another valentine in the form of a speech delivered by President Teddy Roosevelt on February 13, 1905, when he addressed the New York City Republican Club. While I’ve placed noon as the time for the speech, I’m still considering it an untimed chart. It could have easily been a breakfast meeting and not at all closer to noon. But have a look first at his chart and its links to the impeachment hearings–and the current events related to the Presidential campaign trail, this time on race relations.
Take note of the conjunction between his natal Jupiter at 21 Gemini 04 and the 21 Gemini 00 ASC in the full acquittal chart while the Midheaven (MC) in Teddy Roosevelt’s chart is placed at 00 Pisces 15 and the acquittal chart Mercury conjuncts the MC at 00 Pisces 10. Perhaps some who give a wave of the hand and say, “Oh, just coincidence!” which might be true were it not for Roosevelt’s birth some 140 years and some months before the impeachment proceedings against a president he’d never know would take place.

President Roosevelt’s chart showed the Part of Fortune at 12 Libra 05, a mere 4-minute partile conjunction to where Mars was placed at the time the impeachment motion began while Mars in the Senate Called to Order chart showed Mars in the 7th at 6 Scorpio 13 in a 24-minute partile opposition to President Roosevelt’s natal Pluto. What makes this kind of comparison so important in the chart of a man born more than a century before the impeachment proceedings against Mr. Clinton had begun? Teddy Roosevelt had been born about 2.5 years before the first shots of the American Civil War had been fired, when landowners, fathers and sons fought on both sides against their flesh and blood over a critical issue at that time–slavery. And by the time Teddy had been inaugurated and was speaking before the New York City Republican Club not even 50 years later, race was an issue, and his speech was on “Lincoln and the Race Problem.”
I’m not going to go through each and every aspect of the pretty much untimed speech chart, but take note of the following: The Sun makes a 4-minute partile orb in its UQSXT to the North Node (NN); Saturn’s UQSXT to the NN holds a 51-minute partile orb. Uranus and Pluto show a 1°45 orb, and the Uranus-ASC UQSXT has a 1°39 orb. Mars and Jupiter form another UQSXT with a 3°12 orb. You’ll also want to pay close attention to a cycle showing in this chart where Uranus was already in an approaching opposition to Neptune. Fourteen years later, a maze of riots throughout the United States became known as the “Red Summer.” Tears and blood were flowing. Surely Teddy Roosevelt must have seen that coming.

We haven’t necessarily advanced all that much in this stretch of time. Many things we’re still trying to resolve in protests focused on Black Lives Matter, in angry citizens rightfully marching to express their fury at police brutalities and senseless murders in small and large city streets across America, in the senseless crippling of a newly arrived immigrant from Gujarat, India because police hadn’t realized the man didn’t understand English.  (The link I’ve posted here is to my Facebook Note on the subject. Ironically, I’ve just noticed I posted that on February 13, 2015!) So of course the current Presidential campaign is addressing matters related to people of color. That includes candidates attempting to garner the support of the Black caucus and other groups throughout the nation–and the race in the Southern states. What timing to think that the same period in which lovers express their affections, a president would have been acquitted for an alleged seduction and another president would have addressed his constituents on the subject of race!

On the campaign trail, the cheers and boos will continue, and most Americans won’t remember that President Clinton was acquitted just two days before Valentine’s Day or that another president spoke about race over a century ago just a day before what’s thought to be a day of love. As a final note, Teddy really did leave a valentine too: He concerned himself with others’ needs and put aside his own on that day. I wonder if he might have done so in memory of his having lost both his wife and his mother on Valentine’s Day in 1884.

Until next time…

Namaste, I love you,
Michelle

©2016 Michelle Young