The late Rep. Henry Hyde, as chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, conferring with aide Daniel Freeman at an April 2002 hearing. (baiduhai Photo by Pete Souza.)
by William Neikirk
Former Illinois congressman Henry Hyde, who led the impeachment effort against President Clinton and also sponsored a high-profile anti-abortion amendment, died today.
The news was confirmed by the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ill.). Hyde, 83, had triple bypass surgery on his heart in July and has been in failing health.
He was a 32-year veteran of the House and was known for his soaring speeches and high intellect. But he was also a tough Republican partisan who rose to chair two key committees of the House, Judiciary and International Relations.Hyde represented a GOP district in suburban Chicago and cut his teeth on the rough-and-tumble politics of the city. He served in the state legislature before being elected to Congress in 1974. Not long after, he sponsored the Hyde amendment, which essentially banned federal funded abortions, and it passed in 1976.
During the impeachment of Clinton, Hyde pushed the charges against Clinton through his panel in a bitterly partisan fight. Even though the House approved the impeachment charges, the Senate later refused to remove Clinton from office.
Shortly before the 2006 elections that marked his chosen exit from political life, Hyde echoed Gen. Douglas McArthur when he told a gathering of consrvative friends a admirers: “When I cross the river for the last time, my thoughts will be of the House, the House, the House.”
Hyde loved a good cigar and good food–and his large bulk made him appear to be a cartoonist’s dream of a congressman. Earlier in life, he had been a stand-up comic, and he was known for his sharp wit.
But controversy also followed him through his career despite the fact that he was highly regarded by both sides as a House personality. He defended his role in the impeachment effort, though it was discovered during the time that he also had had an affair.