Reply #48: they lost seats in 1998 and 2000 [View All]

the reality is that in 1998 (after the impeachment effort against Clinton began, but before the articles were voted), the repubs lost 6 seats in the House and failed to pick up anything in the Senate -- the first time in over 150 years that the non-presidential party had failed to pick up ground in the sixth year of an opposition presidency.

In 2000, after the impeachment process was over and done, the repubs lost 4 seats in the Senate and two more in the House (and they lost the popular vote for the presidency and, but for the scotus, would've lost the electoral college vote as well).

In 2002 and 2004, the repubs picked back up Senate seats and house seats -- gains that were attributable to the public's reaction to 9/11 and the war, not to the clinton impeachment effort.

Put another way, the "historical" record shows that the GOP did not come back with bigger majorities as a result of the clinton impeachment effort. To the contrary, they lost ground which they only made up after 9/11.