Peter Baker

Peter Baker has an interesting story on the front page of the "Week In Review" section of today's New York Times about the impact of the Clinton impeachment, which occurred 10 years ago this week, on the atmosphere in Washington.  The money quote:

Indeed, except for brief interludes, Washington in the last decade has been governed by a climate of anger and animosity, a modern-day tribalism pitting faction against faction that some trace to the days of the impeachment.

This seems to me to be correct but also misleading.  As someone who not only worked on Capital Hill during Watergate but who worked for a member of the House Judiciary Committee when it was considering legislation to impeach Richard Nixon, there is little doubt in my mind that the "anger and animosity" Baker says has typified Washington since 1998 actually began at least 30 years earlier.  That was when Republicans vowed to get even with Democrats for hounding Nixon out of office.