"Moran Was Furious At Clinton, And He All But Asked Carville To Pass Along The Message That The President Should Resign."

The book A Vast Conspiracy by Jeffrey Toobin states the following:

In the first weekend after the release of the Starr report, the Clinton presidency teetered. Far more than when he was actually impeached by the House or tried by the Senate, this brief period was the closest the president came to being forced from office. During these frantic couple of days, James Carville happened to make a speech in northern Virginia, where he ran into James Moran, a moderate Democratic congressman from the area. Moran was furious at Clinton, and he all but asked Carville to pass along the message that the president should resign. A stampede for resignation from within the president's own party—the kind that finally drove Nixon to quit—seemed a real possibility.

The important point is that "Moran was furious at Clinton" for reasons having nothing to do with policy differences. Moran was comfortable using even a Republican lynch mob as a weapon to pressure President Clinton to leave office. Here is how the 10/8/98 edition of the Cavalier Daily reported on Moran's support for a Republican proposal to open an unlimited investigation into President Clinton in hopes of driving Clinton from office:

Jim McIntyre, spokesman for Rep. Moran, said Moran also will vote to continue the inquiry. McIntyre said Moran supports a Democrat-sponsored resolution authorizing the inquiry, but limiting it to criminal activity surrounding Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky. If that measure is defeated, as expected, Moran will vote for the Republican-sponsored resolution, which launches an inquiry unlimited in scope.

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