U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens, Long Island), whose Fifth Congressional District includes Great Neck, voted against all four articles of impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.

On Dec. 18, on the floor of the House of Representatives, prior to the impeachment votes, Rep. Ackerman read the following statement regarding the impeachment of President Clinton:

''Mr. Speaker, today we embarrass the memory of our Founding Fathers as we torture the intent of the genius of their system of balancing the awesome powers of government. Mr. Speaker, under your leadership and that of your party we stand here, small men with petty careers and partisan of purpose to diminish yet again our great Republic. Devoid of a sense of proportion and over-burdened with an excess of hubris, you claim conscience as your exclusive domain and deny us the right to offer the will of the people, a motion to censure. Your oligarchic act attempts to recreate a presidency that would serve at your whim rather than at the will of the people.

''To be sure, the President has shamed himself. To be clear, it is we who are about to become the shame of the Nation.''