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From The Times
January 15, 2008
Oral history: The Monica Lewinsky scandal ten years on
Ten years after a young intern nearly brought down a president, the players in the Monica Lewinsky scandal talk to our correspondent
On the evening of Saturday January 17, 1998, the internet gossip merchant Matt Drudge posted a story that opened the most sensational scandal season in the history of the American presidency. He reported that Newsweek magazine had killed a story about President Clinton’s sexual relationship with a former intern. The next day he had her name: Monica Lewinsky.
The mainstream media were slow to catch up, but by the following Tuesday they were reporting that Clinton was being investigated for encouraging others to lie to cover up the affair.
For the next year the story dominated the headlines as Clinton was investigated, impeached and eventually found not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours in a Senate trial.
Ten years on we know what happened to Bill Clinton. He is campaigning tirelessly for his wife as she seeks to win the second Clinton presidency. It is a curious twist of fate, and an indication of how deep were the repercussions of the scandal, that her campaign might not be happening if it weren’t for Monica Lewinsky.
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For it was in the wake of the scandal, in which Hillary was seen as the wronged wife, that she decided to run for the Senate from New York. Her shamed husband, anxious to try to make things up to her, eagerly threw his weight behind the move. A wave of sympathy helped to sweep her to victory. As soon as she was elected, talk began about her running for president.
But what of the other dramatis personae from that sorry saga? Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House, resigned when voters expressed their disapproval at the impeachment drive. Two years later, though, scandal fatigue severely complicated Al Gore’s presidential campaign. Now many of the Clinton aides intimately involved in the defence of the President are at his wife’s side. Many other supporting actors saw their lives changed for ever. Some are desperate to stay in the spotlight, others would love to be able to leave the stage, but few have been able to find the exit.
Paula Jones: the woman who started it all
Paula Jones was not the first of the Clinton women. There had been many before her and there were more after. But she was the trigger for the investigation of the President that nearly brought him down. Jones brought a sexual harassment case claiming that when she was a lowly state employee and he was Arkansas Governor a state trooper took her to Clinton’s hotel room, where he exposed himself.
The case came tantalisingly close to being settled before Monica Lewinsky ever appeared on the radar. But when it became clear that Clinton would not apologise as part of the deal, Jones, spurred on by her angry husband, pressed ahead with it.
Her lawyers wanted to establish a pattern of behaviour, and it was during the process of tracking down other women employed by the state or federal government who had been sexually involved with Clinton that the Lewinsky relationship was discovered. In November 1998, after admitting to the Lewinsky affair and facing a Senate trial, Clinton belatedly settled the case, agreeing to pay Jones $850,000 but not admitting any wrongdoing or apologising.
Since then Jones and her husband have divorced. In posing nude for Penthouse she was denounced as “trailer-park trash” by one former high-profile conservative supporter and she lost a televised boxing match against Tonya Harding, the former figure skater notorious for her part in a plot to harm her fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan.
Jones, 41, remarried and has a four-year-old son, as well as two older children, aged 15 and 11. She works for a real estate agent in Little Rock. She talks on the phone but declines to meet for an interview because “I’m kinda wanting to write a book. Nobody ever would have had books out there if it wasn’t for me in the first place and I’m the one who seems to be blackballed and not been able to tell my story.” Publishers are either “big-time liberal or they’re scared. Maybe they want to protect the up-coming election. Everybody who has been connected to the Clinton scandal has done a book, even Monica Lewinsky. If it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to line their pockets.”
She says the settlement did not cover her huge legal fees and she still owes money to lawyers. How will she repay it? “I won’t. They know that.”
Unsurprisingly, she says she won’t be voting for Hillary and is astonished that Bill and Hillary Clinton are still campaigning. “I just laugh, that’s all I do. Lord have mercy, I don’t know. Everybody had to have their part; they didn’t care what I ended up with. Have you got any book people you could send in my direction?”
Kathleen Willey: the accuser from the Oval Office
Kathleen Willey sits drinking tea on a balcony at the grand Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. She talks softly, but that doesn’t diminish her anger at Bill Clinton and, more surprisingly, his wife.
Willey and her late husband Ed, the son of a prominent Virginian politician, helped to form Virginians for Clinton when he ran for president in 1992. On one occasion during the campaign a sick Clinton tried to persuade Willey to bring him chicken soup in his hotel room when Hillary wasn’t around. She declined that and other invitations, but went to work as a volunteer in the White House after he was elected. Volunteers were amazed at how friendly he was towards her. Others called her flirtatious.
One day in 1993, when her husband was in desperate financial difficulties of his own making, she went to see Clinton in the Oval Office to ask for a proper job. During their meeting, she says, he sexually assaulted her. He groped her and put her hand on his erect penis while aides were outside banging on the door because he was late for a meeting. She extricated herself and left.
She says now that what he did was “wrong and slimy and predatory, but it was not devastating”. In any case, she had other things on her mind. Her husband did not come home that night: the next day he was found dead in remote woodland, having apparently shot himself. There was a report of a gunshot around 3pm, the time she had been in the Oval Office. “Almost at the exact moment,” she muses. “It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.”
Willey, 61, says she never wanted the story of what she claims happened in the Oval Office to become public. But she confided in people, including Linda Tripp, who would later befriend Lewinsky. Somebody tipped off Paula Jones’s lawyers (she says it was not her) and Willey was issued with a subpoena.
Tripp, who encountered Willey shortly after the alleged incident, has given different accounts of what Willey told her, suggesting at first that Willey did not speak of an assault and that she seemed happy after the Oval Office encounter. Later, Tripp said that she believed Willey’s account.
Willey was criticised in the final report of the independent prosecutor’s office for some contradictions in two different accounts of the incident that she gave. In the end it was a “he said-she said” and evidence was not available to charge Clinton with lying under oath about what had happened that day.
Willey did not sell her story at the time or write a book. But now, just in time for the presidential primaries, a conservative publisher has released her memoir – Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton. She has done more than 160 radio interviews to promote the book but says it is not just about hitting Hillary’s campaign.
“Is it just to get back at the Clintons? No, it’s not revenge, but I think that it’s a powerful story about what happened to an ordinary American woman who found herself involved in the biggest political scandal that ever happened in this country.”
She says she expected Clinton to say that all he did at their meeting was give her a peck on the forehead – “he wasn’t going to admit it” – and was not surprised by his ungentlemanly comment to Monica Lewinsky that he would not go for Willey because she had small breasts.
When people suggest that any sexual activity was consensual, “basically I just laugh”.
Others have questioned her state of mind in the aftermath of her husband’s death. “You don’t misremember things like that. Women don’t misread a situation like that,” she says. “I was in a time of need, frightened, panicky, my world was crashing in on me. I went to see a friend for help, he took complete advantage of me.”
Her credibility suffered a blow at the time of her original allegations, when the White House released friendly letters that she wrote to Clinton after the incident. She robustly defends this action, saying that she wrote them with her lawyer’s approval because she was desperate for a job to ease her parlous financial situation.
She was subsequently given some assignments, including places on overseas delegations for which she lacked experience, but Clinton did not come up with a job for her.
She believes that Clinton is a sex addict and Hillary is an enabler. “Rather than address the problem, it’s this ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’. Rather than give him an ultimatum and kick him out and say you are not coming back until you get well, she has enabled his behaviour and it hasn’t stopped.
Really, how much public humiliation can one woman stand?”
She goes as far as to call Hillary Clinton “evil” for what she believes was her role in trying to destroy the credibility of the women who claimed sexual relationships with her husband. “A lot of women out there are voting for the first time and are excited about voting for a woman. This country is certainly ready to be run by a woman. Just not this woman.”
A few years ago Willey remarried, but that marriage has ended. She has two grown-up children who accept her decision to put herself back in the public eye, and three grandchildren.
Some of her allegations seem wild. She believes that shadowy figures subjected her to a campaign of intimidation that included killing her cat.
But some of her other claims, if true, are puzzling. For example, why should anyone break into her house, as she said someone did last year, and take only one thing: a copy of the manuscript for her book? Like many aspects of this scandal, the truth seems likely to remain shrouded in murk.
Linda Tripp: the woman who was everyone’s friend
I find Linda Tripp, 58, at the Christmas Sleigh, a year-round Christmas store that she runs with her husband in the twee town of Middleburg in affluent Virginia horse country, about an hour from Washington. At least, I think I find her. As I walk up the street I see a woman who looks like Linda Tripp entering the store. She disappears into a back room. I spend a few minutes admiring the pricey wooden German toys and traditional Austrian clothes. A stack of copies of a book about Christmas in the White House is prominently displayed.
Then she emerges from the back room. “Linda,” I say, going to introduce myself. She looks at me for a moment and then corrects me: “Karen.”
Linda Tripp, who had worked for and revered the first President Bush, was one of the few who stayed on to work for the Clinton Administration. She had an uncanny ability to turn up wherever scandal hit. She was possibly the last person to see Vince Foster, the Clinton lawyer who was found dead in what was officially suicide but has kept conspiracy theorists busy ever since. She was a colleague and sometime friend of Willey but later accused her, according to Willey, of taking her job and gossiped about Willey’s relationship with Clinton.
She moved to the Pentagon, where she befriended Lewinsky, who had been moved out of the White House by aides concerned about her relationship with the President. Tripp became the younger woman’s confidante as she agonised about what Clinton really thought of her.
Tripp has always maintained that she taped their phone calls because she feared that she was being pressured to say she would lie about Willey and Lewinsky in the event that she was ever subpoenaed. But it became clear that she was also out to get Clinton and manipulated the situation. She was in cahoots with Lucianne Goldberg, a literary agent with links to conservatives, and talked about a book deal. She led Lewinsky on to discuss Clinton while she was taping, she encouraged her to use a courier service to send her packages so that there would be a paper trail and she insisted that Lewinsky hold on to the famous blue Gap dress soiled with the President’s semen, which became crucial evidence that finally persuaded Clinton to admit to the affair.
Tripp volunteered to give evidence in the Paula Jones case and then went to Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor, triggering his probe of the President. She participated in an FBI sting operation in which she wore a wire to record her friend and then arranged to meet Lewinsky again so that agents could apprehend her.
She became a hate figure for many and was depicted as a villain of the piece. An odd twist was that she was one of the few players in the drama to be prosecuted, when she was charged with illegal wire tapping for secretly taping her calls with Lewinsky. The case was eventually dismissed. On the final day of the Clinton administration, she was dismissed from her job.
In the intervening years she has survived breast cancer and married her childhood sweetheart, a German architect, Dieter Rausch. Together they opened the Christmas Sleigh. She has had extensive plastic surgery.
I look at the woman who calls herself Karen and she looks back, her mouth twitching. She bears an uncanny resemblance to the pictures I have seen of Tripp, postplastic surgery. Could this be Linda’s sister? But her sister isn’t called Karen.
I explain who I am and that I had heard Linda owns the shop. “She does actually – with her husband,” says the woman who calls herself Karen. That must have been the husband I had glimpsed going into the back of the store earlier wearing lederhosen, just as he is pictured in the leaflet advertising the store.
But no, it cannot be him because, as Karen tells me when I ask if I can speak to them: “They are not here right now. They won’t be back until tomorrow.”
But you are here. You are her, I want to say. But then I remember what Linda Tripp told Monica when discussing what she would say if she was asked under oath about the affair with Clinton: “I would do almost anything for my kids, but I don’t think I would lie on the stand for them.” Linda Tripp would not pretend to be someone else when a reporter came in.
“She doesn’t speak to the press at all,” says the woman who calls herself Karen, but then adds: “I am told they are going to do one interview,” for the tenth anniversary. I wonder who told Karen. Linda?
“They have a lot of media requests,” she says and heads to the back of the shop. “You are welcome to not take any pictures.”
I thank her and remark to myself on the extraordinary coincidence of having two people in one small shop who both look exactly like Linda Tripp after she has had some work done.
Monica Lewinsky: the world’s most famous intern
Monica Lewinsky was 21 when, as a White House intern, she delivered pizza to the President, flirted with him, flashed her thong and began an 18-month relationship that involved oral sex, phone sex, an infamous incident with a cigar, a great deal of soul-searching about what he really felt for her and then increasing fear and panic as it became clear that the relationship could become public.
In the immediate aftermath of the scandal she wrote her account, with Andrew Morton, and promoted the book with interviews. She resented how Clinton had characterised the relationship: “He talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking. I was the buffet and he just couldn’t resist the dessert. That’s not how it was. This was a mutual relationship, mutual on all levels.”
She started a venture making handbags, appeared on Saturday Night Live and hosted a reality show, Mr Personality. Then she tried to go under the radar. She enrolled at the London School of Economics, and-graduated in December 2006 with a masters in social psychology.
Apart from the occasional sighting of her in New York or Los Angeles, the 34-year-old has been invisible. “After she graduated we tried to keep a low profile,” says her friend and sometime publicist, Barbara Hutson. “She’s getting on with her life, she never wanted to be a public figure. She’s going to try and be as anonymous as possible. But she’s never going to be, especially if Hillary becomes President. The kids who didn’t know who she was will now know who she is because her name is constantly being brought up due to Hillary’s running. She was 21 years old, it was a stupid thing. She made a mistake. Look at all the girls who are doing crazy things now.”
Hutson says the Clinton Administration tried to ruin Lewinsky’s reputation. “They destroyed her and never apologised. They ruined this girl’s life. Every major company here has somebody on the board who is friends with Bill. They are not going to give her a job no matter how smart she is.”
Hutson says that when Nixon and Reagan were engulfed by scandal the stories were called Watergate and Iran-Contra, but the emphasis of the 1998 scandal was put on the intern rather than the President. She says the media were influenced by the White House to coin the phrases Monicagate and the Lewinsky scandal. It is hard to imagine that such nomenclature was uppermost in the minds of presidential aides at the time but Hutson believes “very simply they put it all on her and for ever that will haunt her. She is a private citizen and her name is mud, her family’s name. Why didn’t they call it Clintongate?”
She will not say where Lewinsky is now, although when pressed admits that despite reports at the time of her graduation that she was job hunting in London, she is unlikely to be seen in the UK. Hutson jokes that Lewinsky could be in India or hiding on a farm in the Midwest, but says that she would not give an interview because “if she comes out now and says anything, if Hillary loses they will blame her. Probably if Hillary loses it will be the best thing for her.”
Bob Bittman: the man with the awkward questions
Bob Bittman had the job of asking almost certainly the most extraordinary questions ever put to a President of the United States. Questions such as: “Mr President, if there is a semen stain belonging to you on a dress of Ms Lewinsky’s, how would you explain that?” (Answer: “We met that night and talked. So that’s a question you already know the answer to.”) Bittman was deputy to the independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, and ran the investigation into Monica Lewinsky. There was an early discussion in the Starr team about whether it was appropriate to proceed, but a unanimous decision was taken that there was ongoing criminal activity in the form of efforts to deny the relationship in the Paula Jones case and possible suborning perjury and obstruction of justice.
Bittman was astonished by what he learnt from the tapes and interviews. For the President to carry on with a 21-year-old intern while facing a sexual harassment case was “crazy”. Amid a media feeding frenzy, the lawyers worked in a sealed building round the clock to check every fact to establish if Lewinsky was telling the truth about the relationship.
“We just had to focus on the next stage of the investigation and check everything out to see if it fitted with Monica’s account. We could only do the best job we could.” Of the morning that he interrogated the President, Bittman says: “I was nervous.
But I had been very well prepared. We all wished it had not got to that stage. If he had admitted it earlier he would have spared himself and the country that ordeal.”
The line of questioning had been carefully prepared with a lawyer standing in for Clinton. Some episodes that appeared in evidence, such as whether the President had masturbated into a bin during one encounter, were not pursued because they were not relevant to the legal case. He was, however, asked about the cigar because the act of insertion could have constituted “sexual relations”, which Clinton had denied. Bittman didn’t balk. “They were questions that had to be asked. We only asked questions that had some direct relevance to the crimes we were investigating. I felt that Clinton did pretty well. Very sophisticated, very well prepared, and very experienced at misleading people.”
The Starr team did not want much of the information they had uncovered to enter the public domain, because they believed it was too salacious and they wanted to preserve the dignity of the presidency. But when it was sent to Capitol Hill the House of Representatives decided to release it all before even reading it. “Our position was that it was not our job to tell the House what should or should not be made public. We believed that the House – especially because we had specifically warned them in the transmittal letter of the sensitive nature of the facts – would act responsibly and at least read the referral before releasing it.”
He has no doubts that Clinton should have been impeached (charged with an offence). “Our job was to investigate and present our findings. It was up to the House to impeach. Personally if I had been in the House I would have voted to impeach and if I had been in the Senate I would have voted to convict. But it became a political decision, as it should be. I believe we presented a strong and compelling case. I think history bears out that Clinton did the things outlined in our referral.”
One of his few regrets was the decision not to respond to the media campaign being waged by the White House against what they were doing. If they had done a better job of explaining to people that they weren’t just investigating sex but wrongdoing in a sexual harassment case, public sentiment might then have been less hostile and the politicians might have been more willing to convict of high crimes and misdemeanours.
This might also have improved the image of Starr, who was popularly portrayed as a witch-finder, obsessed with sex. “Judge Starr is a very bright man. He was a great leader and very generous with his staff. He always tried to do the right thing. He always stayed within the law.” Starr is now the Dean of Pepperdine School of Law in California and busy in private practice, where he has raised eyebrows by working for convicts on death row, saving the life of one man the day before he was scheduled for execution.
After the investigation was wound down the statute that allowed for independent prosecutors was not renewed. There was widespread agreement that this was right because it allowed parties to claim that the prosecutors were out of control and not accountable.
Bittman is a career prosecutor who now works for a big Washington firm. The Lewinsky investigation helped his career because it made him well known. The downside is that he encounters people who resent him for his involvement in such a polarising case. The Starr team enjoy regular reunions. Working on that investigation was “like nothing else. You work long hours, all working on the same case and everyone is at the top of their game,” says Bittman. “In that sense it was great fun.”
Mike Isikoff: reporter who lost the scoop of his life
Michael Isikoff of Newsweek magazine was covering the Paula Jones story when he tracked down Kathleen Willey. She told him that there was somebody who would corroborate her story, who had seen her soon after she emerged from the Oval Office. That woman was Linda Tripp. When Tripp got talking she put the reporter on the trail of Monica Lewinsky.
After Kenneth Starr’s agents brought Lewinsky in, Isikoff wrote a story about the investigation only for the scoop of his life to be spiked by nervous editors at Newsweek. Isikoff got much of the credit for unearthing the story and went on to write a successful book, Uncovering Clinton. He subsequently won awards for his reporting of President’s Bush’s War on Terror, but a story he wrote about a Koran being flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay led to rioting in the Muslim world that caused at least 17 deaths, and Newsweek retracted it. He declined to comment about his role in the Lewinsky story or whether he still dreams of the glory that might have been.
His name has been eclipsed by that of Matt Drudge, who leapt from obscurity to worldwide fame in a few million clicks. Today his bulletin board, which links to stories from other media and throws out titbits of gossip, often gets more than 20 million hits a day. Despite the disapproval of many in the mainstream media he is arguably the most influential figure in American news, and a jealous guardian of his own privacy.
I did not realize he and she were on "break". I feel much better knowing that, although they were in the oval office, they were two consenting adults in private. Thankfully we taxpayers were not "Billed" for their private moments.
B. Jack, Pismo Beach, CA
Two consenting adults, in private. What's the big deal? What is in the public interest is not always the same as what is of interest to the public. The US public needs to grow up.
Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan
Isikoff "wrote about a Koran being flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay [which] led to rioting in the Muslim world that caused at least 17 deaths, and Newsweek retracted it"?
Doesnt' that sound like Newsweek retracted the story primarily to simmer down the Muslim rioters? In fact, Newsweek had to retract, _because the story was false!_ Remember? Not that there's anything wrong with publishing false or misleading stories in the newspaper.
S. Britchky, Rancho Mirage, California
After some six decades living as a woman in a society in which one needs to be both a bit smarter and a bit tougher to make it, the idea of the first US woman president is an exciting one. But the spectacle that has become Billary is a sad commentary on the “first†and it is comforting when other women, or “Friends of Billâ€, are willing to boldly state the truth in the midst of the untruths that Billary have been directing against Obama.
Do we really want our “first†woman President to be elected because people like her husband more than they like her but can only vote for her to get him back in the White House? Can it really be that deep-thinking women think that the Republicans are even more excited about Billary defeating Obama so the general election can revive the explicit scenes of oral history from the Clinton Oval Office? The Billary duo is not one that will bring pride to women but rather will revive the memory that the blue dress didn’t lie.
There will be no basis for pride for women if Billary return/s to the Oval Office. We need to show up at the Clinton rallies in our blue dresses over the next weeks. We need to show them and others that we reject the images of Hillary grabbing Bill’s stained coat tails to carry them both back to the White House or, more likely, to bring defeat to the Democrats in 2008.
Let’s rally as Women in Blue Dresses before February 5!
Mama Blue, Bosto, MA
Quote: "Are you trying to state its okay for him to lie 'cause he's the President ?"
......If he was lying about a war which cost more than 100.000 lifes than, yes, he should have been impeached immediately. If he was lying about some personal affairs - honestly, who cares......
Typical response from people not reading correctly.
You can't just cut and paste to change the context of the message to suit your argument. I was referring specifically to being under oath
Of course it matters if he is lying under oath. If its okay for the president to lie then what about the numerous smaller cases that go through the courts day in day out based on similar accusations ?? If he committed perjury then it matters greatly at any level otherwise it just send out the wrong judicial signals.
Its okay the president lied..can't be that serious.....
The whole justice system is based on telling the truth in court and the oath is one of the bedrocks
Steve, Manchester, England
lying under oath? can you say Scooter Libby. pronounce it with me per-jur-yyyy.
JJ, Minneapolis, MN
Monica Lewinsky is not so a bad scandal, she made her -fortune-, and look what in USA happens all the days..bush for example..but always there is in the world something that we cannot speak about.
A., Spain, -
What is amazing is the left, who pushed hard for the sexual harassment laws to protect women, then turned and trashed the women who needed protection from a predatory State Governor. That he ended up being president is the fault of the press and the democrat party. They played ignorant. What signal did that send to women? Good for Paula Jones sticking up for her rights, and sending a signal nobody is above the law. Nobody.
That he carried this on while under investigation is truly mind blowing. One sick puppy.
Paavo, Los Angeles, CA, USA
JC from DC had better get his facts straight.
The Constitution is being "raped" by the Judiciary, not
the Executive . You guys always throw that accusation
around and never give a single example.
BTW it would be better for a President to have sex with little boys than trash the Constitution but I wouldn't give him a pass just because one is worse than the other.
HM, DC Too,
Quote: "Are you trying to state its okay for him to lie 'cause he's the President ?"
I would say this depends very much on the lie (not just in case of the president, but in case of any other human being). If he was lying about a war which cost more than 100.000 lifes than, yes, he should have been impeached immediately. If he was lying about some personal affairs - honestly, who cares? (ok, his wife and friends care, but they can all sort it out by themselves - and they did).
Funnily enough, lying about a war has not led to impeachment yet. Which gives a cynical perspective on the priorities of some people...
Big Blue, Boston,
Sandra, Cheshire:
You are SO RIGHT! Hillary is a poltical prostitute. Every American knows it.
CK
Virginia, USA
CK, Virginia Beach, VA
I suppose the most damaging thing to me is that this happened in the White House, an almost sacred place. We revere that place and hope that those in it are the highest of integrity and honesty, leading the millions in our wonderful country. It is so sad to think that there is a possiblity of the Clintons again residing there. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Marilyn, St. George, Washington Co., UT
Enough about Bill's stupidity. Enough.
The world is ready to explode and you obsess
about Bill. As a Canadian I am shocked that
many in the USA still use this as a weapon
in the US elections. Open your eyes, your
country is so powerful and the constant use
of this in the media is as undignified as the
acts that started all this discussion/obsession.
Mary Jo, Ontario, Canada
This story is based on rumour, innuendo, and outright lies. There is absolutely no evidence that anything Paula Jones or Wiley said is true. This is trash journalism period.
Thomas, Nashville, TN
Thomas, Nashville, USA
Wow. Thanks for bringing back a lot of bad memories.
Jack Kerouwack, Los Angeles,
how interesting that all the women this degenerate man chose to use and he destroyed their lives ,the Clintons are classless and dysfunctional, do young people want Clinton's for their Commander in Chief. They have lied,cheated,stolen money and murdered and then lied some more. Hitlery is not worthy of the highest office in America. They have no souls and no conscience. Just READ about the Clinton's before you vote. There are others out there who will hold the Presidency with the Honor it deserves.
Janet Nottingham, Gold Beach,
It's not perjury because Starr broke the law himself by asking illegal questions that never should have been asked, outside his mandate. If the President is not afforded right to privacy and executive privilege, than none of us have any Constitutional protections. BC broke no workplace rules as he's the boss. Do you want the feds fishing into all your private affairs and records at their discretion when they are investigating something entirely unrelated? The government is not allowed to break the law to build a case.
dc, ny,
God bless that wonderful Venus Retrograde in Scorpio, and that singularly distinct & coincidental Mars-Jupiter conjunction (plus a casts of thousands, all mediocrities!).
Truly a Roaring Twenties scandal (they never knew when they had it so good, either).
Don Reed, Cliffside, NJ USA
Mildred and the rest STILL don't get it even though its been pointed out quite clearly here by quite a few people.
Clinton was NOT impeached for having an affair or sex or whatever else he does with his cigar, it was for PERJURY i.e lying under oath and so breaking the law.
Are you trying to state its okay for him to lie 'cause he's the President ? Where does that leave the rest of us...?
If he is prepared to lie under oath It certainly means to me I could never trust anything he say's again and by extension that would mean Hilary as well...
Steve, Manchester, England
'Tis better to have a president who ravishes homely women than one who rapes our beautiful constitution...or something.
JC, Washington, D.C.
Ten years have shown how stupid this "scandal" is. So, a president got maneuvered into telling a lie about a BJ in the White House, by an overzealous prosecutor. Big deal.
After 7 years of GWB we know what a real bad president looks like. One that starts pointless wars, shreds the Constitution, and spends the nation into bankruptcy.
Thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and the destruction of the Constitution vs. one lie. Yet there are morons out there who think Bush is better than Clinton.
Bob, Minneapolis,
A lie by any measure is still a lie. The Clinton's are the prime example of the decendancy of this country as a moral authority and they have the audacity to blame everyting on George Bush! Bush's mistakes are political not moral and usually stem from his unreasonable desire to have everyone like him, i.e. "No child left behind." Why would any moral human being want to be associated with Ted Kennedy???
P. Plavidahl, Columbus, GA
To JOE PEREZ - We were in recession the entire last year of the Clinton presidency! Do you not remember the collapse caused by the internet companies that had no products? Were you asleep during those years??? The GW Bush tax cut is what saved the economy from getting worse and now the Democrats can't wait to let them die in 2010! WAKE UP!
P. Plavidahl, Columbus, GA
As usual the Clinton apologists cannot see that the investigation
was about uncovering corroborating evidence in a sexual
harassment case involving abuse of power by a government
official. If that official had been a Republican who would
suggest that there would not have been a media outcry that would
still echo today. But of course the rules and even the laws do
not apply to the Clintons, being beloved liberals of the media.
Ray, Douglas, Arizona
Lying under oath about a minor sex activity is very different from
lying about something important. Everybody lies about sex.
Linda Tripp-- a sad story. She destroyed Monica Lewinsky.
I've always felt very sorry for Monica. Silly behavior by a young kid, no doubt., but she didn't deserve her fate.
Peter, Glastonbury, USA
A brilliant read. At the time, it seemed Clinton was very hard done by. But it's fascinating to look back after ten years -- too many of which have seen the world subjected to George W Bush -- to realise that charisma and connections saved Clinton when he was proved to have lied -- repeatedly, consistenly, unabashedly. Not to mention that his treatment toward a large number was abominable. And yet I'd still take him any day over Bush.
Mazarine, Canberra, Australia
Lyndie England is rotting in a federal prison for criminal and illegal orders issued by Donald Rumsfeld who is running around scot free collecting millions of dollars from cronies and corporations whose no bid contracts in Iraq he made possible. THAT is a crime. THAT is what Ken Starr might have spent some years investigating. Lewinskygate was a political hit carried out by Richard Mellon Scaife and his fellow conserverted oligarchs. It was not an attempt to gain justice for lil' Paula Jones or a conservative attempt to, like Jesus HIMSELF, teach us object lessons about the overreaching of sexual harassment laws which, like racial equality, citizen based democracy, responsive government, and the public sector in general, the farthest out edge of conservatives have no belief in in the first place.
bob jones V, el cerritos , ca
Let's not also not forget the specifics-- Clinton was impeached for lying under oath (perjury) during a sexual harrassment lawsuit. His sexual behavior was completely relevant to the case because it helped establish him as a sexual predator.
Apparently you Clinton supporters think it's ok for a man to drop your pants in front of a woman you just met and tell her to kiss it.
James, Austin, TX
Yeah St. Abe was the GREATEST President because he stood up to the Gentleman-Thugs of the confederacy and ended up doing the right thing after all by shedding blood for the principle of human equality.. the least of your brethren being as entitled to the blessings of liberty as yourself. Southern revisionism has produced voluminous writings over the last few decades and is a great thing to talk about over mint juleps on the great lawn of Ole Miss during whichever book fair is going on that week. In the meantime.. the serious business of human rights and the concept of African American citizenship(soon to be traded away by whatever BS compromise is achieved by the immigration debate) gained a foothold in that "unnecessary war" unleashed are at the very heart of the struggles in the world today. And all this foofwah about Lincoln being a tyrant amount to Scarlett O'Hara waving her handkerchief and shouting "scalawag!" dressed up to look and sound like Fred Thompson.
bob jones v, el cerritos , california
Matthew from London, you have exhibited absolutely no understanding of American politics. Clinton's crime is lying under oath. If any other American lied under oath he or she would be imprisoned. The impeachment of Bill Clinton was to demonstrate that NO ONE is above the law--not even a President. Why should President's be allowed a different standard than any other citizen?
Now if many of you in Europe have a lower standard for your governmental leaders, I'm sorry and I can't help that. But before you start criticizing maybe you should read up on the constitution. This was not about sex. It was about perjury.
Kyrux, Dallas, USA
Mildred, are you serious? Most people abuse their power and have sex with someone thirty or more years their junior?! Most people cannot control themselves?! I don't know who you hang around with but I know quite a few people who have been married and faithful for over 50 years! I myself have been married and faithful (as has my wife) for nearly 30 years.
But again you demonstrate your ignorance. This was not about Bill's sexual addiction. It was about perjury. (Say it over and again: per-jur-y...)
Kyrux, Dallas, USA
So Abe was a great President! He was responsible for the death of 60,000 Americans in a totally unnecessary war. Slavery was well on the way out in 1860. It seems a great president could have avoided this war. I believe that if the South had been given fair compensation for their slaves the war could have been avoided.
And he secretly suspended "habeas corpus", had 13,000 to 35,000 citizens who opposed him in the North arrested. He issued a warrant for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when he was about to rule that what Lincoln was doing was illegal.
Bush is a saint by comparison.
C Phillips, alpharetta, ga
NeverAgain...You made me laugh out loud.
Blue Dress, indeed!
h anderson, St Paul, MN
It is not a "private" sexual affair when it takes place in the oval office with his "wife" and daughter upstairs in the living quarters. The White House is the people's house, not the Clinton House of Ill Repute. He was not persecuted for sex, he was impeached for lying under oath to a grand jury. As for poor Bill being picked on, spare me. He caused the problem by his actions and his inability to be a decent human being. As for the constant comparisons to Bush and the old, old, Irag WMD, lied us into war comments, spare me. Hillary carpetbagger Clinton had the same intel that Bush had and she voted to go to war, just as did John Kerry.
America and its interests were attacked six times under Clinton's watchful eye and he did nothing. He did however send Sandy Berger to the National Archives to steal the disparaging information that would have raised eyebrows even for the 911 commission yet Berger stole and destroyed the incriminating evidence. So much for St. Clinton. Spare me.
DJM, Coral Springs, USA/FL
"Well said Mathew, from London...Clinton was a much better president, Diplomat and Statesman than both Bush's. He cleaned up all mess left by Bush snr and ressurected it's then ailing economy. "
Name one policy made by Clinton that led directly to an improved economy? You cannot because he didn't.
The Republican house created the balanced budget bill, line item veto, small business incentives and capital gains reductions.
Clinton also benefited from an economic perfect storm: The computer boom, electronic boom and the internet boom hit all within 3 years.
He did nothing to help manufacturing job loss in the 90's as we lost more manufacturing jobs under Clinton than at any other time in US history.
Clinton also gave Americans the largest tax increase in history.
Under Clinton we saw the largest rise in entitlement programs since FDR's WPA in the 30's. Entitlements now cost the US government 60% of it's annual spending.
Stop idolizing this scoundrel, he was a poor President at best.
bbbrown, boston, mass/usa
He lied. Under oath. That's against the law. He admitted it.
Case closed.
Sex and politics have nothing to do with it.
Kasey, Olathe, KS
So Clinton had some sexual flings outside of marriage. For many Americans, that makes him evil incarnate, but what about lying the American people into a war?
What is more important: running an ideal private life or being a competent president?
The Clinton saga reminds me of Abe Lincoln during the dark years of the Civil War. He had one general however who pursued the Confederate armies aggressively.
One told that General Grant drank an excessive amount of whiskey, amiable Abe responded:
"Find out the brand of his whiskey and order it for the other generals!"
Victor Val Dere, Paris, France
Let's see....which library shall we hang the "blue dress" in......Bill's or Hillary's????
Neveragain, Kent, WA
What's ironic about this article is your statement that Monica brought down a President...
Your spin on this is as it always has been. The 19 year old intern didn't bring down a President the President ruined the life and repurtation of a 19 year old Daughter and that immoral act brought down the dignity of an entire Nation.
Shame on Clinton.
Mike , Nunnelly, Tennessee
It was decent of you to allow someone to say something good about Ken Starr, who was and is a principled man. He was pilloried mercilessly by the U.S. press at the time. As for the Clintons, yes, there are still plenty of people who love them and are willing to overlook their slimy behavior, hypocrisy, unbridled arrogance, and overweening narcissism. In the long run up to November 2008, however, I seriously doubt that most people will be able to stomach them.
Shawn, Washington, DC, USA
I know it's been ten years, but Clinton was not impeached for any sexual activity. He was impeached for lying to federal prosecutors and encouraging others to do the same.
Bobby, Peoria, AZ
Well said Mathew, from London...Clinton was a much better president, Diplomat and Statesman than both Bush's. He cleaned up all mess left by Bush snr and ressurected it's then ailing economy. The man was and even more so now respected and revered by his fellow international counterparts.
But America and it's international policies was loved by all when he was a leader - and a leader he was.
Yes he's got his short-comings like every one of us, that only makes him human.
Indeed he that is without sin....
Will Hilary be fit to be President? The cap fits no one else better.
R. King-Sarfo, London
Robert King-Sarfo, London, UK
"...Isikoff wrote a story about the investigation only for the scoop of his life to be spiked by nervous editors at Newsweek. "
Come on! "Nervous editors?!" The one critical difference between English and American papers is that at least English papers have the guts to admit their political beliefs on the their front pages. American papers are predominantly left wing, yet insist with faux gravitas that they are completely objective and would never take sides. If all of the things which occured during the Clinton administration had occured during a Republican administration, the American media would've devoted their collective existence to destroying him (or her). As it was they did their best to destroy the victims and prosecutors.
Clinton was "their man," a self-absorbed and self-righteous old hippie, and he represented their values. "Nervous editors" indeed!
Raymond, Miami, Florida
You people who believe that the economy was great during the Clinton Admin. was because of his policies need to wake up. It's common knowledge that it takes years for policies of a president to have it's effect on our economy. Clinton inherited a good economy from Reagan and Bush. The effects of what we are dealing with now is the result of the Clinton Admin and a War. If Bush 2 had not implemented tax cuts to stimulate the economy we would really be in a world of hurt.
Matt, Co Springs, USA / CO
It is sad that most people fail to understand the danger Bill Clinton put this country in by his inability to control his sexual urges. He opened himself up to being blackmailed and proved that he would lie under oath rather than admit his human frailties. The long track record of his indescretions clearly show he has no moral character. When you are willing to sacrafice the integrity of the office of President of the United States for a moments pleasure, you will also sell the country down the drain to cover it up.
Bob C., SLC, USA
Matthew, London, UK
Clearly you have little or no understand of American politics or her people. Do I expect my presient to be perfect? No. Do I expect my president to be of good moral character? Without question. As an American citizen, I hold my elected officials to a higher standard of behavior.
Your opinion is to be expected I suppose considering how the British have had to put up with the inbreds that make up "The Royal Family".
What was that advice you gave about he who is without sin?
Bill, West Warwick,
Bill Clinton embodies leftist ideology and politics:
Metaphysics (Where am I?).
Answer: Where ever I say or think I am.
Epistemology (How do I know it?).
Answer: I feel it.
Ethics (What do I do next?).
Answer: What ever feels right to me.
He personifies this flawed philosophy and that is why he is loved by the left.
Chubster, Frederick, MD
philip from denmark: i won't comment on your assertion that americans don't understand the notion of irony. i will point out that your effort to display your intelligence - by providing what you falsely believe to be an example of irony - had the unintended and opposite effect of proving that you lack what you are trying to display. now, that's ironic. do you understand that notion?
c.c., ny, ny, usa
My the Lord help the U.S. if they elect any Democrat to be the President.
Michael Jackson, Dublin, Ireland
Talk about short memories - 10 years! You would think that the U.S. voter wouldn't even consider putting the man who brought such shame to the White House and the office back in by voting for Mrs. Clinton to be the democratic nominee in 2008. Maybe if she wins the election her first order of business would be to pay back the U.S. taxpayer the cost of her husband's unsuccessful impeachment proceedings from whatever is left over in her overflowing war chest. Not that the U.S. Congress gets anything done, but didn't those proceedings waylay any significant legislation for almost a year? Monica should have just kept her mouth shut and told her friend Linda to do the same.
Michele, Boston, MA/USA
This is a very one-sided article. Anyone who wants to know the real story, watch the 2004 documentary "The hunting of the president". From day one there was this Republican machinery at work out to destroy the Clinton presidency. No matter how, no matter what. In the end the only thing they found were his sexual infedelities, so those have been blown out all proportions and turned in to something of national -if not international- importance. Which of course, they never were. If the Lewinsky-affaire showed the world anything it is how hung-up, totally unrealistic Americans approach towards sex is. And how unable to deal they are in an adult way with what is part of everyday life, whether we like or not: adultery.
Mrs. G. Polmans, Amsterdam, Holland
Excellent headlines, but naughty, naughty!
"Oral History" and "brought down a president" indeed.
Best laugh I've had for weeks.
Linda, New York City, USA
It's interesting that ten years later the news is still giving lip service to this incident. OMG!....Did I say that?
Craig, Federal Way, Washington, USA
"A rather unfortunate headline.
Michael Manlin, Pacific Grove, USA"
Mr Manlin. Have you ever heard of the notion that Americans don't understand irony? From your comment, obviously not.
Lewinsky has gone down in history as a young woman who contributed to one of the biggest scandals of the 20th century.
Did you manage to spot that one?
Philip, Co-pen-hag-en, Denmark
trying to make hillary look like "the victim" here? That'll get her more votes, I'm sure.
christine, redwood city, california
Ok, seems to me whoever writes from the States is yearning for Taleban/ fascist regime!
jondi, London,
During this same time New Gingrich was cheating on his wife as he attacked Clinton and talked about family values. I'm sure he was not the only one who was a hypocrite.
Pam, Washington, D.C.
I am more worried than I can say about the future of our country. us all so much more harm, and they are so ruthless about fulfilling their own ambitions, that I fear for our Republic. If a President is not a patriot then we are in deep trouble.
Peter, Hershey, Pennsylvania
If we forgot our so-called indignation regarding the dubious sexual ethics of our leaders and admitted that our outrage is basically nothing other than a form of masked voyeurism, maybe we would become more interested in their political achievements as a whole and less in their private lives.
Ray Massart, Hombeek, Belgium
Yes--GREAT idea---we go from a low-rent priapic frat-boy to the ascendancy of his harpie wife, another low-rent, THC besotted leftover-hippie N.O.W. Gal.....if we are fortunate, the Joint-Chiefs of Staff will depose her after her first bungled response to the inevitable terrorist attack.
Bob Foonman, Naperville, Illinois/USA, baby.....
And his wife still stands up for him and defends him. He has no credibility the accusers do. Yeah let's put him back in the WH.
Dave, Trenton, NJ
Unbelievable in this day and age that anyone, anywhere would continue to defend the Clintons. She is stoppable and should be - the fact she continued to stay with Bill is a sure sign she can ignore facts while inventing her own version of why things happened. Ask yourself, if your spouse was sitting in a room sticking a cigar into the private area of another woman, how would the ordinary woman react? And then to see he did not have sex with that woman? but she did with him? Give me a break, that dog won't hunt.
R.Kelly, Elnora IN, US/Indiana
Thye real scandle is Bill Clinton passing those trade treaties that sent millions of middle class factory jobs to Mexico and communist China, and the stupid middle class voters re-elected him to a second term.
Now with millions of the stupid middle class , that was put out of those good paying, re-elect the Clintons to screw them again.
lyn, St.Louis, mo
A President lie? No, really? Every single politician has lied. What amazes me is Americans think their politicains are all blue eyed boys. Was Clinton fit to be President? Generally he did a pretty good job more than can be said for both Bush's and many others besides. He was generally respected around the world despite his human failings. That's more can be said for your current leader and what he has done for your country's standing throughout the world. Now THAT's criminal! Receiving oral sex or lieing about it to protect your marriage (and yes your position) that's just human.
May he who is withjout sin......
Matthew, London, UK
I wonder how many other shatterd lives we can attribute to the Clintions? I know, let's put them in the White House again. Perfect.
Travis, Whittier, Ca
I don't think it was a conservitive Republican who named Paula Jones "trailer park trash". Wasn't the name caller James Carvelle ?
Joe, Millers Tavern, Virginia
Can't wait to see the Clinton's exit, stage left!! I'm so tired of hearing the name and cringing at the sight of 'em!! Gawd!!!
Al, Provo, Utah
If Hillary is elected, we earned it!
Hillary encapsulates everything wrong with America:
Liberalism.
Navigator7, Tonasket, Wa
So much for '.. and justice for all.'
A hungry ex-con goes to prison for 25 years after lifting a $1.85 slice of pizza while Bush & Co rip-off billions in tax revenues.
Starr wastes millions to stick it to Clinton over a private sexual affair (that's right Bill, it IS a sex act) and a gutless Congress ignores actual impeachable felony crimes committed by his successor.
And the 'fiscally responsible' GOP thinks nothing of spending millions in taxpayer funds (taken from poorer citizens) on a witch hunt and billions on a lie.
What a country!
Oh well, at least THEIR investment portfolios are up.
Larry, Middletown, USA/NY
Your initial summary of this scandal is written from a point of view that assumes nothing wrong transpired. How wrong can you be? This is gossip? No sir, this was all part of a proceeding legal case- a case an arrogant Bill Clinton could have easily settled. The fact that the mainstream media and respectable adults in the Clinton Administration would not only try to cover it up but also try to destroy anyone that testified about it is the lowest thing ANY (including Nixon) President of the United States has ever done.
The most relishing irony of this case though is the fact that Bill Clinton (and his "co-president" Hillary) had both worked so tirelessly to create the laws that were eventually used to bring him down. Sexual Harassment Laws, where one is considered guilty until you can prove your own innocence, is the perfect Liberal statute. That is, if it is only wielded against enemies of the Left. Once it is used againt liberals though it is suddenly "all about sex." Hogwash!!
Eddie B, NYC, NY
Very low to to print this article while the primaries are warming up, but without any articles about the impeachable offenses by the current administration. Clinton was foolish, but nothing he did comes close to the idiotic wasting of American lives, the wrecking of the economy, and the astonishing destruction of the Middle East that we've seen over the past eight years.
Jake, Atlanta, GA
The Clinton impeachment was not about sex. It was a result of Bill Clinton breaking the law. He first planned fraud on the federal court when he arranged the perjury of Monica Lewinsky in the Paula Jones case by having a perjurous affidavit prepared for Lewinsky to sign. He compounded that breach of the law with the felony of lying to a criminal federal grand jury.
These would have landed another politician, lawyer or judge not just impeached, but a term in federal prison. (See democrats calls for jail in the far less severe Scooter Libby case.)
As it was he was found in contempt and fined in the Jones case (by a judge he appointed). The Arkansans State Bar Assn. began disbarment proceedings (he resigned his license).
He could have had all the affairs he wanted (he did) without being impeached (no crime). He was impeached for committing the crimes of perjury, soliciting perjury and lying to a federal grand jury.
These were serious crimes well within the impeachment clause.
JCB, Woodbury, New Jersey
Linda Tripp deserves her own holiday in her honor. Although most of her actions were in self defense, she exhibited bravery in her persuit of justice. Tripp was threatened, tires slashed, cat killed and other harassment yet she persevered in the face of getting fired and or "accidentally" killed like many others. Even the mechanic who found an uncashed check in a car's trunk that was made out to Bill Clinton died under suspicious circumstances.
She endured a lot of hardship and anxious moments.
Kudos to Linda Tripp! She was and still is, one gutsy woman amongst so many with lesser nerve and veracity.
Ernesto, Chappaquadick, USA/Ma
Angela of Albertville: actually, we are animals.
How do we know that Hillary has no designs on male interns in the White House? Getting back at Bill could be why she is running for the Oval Office.
And why did she fudge running in 2004 when she would have been stronger than the useless Kerry in defeating Bush?
The only hope for America (and most of the rest of us) is if they elect Obama.
Harry Davies, Galway, Ireland
If it were not for Monica Lewinksy, we would have never had this stupid tyrant George WMD Bush leading the USA!
Post American, Albuquerque, US Homeland
Funny very few of you have mentioned that clinton was the most fiscally responsible president we have had since I have been alive! (1976) Sad to hear what a pig the man is but hell I would vote for him again as all the choices we have now between both sides of the isle are troglodytes compared to slick buba !
chenjzig, Ventura, CA
Hillary Clinton will be elected president in 2008. It's just going to happen. She is unstoppable. And she will be a million times better than Dubya.
Jason Dean, Los Angeles, USA
After years of women's liberation advocacy of the concept ,that any sexual relationship between a man in a position of authority and any female of legal age under that authority constituted a crime,I was not suprised at the reversal of opinion in this case.I have not heard of a single case in which this accusation has been made against a male executive since the Clinton case.Nor have we heard much from the women's lib movement.
wayne, kithener, canada
The "cub" reporter of this article mistated Lewinsky's age. She was 19 years old when she and Bill began their sexual relationship.
Dewey, Lenexa, Kansas USA
I beleive Juanita
Rafer Hoxworth, Lahaina, Maui
Why not mention Juanita Broddrick?
Ken, Fort Smith, AR
Mildred, Clinton's punishment was not given him because of his sexal adventures. It was given him because it was proven that he resultingly perjured himself (lying under oath). Perjury for ANY REASON IS A FELONY and he's lucky he didn't also do time like most average citizens would have. DON't YOU GET IT?
Duane, Reno, NV
Hillary keeps mentioning her experience results from being in the room when policy decisions were being made. Has anyone reminded her that Miss Lewinsky can make the same claim?
Christine Lauterdale, Woodland HIlls, CA
Very well done. Just to add a critical point, in his video testimony to the Starr team Clinton explained why he could not tell the truth under oath in the sexual harassment hearing: his political enemies would use it against him during his re-election campaign. We heard the same excuse for abusing the power of the presidency from another president, Nixon. Regardless of political persuasion, such power can corrupt and gives great reason for free societies to always be open and always ruled by temporary office holders.
Doug D., Orlando, FL USA
Mildred Miller
Afraid I have bad news for you:God isn't going to punish anyone for impeaching Clinton.Jf there is a heaven and hell,Clinton will be very sorry he assaulted all those women.
Sam Irving, Durham, NC
The difference between the West and the islamic world is very clear to see,Omar from Jordan. No matter how unjustified or vitriolic ones words, a person is free to have an opinion and to state that opinion openly without fear of retribution. Try opining against your rulers in your own countries with such venom and you know you would pay a high price. FYI the UN sanctions on Iraq made plenty of provision for food and medicines. If the leadership of that country had wanted that aid to go the people it would have done so. Instead it choose to build palaces buy fine clothes, liquor and cigars. It's a pity you can only criticise the US, whose actions have been honourable in wanting Iraqis to have freedom, while choosing to ignore the atrocities carried out by the brutal regime who killed hundreds of thousands while the rest of the world remained silent. Clinton, not the rest of America, is responsible for his own actions and to judge all Americans because of his failings is niave at best.
Viv, London, England
I can't believe anyone would say no one was hurt by this scandalous behavior....did you read the article?? How many of Clinton's victims went on to be successful women? Hillary called them all "white trash" and it stuck as far as the press was concerned. She's no better than him! What kind of a role model was he for Chelsea? Yuk! Where's my barf bag?
Chukkal, Kent, WA
One day the popular mantra that it was simply all about sex will die away and a history detailing the true charges against this man will become more common knowledge. Our children maybe, but hopefully, our grandchildren at least will not be taught that it was all about sex. It was about the moral character, the relation to the law, the crimes, and the sanity of the supposedly most powerful--and elected--person on the globe. You don't think this was a worrisome situation? You might want to go watch the movie "Wag the Dog" again. Bush was not the only President to start a war since his father. Presidents are not impeached because they had sex.
Paul, Honolulu, Hawaii
I hear Lewinski is voting Repulican this time around. Democrats left a bad taste in her mouth in the '90's
mike, delaware, oh
The trailer park trash comment- wasn't it Carville who said that?
Steve, quakertown, PA
Excellent recap of the events. I've always wondered just how much Hillary knew,
If Hilliary gets in the White House, Bill will be back on the rampage!
This could be 1992 all over again.
John Blakely, Cornelius, N.C.
Another reason to NOT have Hillery as President.
I'm am sure she has a fine brain-- but it seems that becoming PRESIDENT is the most important thing in her life-- will we have to hear more about Bill & what his newest lady "friend" is doing-- have at it buddy-- what else will he have to do-- but be "FIRST LADY"-- oh, I mean FIRST "MAN"-----------
SAL, Asheville, NC
Are you kidding that the Lewinsky affair is why Mrs. Clinton ran for the senate. She has been sticking with Bill all along because of her unbridled quest for power. She is as bad as he is because she went after his paramours with private investigators to discredit them. Hillary is the worst politician since Nixon with her enemies list, foul mouth and dirty tricks. We can work and pray that she doesn't make it back to the White House. She is a fraud.
Bonnie, New York City,
The Clintons set the "Women's Movement back " 100 years when the Feminists couldn't bring themselves to criticize Clinton for using his office as Presdent to extract sexual favors from an intern half his age. Not surprisingly, you missed that point as well.
You seem to suggest that not wanting to grant you an interview in some way deminishes the veracity of Paula Jones, Katleen Willey, Linda Trip et. al. Why didn't you get an interview from either Clinton? Cat got their tongues?
J.C.
New York
Jack Carrington, Port Jervis, NY
A rather unfortunate headline.
Michael Manlin, Pacific Grove, USA
Can no one see the bigger story here? Lewinsky was but a small episode in the relentless drive for self-gratification by Bill and Hil. Examine the wake of destroyed lives this pair has left behind. What of their banker friend who died destitute and alone and his wife in prison? What of Hil's law partners and friends, one dead, the other left to take the wrap for her? What of these women and the many others, known and unknown, who went to their knees for this pair? What of the fund raisers in prison, exiled, or fined? What of the state troopers? What of the cabinet members sent out to lie for them? What of the Sr. Security Advisor caught stuffing official documents in his shorts and socks to cover up for them? Victims of the vast right-wing conspiracy of the Clintons?
And now they press their hands upon the shoulders of this great nation once again. Will the knees buckle as before?
Gary, Boise, ID/USA
Kudos to Matt Drudge and company. Why do Democrat's who support the "Clintonista's" think these two people are so wonderful? The reprehensible behavior of this president and his enabling wife soiled the honorable office of the U.S. Presidency.
Bottom line. No class from either person, and most of all, no honor.
Joe Perez,
Tracy, California.
Joseph A. Perez, Tracy, San Joaquin/ Calif.
Can we please stop rehasing this non issue. The economy was great when Clinton was in office, we were not in danger of going into a recession. I don't care whether he had sex with anyone while in office, I am very sure he is not the only one he just got caught, and all the republican persecutors all had their own peccadillos aired out for the public. So please leave this in the past where it belongs. I can't believe they tried to impeach a president for such nonsense, now the president in office now and his whole cabinent they should be impeached.
Cat, Fl
Catherine, Pensacola, Florida
How nice of the reporter not to mention that since 1998 "Lewinsky" is now a verb.
What I want to know is how on earth did the press ever find that photo of her hugging the President? Someone must have told them about it.
Becca, Phoenix, USA
Glad this was linked at Drudge. Americans need to read this to remember as viscerally as possible what moral derelicts the Clintons were the last time they occupied the White House.
John, Germantown, NY
Gee, what is Monica doing now? A part of the story is missing...
Carolyn, San Frnacisco, CA
Great story. Let's hope and pray that we don't soon have Bill back in the White House with time on his hands. One can only imagine...
Patricia, Auburn, Alabama U.S.A.
It still amazes me that Clinton was impeached for lying about messing around, but George Bush remains umimpeached for creating the greatest political and economic disaster this country has ever seen.
louis, Cumming, Georgia
What a grand trip down memory lane. Here we are years later, and the Clintons want us to reinsert them at the scene of the crimes. Although the Senate backed out of conviction, in part due to open threats of taking out those who voted for, Bill Clinton remains an impeached president, good for some things perhaps, but no where near the white house.
bluecollarbytes, USA,
Mildred, dear Mildred,
You may be correct that what happened between Bill Clinton and Monica is still commonplace today, but many of us believe then and now that it is simply wrong for a person in a position of power to take advantage of a woman in a subordinate position. Had Mr. Clinton been a Republican CEO that took advantage of a 20-year old intern, I suspect many of his most ardent liberal defenders would be calling for his execution, but for some reason, they turned a blind eye when it was one of their own taking advantage of an unpaid intern. As far as your belief that the Clintons are "the two most popular people in the world," I disagree. They may be the two most polarizing people in the world--as many people seem to loathe them as love them--and even if you were right in that assertion, McDonald's is the most popular food in the world, but that doesn't mean it's any goddam good.
Kevin, Marion,
"...It is a curious twist of fate, and an indication of how deep were the repercussions of the scandal, that her campaign might not be happening if it weren’t for Monica Lewinsky..."
Oh, puh-leez! The only reason she has been with this unreconstituted libertine is that she would sacrifice anything, whether her soul, her daughter's birthrite or her bedsheets, to have the power she so craves. So don't for one second imagine he has his wittle tail between his wegs~!
Sandra O-Conner, Chesire,
Wonderful story. I dont blame Clinton. It is clear that the women here tried all the time to take advantage of Clinton for personal motives.
Rautela, Mumbai, India
It all boils down to the childish/hypocritic American mentality which restrained President Clinton from publicly admitting an affair with a "consenting adult"!
Which is really part of the overall American comic/tragic psychological composition which accepted and defended , not long ago, racial segregation while "abhorring" and demonizing sexual relations to the point to force a President into lying!
It is in small trivial matters of ethics and morality that the average American takes refuge, and is goaded into taking refuge, for him to overlook the mega immorality of American imperialism and to pay more attention to the Monica/Clinton saga than on US instigated and supported Security Council sanctions on Iraq which lead to hundred of thousands of deaths and malformation among Iraqi children.
Omar I. Nashashibi, Amman, Jordan.
makes you wonder what shakespeare would do with this. comedy or tragedy?
sam collins, norwell, mass
Why all this vituperation against Bill Clinton? IF he had been allowed under the constitution to stand for a third term he would won in a landslide - and America knows it. Who gives a damn about all these women mostly trying to line their pockets. (Monica came from a wealth background) no wonder they couldn't 'find' her.
Ripsnorter (ex-pat), Malaga, Spain
You forgot to mention Juanita Brodderick.......
Type that into google and see what you come up with.
ckay, RTown, USA
excellent review. This story includes what one woman would put up with to have her shot at the presidency. Hillary has no honor. First Lady? Not really - Bill was filling that void with the likes of Monica and probably others. Hillary was somewhere on down the line....maybe 5th or 6th Lady. And I doubt they sleep together at this stage of their "relationship".
David, Portland, USA
I have to say it is quite petty and demeaning for a newspaper
to complain that an important pieceof news, possibly affecting
the free world, by calling the one person who revealed the
truth an "internet gossip merchant." Yes, the major media,
in that case Newsweek, had refused to print the story because
of their prejudice in favor of the Clintons, when we all know if
a similar story had been about a Republican, all the media
in the country, then the world, would have castigated them
endlessly. You fatuously suggest that unless one of Clinton's
many friends revealed his lies and misdeeds, they didn't count.
We deserved to know what was going on that affected that
Presidency, and the fact that all the major, recognized media
refused to tell us the truth has led to the present state where
such media are universally mistrusted and largely ignored.
Everyone now knows the internet has as much truth as the
big, old-time, newspapers and magazines. Dan Rather proved that.
Bill Runyon, Indianapolis, IN, USA
This just reminds me of the over the top coverage and how I grew to hate the Clinton name. I really hope Hillary looses big and goes home. I am sooooo tired of the Clintons.
Dan, San Fran, ca
Q: Why is Monica more qualified that Hillary to be the next President?
A: Because she sat in on more meetings with "heads" of state!
Robert, sharman Oaks, CA
anyone else would have resigned.
robert, omaha,
and the story of Juanita Broaderick. The Clintons are "fill in the blank"....
Greg, CYPRESS, CA
To Desert Rat...
Bill Clinton isn't that popular, but I know what you mean. The man is a convicted felon who should just hang his head in shame some place real quiet.
What did he actually do in office? What were his accomplishments??? The first thing that comes to ANYONE'S mind about this guy is all the scandals. Sheesh!!!
Tomas, Lincoln, Nebraska
"Paula Jones: the woman who started it all"?! You've got to be kidding me. Shouldn't it read, Bill Clinton: the man who started it all!
Mark , Port St. Lucie, FL.
The Clintons are modern day Gangsters.
Joe, New York,
And tell me again, how can we trust anything Bill Clinton says? And why is he so popular?
Desert Rat, Gilbert, AZ
oh come on, what's the point of dragging all of this stuff up? is it just to remind everyone of someone elses weaknesses. how about putting more energy into working on your own weaknesses. try to change what is immediately surrounding you. act local to change global.
nancy, ipswich , ma
A excellent article revisiting part of a president's history.
Jimmy, Somewhere, Virginia
If the most powerful man in the world can not get bj's from a pretty, well endowed intern of legal age, then who can? How this ever became an issue is beyond me. Yes, Clinton has the morals of a junk yard dog (and I apologize to the dogs) but he was a better than average president and did his job well. Men with power and/or money have always been able to get all the sex they want , when they want it. Get over it everyone.
Justin Kase, Victoria, BC Canada
I'd have no problem with a female president, but NOT this one.
Robin, Paducah, USA Ky
Mr. Clinton is always refered to as President Clinton in the press where as President Bush is always Mr. Bush. I guess Clinton so ruined the reputation of the office of President of the United States. That no one shuld be called President ever again.
John, Manasquan, NJ
My god, that reads like a trashy soap opera type novel. Can't believe it involved our highest office in the land with the "then" leader of the free world. How embarrassing... I dread Hillary getting elected just because I don't want this constantly brought up over and over again. Ugh!
And to those who say it's impossible to keep your sexual urges in check....well, that is flat out WRONG! We aren't animals for crying out loud.
Angela, Albertville, USA
This is the best synopsis of the Clinton scandal that I've read. Kudos to Damian Whitworth.
Don, Atlanta, USA, Georgia
It is abundantly clear a woman of ability could be elected president of America. To pretend that this going to be an earth shattering event is foolish. Two of the most successful heads of government, Thatcher and Indira Gandhi have demonstrated that the woman can do the job as well as any man. After Bush Hillary Clinton with her baggage will be a disater for America. Instead of real issues trivia will come to dominate the agenda. I hope Americans will let the opportunity of a woman president slip.
sinna mani, london, uk
The lady Mildred must meet many men of her type and choosing, because how President Clnton acting as President of the United States in those sexual encounters is surely is not the normal male who would be President. She beyond a doubt has had a full sexual life with many encounters. Good for her but not with a president of the United States.
Moe, Seattle, WA
Well researched and written article. Controlling urges was the first step away from the ape and Bill still hasn't mastered it.
Honest George, Lewiston, Idaho
Mildred, you're right. Nobody can control their sexual urges. That's why no man or woman is ever faithful to his or her wife, why there are no intact families, and why modern US politics is like a modern version of Caligula. Clinton was not to blame, it was society's fault. If anything, he deserves to be congratulated for his relative abstinence.
Bobby, NY, NY
Very well written. Great summation of the facts and the fallouts.
Edward, Simi Valley, Ca
Excellent summary. I had forgotten how much fun that was.
The chickens are coming home to roost and if Hillary gets the nomination, 2008 will be lots of fun too.
karl Keller, Dawsonvillle, GA, USA
The Oral History of Clinton/Lewinsky?
Very funny.
Jonathan Richman, Auburn, Maine USA
It's been 10 years!
JK, nashville, tn
Fabulous work on this article... Thanks...
David G., Woodland Hills, Ca
If Hillary is the Dem's nominee, every single one of these
people are going to get an additional dose of fame. All these
names and all these scandals will be the heart and soul of
the Repub campaign for the next ten months. If Hillary doesn't
split and destroy the Democratic party over the race issue
they've shoved to the fore, the Repubs will reeducate all the
people about the most scandal ridden administration in living
history. Hillary will guantee a Republican victory in November.
But the Clintons would rather "poison the well" with race, and
cause a Republican victory than allow somebody else to be
the nominee instead of her. Kinda reminds me of Hitler in his
Berlin bunker, willing to take everybody else down with him if
he had to be destroyed.
JIM WHITTAKER, Hemet, USA, California
Does this cub reporter realize that it was Clinton that almost brought down his own presidency? This Cub Reporter suggests in the first line that it was Lewinsky that "almost brought down a president"
tom, Richmond, Va.
You story is inaccurate. When a President is impeached, it is not a question of guilty or not guilty. The Senate votes on whether or not to remove him from office. This was the case with President Clinton. He was impeached, but not removed from office. The idea of "not guilty" is too simplistic for this process.
Gary , Urbandale, Iowa, United Staes
you failed to mention that clinton was disbarred for perjury
glog shwanson, bethlehem, pa
The Clinton Lewinski affair was not a scandal. It was
what every man and woman with normal sexual appe-
tites does at one time or another. It is not even shameful that it was done in the White House. Most
men and many women cannot control their sexual
urges. It would certainly be better if these two had
used some discretion but nobody, not even them, was
hurt by these sordid events. People should remem-ber their own discrepancies and as Jesus said, Get
the mote out of their own eye. Besides being weak in
American history, Americans are also weak in
understanding and forgiveness. Those who wrought
the impeachment will have to face their own judge
one of these days. In the meantime Hillary and Bill
are the two most popular people in the world.
Mildred Miller, Chattanooga, TN USA
Nice coverage of one of, if not the worst, presidents (notice small p) of the US. I am continually shocked and amazed that this man is never held to account for his complete lack of moral character. He has no honor. The fact that he did not resign is amazing yet this was to be expected given the Clinton standard operating parameters - deny everything, lia about it, then ignore it. The history of Clinton is more a testament to the extreme liberal leanings in the mainstream press as if it were a Republican President (notice CAPITAL), then he would have been houned out of office. I can only imagine what other news stories were buried if Newsweeek wanted to bury a story on the president fooling around with an intern.
Mike, DC, USA
Excellent story- the U.S. press would never print this. The only exception is the drudgereport, where I found the link to this article. Very well done.
kate, Los Angeles, CA/ USA