Clinton scandal a farce: impeaching a President for
lying about sex …
Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes
legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.
It’s been exactly ten years since the end of the
Senate impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton. On Feb. 12,
1999, the Republican bid to prematurely terminate Clinton’s second
term ended with an even party-line vote -- far short of the
two-thirds majority required to force out of office the 42nd
President of the United States.
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Kenneth Starr |
I can still hear in my mind’s ear the voice of
then-Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist,
saying the words: “Senators, how say you?” on that fateful day. The
next day, The Washington Post’s front page offered stories like:
“Alone, President Responds With Simple Apology;” “House ‘Managers’
Put Brave Face on Bitter Loss,” and “Hushed Galleries, Somber
Senators, Powerful Moment.” The New York Times added that a
“dispirited” Henry Hyde, GOP leader of the impeachment movement,
opposed “indicting Clinton.”
Yet even while they were occurring, or at least
being revealed to the public, the events which spawned the
impeachment seemed unserious; a telling stain on a dress, a betrayal
between friends, a cigar. But the intervening years, with their
dramatic and deadly events, make the entire Clinton scandal (which I
covered daily) seem like petty farce. Ten years ago, America was
willing to impeach a President for lying about sex. Ten years later,
there was no concomitant political push to impeach the next
President for lying about the justifications for the deadly war in
Iraq. Did the expensive lessons and bitter taste of the former
preclude any chance for the latter? Ask Rep. John Conyers.
What is also striking about the impeachment, from
the vantage point of a decade’s passage, is that so many of its main
characters simply receded back into normal lives. America may still
not be over the partisan rancour that was roiled up during the
impeachment season -- the 2000 Florida Recount sure didn’t help,
either -- but the people who caused the drama to unfold are just,
well, living out their days. Some are still in politics. Some still
in law. Some have started businesses. Thankfully, none seem to be
cropping up these days on cable shows begging for attention or a
book deal.
Monica Lewinsky, the intern, has gone underground
and is said to be living in London after completing studies at the
London School of Economics. Betty Currie, the loyal secretary who
was dragged into the mess, has since retired (although she worked
for President Barack Obama’s transition team as secretary for John
Podesta). Linda Tripp, Monica’s betrayer, had massive plastic
surgery, got married in 2004, and now owns a Christmas gift shop in
Virginia. Paula Jones, whose civil lawsuit started the whole thing,
posed nude, remarried, fought Tonya Harding in a celebrity boxing
match, and now sells real estate. No one, apparently, wants to
publish her book.
Kenneth Starr, the dogged special prosecutor, now is
dean at Pepperdine Law School. He often involves himself in
high-profile cases, including cases that come before the Supreme
Court.
The trial judge in the initial Paula Jones
harassment case, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright, is now
chief judge of the Eastern District of Arkansas. Remember, virtually
the entire impeachment spectacle took place after Judge Wright
dismissed Jones v. Clinton in 1998. Clinton and Jones later settled
out of court before an appeal could be heard.
Clinton’s defenders seemed to have lasted longer
inside the Beltway than most of his pursuers. Lanny Breuer, who was
part of the Clinton White House’s legal team, is now on tap to head
the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Greg Craig, vital
Clinton attorney during the impeachment saga, finds himself back in
the center of action as White House counsel for President Obama.
Other Clinton defenders remain in legal and political positions in
Washington -- except for Al Gore, of course. The same Chief Justice
who presided over the impeachment, not incidentally, delivered a
crucial vote against Gore to end the Florida recount and give the
election to Bush. Rehnquist is dead now and, politically speaking,
so is Bush. Gore went on to win a Nobel Prize.
Ten years later, it’s reasonable to wonder how
history might have been different had Clinton not been impeached and
narrowly escaped being dismissed from office. Certainly the
impeachment impacted Al Gore’s 2000 campaign, and certainly that
campaign gave George W. Bush an opportunity he might not otherwise
have had. Would there have been a terror attack on America on
September 11, 2001 without the Clinton impeachment? Would there have
been a war in Iraq? An economic crisis like the one we now must
endure? We will never know. History doesn’t work that way.
