Last week, there was an article in Seven Days about an interview with John Dean, former Nixon White House Council and author of the new book, Conservatives Without Conscience.
It reminded me of something I have wanted to say for a very long time.
Bill Clinton did not get impeached for lying to the American people about sex. He did not get impeached for having sex with an intern.
In the past, I have thought the better of getting into this. I know that the Clinton scandal is one of those American events that can bring out the venom like few other events can. Besides, it is so 1999. I just can’t stand to let this myth be perpetuated any longer.
President Clinton was impeached for committing perjury. That is a crime. A crime for which he received a citation for contempt of court, a fine, lost his law license in Arkansas for five years, and was suspended from the US Supreme Court bar. This fact is lost even on otherwise-intelligent people with law degrees.
I’m sure they taught about perjury at Georgetown University in the 1960’s, yet Mr. Dean panders to the anti-Republican sentiment to hype his book.
When messing around with an intern and then lying about it results in somebody being impeached and being threatened to be removed from office, there really is no definition for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Bill Clinton used his position as President of the United States, and previously as Governor and Attorney General of the State of Arkansas, to pressure women for sex and even allegedly rape one woman. He committed sexual harassment. The man is (or was) a sexual predator, who abused positions of power.
And he lied in front of a Grand Jury at a time when he was sworn to uphold the laws of the United States of America, as President; as Chief Executive of the laws of the land. I know that we live in a society that places little value on telling the truth, but perjury is still a crime.
Rapper Lil’ Kim was jailed for a year for committing perjury. Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to investigators about a stock sale that was never even determined to be a crime!
According to an NYT article written during the impeachment:
A Texas judge was convicted of perjury for declaring that he had used political contributions to buy flowers for his staff when, in fact, the flowers went to his wife.A Florida postal supervisor is in prison for denying in a civil deposition that she had a sexual relationship with a subordinate.
Perjury is a crime.
Truth be told, I opposed the impeachment. I thought it made a mockery of the United States, if for no other reason, because it brought world-wide attention to our debased culture and our morally bankrupt leaders.
I just want to see some honesty about that messy chapter in our country’s history: Clinton was impeached for lying to a Grand Jury, aka committing perjury – a crime, not for having sex with an intern or for lying to the American people.
October 11th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Didn’t the Obstruction of Justice charge actually get more votes than the Perjury charge?
I thought the concern over the Perjury charge was that Clinton’s lawyers and Ken Star’s lawyers had agreed to a definition of sex before Clinton’s testimony and his sex with Lewinsky didn’t perfectly fit the agreed upon definition. Plus, I think in order for someone to be guilty of perjury, the lie must be relevant to the case and that there were questions over whether his lying about Lewinsky was relevant to the overall investigation.
That’s why I thought the Obstruction of Justice involving Clinton and Betty Curry was the bigger issue surrounding his impeachment. However, I’m not a lawyer and my memory sucks.
October 12th, 2006 at 3:26 am
I can’t wait to hear Bush under oath.