CLINTON'S SEX SCANDAL.   Term Paper ID:25102 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines charges of infidelity & perjury, media & public's responses, roles of Hillary Clinton & prosecutor Starr, private vs. public morality.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines charges of infidelity & perjury, media & public's responses, roles of Hillary Clinton & prosecutor Starr, private vs. public morality. Paper Introduction: Despite all the marital infidelities alleged against President Clinton in early 1998 his approval ratings soared higher and higher. When asked if infidelity (admitted, proved, or alleged) had any effect on Clinton's ability to govern, the majority of the American people seemed to have decided that it did not. His alleged actions, unless they constituted sexual harassment, were not crimes. The Special Prosecutor, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, did not accuse the President of being unfaithful to his wife but of committing perjury and encouraging another person to commit perjury. The charges of infidelity would, therefore, only diminish the President's ability to do his job if they caused a huge loss of confidence within his party, the government, and the American people. This has not happened so far--which may mean that people do not believe such actions Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Thus the "approval polls rose with astoundingspeed as tragedy seemed to turn into farce" (Klein, 1998, p. Gigglegate and Gomorrah: Presidential scandal in the age of tabloid media. 29). 29.Klein, J. National Review, pp. He remarkedthat "in both the tragedy and the farce, one notices the central,corrupting role of liars and lies (about Vietnam, about Watergate, aboutsex) and therefore a concomitant, sometimes illogical ebb and flow ofpublic trust in the president and the media" (Morrow, p. 29). 29). One poll, for instance, showed that"a majority believe that Mr. Clinton's morals are the same as, or higherthan, the average married man's" (Hill, 1998, p. (1998, February 3). Clinton also swore a denial of this affair for Jones'lawyers. Despite all the marital infidelities alleged against PresidentClinton in early 1998 his approval ratings soared higher and higher. The tapes themselves were illegallyobtained and Starr, prior to being authorized to expand his investigation,had the FBI aid Tripp in re-taping Lewinsky allegedly discussing theaffair. The Lewinsky affair: Whose story is it anyway? Newspapers and newscastersimmediately began talking of impeachment and resignation. There were still thematters of the Jones suit and the perjury charges. Thesepresidents, apparently, conducted affairs at different points in publiccareers without having the matter covered by the press in the manner inwhich Clinton has been exposed. In addition, Linda Tripp's recording of Lewinsky was firstdone at the prompting of Lucianne Goldberg, a literary agent for AlfredRegnery's publications which "include books alleging crimes and debaucherywithin the Clinton White House"--Regnery is also a friend of Starr's ("Letslip," p. New York Review of Books, pp. Others,however, seriously question the motivations and independence of theIndependent Counsel. The Attorney General requested the extension of Starr'sinvestigation to include the possible perjury and, by doing so, "sheapparently ratified his having ensnared Lewinsky before he had authority todo so" (Walsh, p. U. 29). Scenes from a marriage. By the end of the first week of the campaign conducted byHillary Clinton, the President's lawyer Robert Bennett, James Carville andother loyalists the American people seemed either not to care about theinfidelity (in which they, largely, believed) or to believe that Starr wasattacking Clinton unfairly. But the candidate managedto disarm voters' possible disapproval and went on to win the election. Others, like the American public, decided the charges were trueand proceeded to attack Clinton's character. Thus while most Americans would agree with Judge Wright regarding thenature of the conduct of which Clinton is accused, there seem to be both abelief that such matters are not of major importance to the way he fulfillshis job duties and a growing belief that he is being hounded by aquestionable group of adversaries. Jones' claim was that a state trooper invited her to meetthe Governor who exposed himself and asked her for oral sex. An American marriage. Asformer Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh has also noted, in order to"violate federal law, the alleged perjury or subornation of perjury must bematerial to the issues of the Jones case" (1998, p. National Review, pp. Newsweek, p. In the midstof Jones' well-publicized case the President was re-elected. 29). During Clinton's first campaign for presidentGennifer Flowers disclosed their 12-year affair. (1998, March-April). ReferencesBorger, G. 3 ). Yet the polls taken since the revelation of the alleged Lewinskyaffair showed that the President's ratings shot up. (1998, April 6). S. Morrow, for example, tried to argue that the tragedies ofVietnam and Watergate were now being replayed as farce (1998). The dismissal of PaulaJones' sexual harassment suit against the President came on April 1, 1998.Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that the alleged behavior of the then-governor "if true, may certainly be characterized as boorish and offensive[but] even a most charitable reading of the record in this case fails toreveal a basis for a claim of criminal sexual assault," nor did the judgefind sufficient data to support the claim of sexual harassment (quoted inThomas and Klaidman, 1998, p. 29). 38). 26, 28.Walsh, L. A break in the clouds. New Yorker, pp. Yet, while Morrow argues that Clinton,who, to journalists, seems to "represent an oddly contemporary discontinuumof effective leadership and breezy squalor," has managed to get Americansto "disconnect their judgment of [his] moral behavior from their opinion ofhis job performance," he never makes a distinction between private andpublic moral behavior or raises the question of past presidents' amorousaffairs (p. 29). But, nomatter which approach was taken, most journalists assumed from thebeginning that the administration was facing its worst crisis. News and World Report, pp. (1998, February 9). It may even be true that thepublic no longer trusts the media and/or the Special Prosecutor's Officeand agrees that they are unfairly attacking the President. 28- 29.Morrow, L. 29). 29). 29). Village Voice, pp. But Linda Tripp, a former White House employee, then came forwardwith tapes of Lewinsky allegedly boasting of her affair with Clinton andclaiming that he, and his friend Vernon Jordan, had persuaded Lewinsky toperjure herself. 29). But this did not mean that Clinton'saffairs would have no impact on his presidency. The primary element in this attack, as it had been in 1992, wasHillary Clinton. If he cannot provide anything substantial in his report itis possible that this relatively minor matter may be swept aside. And,according to one writer, "the atmosphere at the White House now is one ofpotential tragedy" (Remnick, 1998, p. 28). 34- 37.Let slip the dogs of war. The 'conspiracy' at work? Jones plans to appeal the ruling--butseems unlikely to prevail. 29-3 .Long, Rob. When Kathleen Willey, aformer White House volunteer, alleged that she had received an unwantedsexual pass from Clinton it began to seem like there was no end in sight.Far-right coverage of these events has been marked by a certainty that theyspelled the end for the Clinton presidency. Yet there was really nothing farcical about the scandal--even if manyjournalists wanted to portray it that way in order to keep the storyentertaining. (1998, April 13). The initial toneof these remarks was that Clinton needed to save his presidency from atriple threat of "public contempt, the pressure to resign or even--worst ofall--impeachment" ("Let slip," 1998, p. (1998, February 2). "Ordinarilysomeone would be held in contempt for such an inflammatory andunsubstantiated revelation--but what to do when it seems that Starr'schamber is the contemptuous source itself?" (Williams, p. (1998, January 31). Village Voice, pp. (1998, February 3). 26). Other signs of Starr's possible lack of independenceinclude the fact that, prior to his appointment as Independent Counsel, he"offered to write a brief on behalf of Paula Jones" whose suit isfinancially supported by the right-wing Rutherford Institute ("Let slip,"1998, p. 38-39.Hosenball, M., and Isikoff, M. The indictment option. His alleged actions, unless they constitutedsexual harassment, were not crimes. Whateveranalysis is correct, however, Clinton's affairs (alleged or otherwise) andthe public's response to them have raised many interesting questions aboutthe role of private life in elected officials' public lives, the kind ofmoral distinctions Americans make in judging these officials, and thepublic perception of the role of the media. Clinton asserted not only thatshe believed the story to be a lie, but that a "right-wing conspiracy" wasworking against the President, trying desperately to discredit him by anymeans possible. There are also growing questions about evidence that Kenneth Starr'sWhitewater investigation is seriously tainted by the influence of RichardMellon Scaife, a millionaire who "has spent millions attempting todiscredit the President" and funded the Pepperdine University positionsKenneth Starr was to take when he finished his investigations (Hosenballand Isikoff, 1998, p. Babylon, California. 4). The belief that suchbehavior is not unusual may also be based on the growing knowledge thatAmericans have regarding the romantic affairs of past presidents such asFranklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and George Bush. Kenneth Starr and the Independent Counsel Act. In the years of the first administration Clinton was hit with theclaims of Paula Corbin Jones that he had subjected her to sexual harassmentin 1991, when she was a clerical worker for the state of Arkansas and hewas governor. Tripp gave the tapes to Kenneth Starr "who wasinvestigating other, unrelated matters involving the President" and theSpecial Prosecutor "decided to have his jurisdiction expanded to includepossible perjury by Lewinsky and its possible subornation by the Presidentand Jordan" (Walsh, 1998, p. Nixon lied to Congress and wasshown to be engaged in deceptive political practices which most peopleregarded as unbecoming to a president. Atthe time his strongest supporter was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who toldtelevision interviewers that "we know everything there is to know abouteach other, and we understand and accept and love each other" (quoted inKlein, 1998, p. Although the media were greatly excited by the claim that MonicaLewinsky had claimed to have had a sexual relationship with the Presidentwhile she was a White House intern, this was hardly the first claimregarding his infidelity. 4). 3 ). 24-28, 29-3 .Troy, D. (1998, April 13). In the earlier cases the presidents liedabout matters that were directly relevant to the pursuit of their jobs andwhich had an enormous impact on the nation. The charges of infidelity would, therefore, only diminish thePresident's ability to do his job if they caused a huge loss of confidencewithin his party, the government, and the American people. One pointed passionately to"the shabby, cowardly, unmanly way Bill Clinton treats his conquests--withdenial and scorn and evident disgust" (Long, 1998, p. This is combined with numerous othersuggestions of undue influence, including the possibility that David Hale,"the former Little Rock judge and businessman who claimed that GovernorBill Clinton pressured him to make an illegal $3 , loan"--and is theonly witness to any wrongdoing by Clinton in the Whitewater case--receivedcash and other forms of support from Scaife-funded entities (Hosenball andIsikoff, p. Andthe approval of the President's job performance was clearly shown not to becontingent on belief in his innocence of the alleged affair. Not only was suchmateriality in doubt because Judge Wright had ruled that the Lewinskyevidence was not to be included in the Jones case, the entire case has nowbeen rejected and the claimed perjury is material to nothing (Walsh, p. Columbia Journalism Review, p. Andthese ratings came even before the White House's counter-offensive attackwas underway. 39-4 . 38). 4 ). Newsweek, pp. (1998, March 5). Williams, for example, notes that most of the rumorsthat drove the story seemed to derive from Starr's office even though GrandJury proceedings are normally strictly confidential (1998). (1998, April 6). J. The First Lady was "in pure campaign mode" as she grantedradio interviews, visited morning talk shows, and made public appearancesin several states (Borger, 1998, p. 31). There was, it is argued, an "implicit contract" in Clinton'sadmission that he had "caused pain in [his] marriage" and voters'assumption "that he wouldn't do whatever he had done again" (Borger, 1998,p. Whenasked if infidelity (admitted, proved, or alleged) had any effect onClinton's ability to govern, the majority of the American people seemed tohave decided that it did not. Morrow, who was worried about the American public's apparent loss offaith in the media, found that even if Americans' judgment of charactertends to be short-sighted they have "decided that short-term mediajudgments are even worse: sensational and even hysterical" (p. But the major reasons why the perjury charge may prove unimportantare that the public is apparently disgusted with the length (four years),expense ($4 million), and apparent lack of results in Starr'sinvestigation. Or it may be that the public, satisfied with theprogress of the economy, does not need the distraction of a scandal as ameans of focusing economic or social anger. Afternumerous legal battles Jones' right to bring a civil suit against thePresident while he was still in office was confirmed by the Supreme Court.Jones' lawyers, who were trying to establish a pattern of behavior,subpoenaed Monica Lewinsky who "gave a sworn affidavit on January 7 denyingever having had a sexual relationship with the President" ("Let slip,"1998, p. New Yorker, pp. 4). Economist, pp. The press ofthe Left, in the Village Voice for example, rather than denying thatanything took place, has argued that the manner in which the mediaapproached the entire Lewinsky affair sends the story "spiraling out ofcontrol" because it ignores the legal issue of perjury and is driven onlyby the titillating nature of the details (Hill, 1998, p. Writers for the NationalReview, for example, immediately began offering opinions about thepossibility of a criminal indictment: "just as there is no textual orhistorical basis for giving a President immunity from civil actions, thereis no basis for declaring him immune from criminal indictment" (Troy, 1998,p. 34). 4, 6.Williams, P. 3 -31.Hill, A. Thepolls have also shown, however, that the public may have an alteredperception of the limits of character. 3 ). 4). 3 -32.Thomas, E., and Klaidman, D. 29.Remnick, D. E. But, according to some analysts, the voters werewilling to forgive Clinton, or at least to overlook the affair, not becausethey approved of it or thought it irrelevant but because he confessed andapologized. 37). This has nothappened so far--which may mean that people do not believe such actions arerelevant to his duties. The Special Prosecutor, IndependentCounsel Kenneth Starr, did not accuse the President of being unfaithful tohis wife but of committing perjury and encouraging another person to commitperjury. Clinton's, as yet unproved, lieswere about his personal life and seem to be regarded as immaterial to theperformance of his job or to the welfare of American citizens and their wayof life. The revelation of the claims about Lewinsky seemed like an immediateand very substantial threat to the President. And what will history say? Is sex necessary? 3 ). Pretending that the war inVietnam could be won led to the deaths of tens of thousands more Americansand hundreds of thousands more Vietnamese. The accusations of marital infidelity seem, therefore, to botherAmericans far less than expected. In oneJanuary poll, for instance, "although only 2 percent of those polled thinkthe allegations of a sexual relationship with Lewinsky are untrue, 56percent" approved of Clinton's performance ("Let slip," 1998, p. E. But Morrowseems to ignore the substantial difference between the alleged lies ofPresident Clinton over his sexual life and the lies about Vietnam throughwhich President Johnson "squandered the moral authority of the presidency"and those regarding Watergate (and Vietnam) which brought about PresidentNixon's downfall (Morrow, p. Rather than justremaining stable "these astonishing approval ratings" rose higher than theywere prior to the revelations and remained high (Morrow, 1998, p. (1998, February 2). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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