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The Truth Commission and Monica

Benjamin Wittes

in Starr: A Reassessment

This chapter focuses on the Monica Lewinsky investigation, in which Kenneth Starr's truth commission vision came to its full fruition. The Lewinsky affair involved an investigation that was chiefly ... More

This chapter focuses on the Monica Lewinsky investigation, in which Kenneth Starr's truth commission vision came to its full fruition. The Lewinsky affair involved an investigation that was chiefly about truth itself—specifically, about the president's lies and his efforts to encourage others to lie about the most personal of subjects imaginable. The purpose of the investigation, in other words, was to uncover a kind of metatruth, or, at least, to uncover the truth about falsehood, a goal that, in the context of an investigation of sexual infidelity, necessarily raised the costs of Starr's nonprosecutorial approach. Starr, however, did not let circumstances alter his vision of his role at all. To the contrary, his attitude remained unfortunately consistent. To reveal the truth about the president, he deployed the coercive power of a grand jury to investigate the specific nature of Clinton's sexual relationship with a young woman.Less

It’s Language, Jim, but Not as We Know It: William Jefferson Clinton

John Wilson

in Talking with the President: The Pragmatics of Presidential Language

This chapter explores selected linguistic aspects of the presidency of William J Clinton, giving particular attention the Monica Lewinsky case. The chapter looks in detail at Clinton’s language in ... More

This chapter explores selected linguistic aspects of the presidency of William J Clinton, giving particular attention the Monica Lewinsky case. The chapter looks in detail at Clinton’s language in his depositions in both the Paula Jones’ enquiry and his testimony to the Grand Jury. It has been noted by other analysts that Clinton made significant efforts to avoid answering specific questions and that his language, at times, was quite obscure or ambiguous. Applying a pragmatic analysis the chapter agrees with this general assessment, but it notes that much of what Clinton is doing is not dissimilar to the way we all use pragmatic tools in our everyday lives. The real difference, however, is that Clinton pushes pragmatic principles well beyond the ordinary, and the chapter considers what this means both for Clinton and for pragmatics.Less

I Could Throw All of You out the Window: The Democrats

Russell Frank

in Newslore: Contemporary Folklore on the Internet

This chapter examines the overlapping newslore about former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the material prompted by the men who followed him as the Democratic Party’s standard bearers including Al ... More

This chapter examines the overlapping newslore about former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the material prompted by the men who followed him as the Democratic Party’s standard bearers including Al Gore and John Kerry. It explains that most jokes about Clinton were about his sexual appetite, particularly his alleged involvement with Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky. It suggests that the jokes about Democratic presidential candidates Gore and Kerry have something to do with their defeat against George W. Bush despite their intelligence and experience.Less

Monica and Barbara and Primal Concerns

Nona Willis Aronowitz

in The Essential Ellen Willis

This chapter stresses the misogyny and sex-negativity inherent in the media’s—as well as the president’s—reaction to the scandal involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. It notes how, despite ... More

This chapter stresses the misogyny and sex-negativity inherent in the media’s—as well as the president’s—reaction to the scandal involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. It notes how, despite being relentlessly characterized by the right as a pot-smoking, countercultural radical, Clinton showed his true colors when backed into a corner built by a blowjob and a stained blue dress. According to the text, it was Clinton who cheapened their relationship with his angry denial, his harsh and hurtful reference to Lewinsky as “that woman,” his maligning her as a stalker, and his eventual portrayal of their sexual contact as entirely one-sided. Meanwhile, the “eat-your-vegetables school of journalism” failed to see how the scandal had uncovered “primal human concerns”. In her interview with Barbara Walters, Lewinsky’s exuberant lustiness and sexually aggressive nature were on display.Less

Bill Clinton: Sin, Atonement, and Repairing the Breach

Gary Scott Smith

in Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents

The faith of Bill Clinton is difficult to decipher. He professed to have been “born again” as a youth, frequently testified that his faith was important to him, attended church regularly as ... More

The faith of Bill Clinton is difficult to decipher. He professed to have been “born again” as a youth, frequently testified that his faith was important to him, attended church regularly as president, had an impressive knowledge of the Bible, and often quoted Scripture. Clinton’s beliefs influenced his policies on numerous matters including racial reconciliation and international peacemaking. Despite his public displays of religiosity, Clinton engaged in tawdry actions that violated biblical moral standards, most notably the Whitewater affair, the state trooper flap, the Paula Jones case, Filegate, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which contributed to his impeachment. His personal behavior, especially his sexual affairs and lying, contravened traditional moral norms, leading many to question the genuineness of Clinton’s Christian profession. Three issues especially display the influence Clinton’s faith had on his presidential policies: his efforts to promote religious liberty, welfare reform, and reconciliation between nations.Less

Scandal: The Story of Wayward Men

Leslie Dorrough Smith

in Compromising Positions: Sex Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity

Chapter 1 examines the concept of sex scandals as they are commonly treated in current scholarship. The two most dominant models view them as (a) moments of social harm caused by a leader’s moral ... More

Chapter 1 examines the concept of sex scandals as they are commonly treated in current scholarship. The two most dominant models view them as (a) moments of social harm caused by a leader’s moral failure (case studies include the scandals of Larry Craig, David Petraeus, and John Edwards); or (b) violations of social norms regarding gender, race, and class (as exemplified by Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal). Yet the chapter’s main case study is Donald Trump. Trump’s white, sexual persona boosted his political appeal and impacted his rhetoric in the 2016 campaign, particularly in his gendered and sexed speech regarding Hillary Clinton. In light of Trump, a third model is proposed that understands sex scandals as specifically nationalist events that draw on the aforementioned identity categories of gender, race, and sexual orientation in determining who can be considered a national icon.Less

Nooky Nation: On Tort Law and Other Arguments from Nature

Ann Scales

in Directions in Sexual Harassment Law

This chapter discusses some of the most dramatic developments in the issue of sexual harassment leading up to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. The cases of Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky ... More

This chapter discusses some of the most dramatic developments in the issue of sexual harassment leading up to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. The cases of Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky are discussed, in particular, how they were studied in the 1998 conference at Yale Law School. After this conference, the sexual harassment situation became very, very serious. Before the conference, however, it was all treated as a big joke. Prior to the spring of 1998, the nation was given to perceive Jones as a trailer-park-pawn-of-the-right-wing and the Lewinsky incident as an overblown instance of poor personal judgment by a person who happened to be President. All this, the perception went, would have been small potatoes were it not for those few loonies who thought sexual harassment was something the government should waste time worrying about.Less

The Truth Commission and Whitewater

Benjamin Wittes

in Starr: A Reassessment

This chapter explains Kenneth Starr's truth commission understanding of the independent counsel statute, which manifested itself subtly during the early portions of his investigation. That subtlety, ... More

This chapter explains Kenneth Starr's truth commission understanding of the independent counsel statute, which manifested itself subtly during the early portions of his investigation. That subtlety, to some extent, resulted from the density of the probe's often mind-numbing subject matter. Few members of the public understood even the parameters of the questions at issue in Whitewater, much less how Whitewater intersected with Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, the Castle Grande real estate deal, the death of White House aide Vincent Foster, Jr., or—more tenuously—to the White House Travel Office or the FBI files scandal. Especially before the Monica Lewinsky scandal erupted in 1998, the incidents that gave rise to the constituent parts of Starr's investigation tended to embroil the press and Washington's political culture far more than they did the public at large.Less

Villains and Victims

Nona Willis Aronowitz

in The Essential Ellen Willis

This chapter examines the villain vs. victim card used in the debate over sexual politics in America. From the beginning conservatives used Paula Jones’s case not only to attack Bill Clinton but to ... More

This chapter examines the villain vs. victim card used in the debate over sexual politics in America. From the beginning conservatives used Paula Jones’s case not only to attack Bill Clinton but to accuse feminists of a hypocritical double standard. With the breaking of the scandal involving Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, conservatives intensified their demands for feminists to attack Clinton the same way they attacked Clarence Thomas, who was accused by Anita Hill of sexual harassment. Despite the fact that Lewinsky had been over twenty-one during the (then still alleged) affair and had not complained of harassment or indeed complained at all, right-wing champions pronounced her a victim of at best exploitation, at worst child-molesting. The conservatives assert that “the personal is political,” a slogan that has increasingly come to mean that all personal behavior is subject to political judgment, that there are now feminist rules both men and women should obey. Accordingly, feminism, insofar as it deals with personal life, has largely abandoned politics, which seeks to affect social structures, for moralism, which aims to control individuals.Less

Introduction

Cord Jefferson

in The Essential Ellen Willis

This section contains chapters written in the 1990s, in which the text tackles the scandalous court dramas consuming the nation such as Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and O. J. Simpson’s ... More

This section contains chapters written in the 1990s, in which the text tackles the scandalous court dramas consuming the nation such as Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and O. J. Simpson’s acquittal. The chapters also discuss issues such as poverty and welfare politics, Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein’s book The Bell Curve, and how to reconcile intellectual or creative autonomy with making a living. Furthermore, the chapters here criticize the Million Man March for its obvious sexism, and Louis Farrakhan for his obvious anti-Semitism, calling the event a shot at a “utopian moment” but insisting that “it’s a mistake to imagine that the good feelings generated by the Million Man March negate its political dangers”.Less

Introduction

in Secrets, Sex, and Spectacle: The Rules of Scandal in Japan and the United States

In 1989, a scandal befalls the leader of a world power. Apologies, public backlash, debates over moral leadership, and outrage in the legislature all played their roles in the drama. How very ... More

In 1989, a scandal befalls the leader of a world power. Apologies, public backlash, debates over moral leadership, and outrage in the legislature all played their roles in the drama. How very American, some groaned, all this fuss about a little sex. However, the actors were not Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, but Japanese prime minister Sōsuke Uno and his paramour, geisha Mitsuko Nakanishi. The facts of that incident resemble those of the Clinton affair, but the resulting scandal was quite different. This book explores the differences and similarities between contemporary Japanese and American scandal and looks at a range of provocative, subversive, moving, maddening, amusing tales—and the forces and guardrails that bring such stories to our collective attention. It explores why scandal stories develop as they do, and why in Japan, through a unique lens: comparative law. The book discusses the ways rules bring structure to the who, what, when, where, and why of the sliver of human behavior that “catches” as scandal in Japan and the United States.Less