It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Twenty-Nine

 "Sex Scandals and Impeachment"

I mentioned the soap opera atmosphere surrounding the political developments during Bill Clinton's two terms in office, and now the sexual element to that soap opera. As with the political matters, the claims of sexual improprieties are complex at times, and I will just give very basic sketches of events. You almost need a scorecard (no pun intended) to keep track of all the "players" (again, no pun intended). While there's no question in my mind Clinton used poor judgment in his dealings with some women, whether all of the allegations were totally true, I don't know, as most, if not all, of the accusers did interviews, articles, and books which garnered them substantial sums of money. Thoughts of dollar signs can make just about all of us go beyond the bounds of truth, if not out and out lying. The "devil" can be in the details, so if these events interest you, there are many sources for your further research, but be careful of the sources, as there were political (and legal) motives on both sides of these stories.

During the 1992 campaign, a woman named Gennifer Flowers alleged that she had had a long term sexual affair with Bill Clinton beginning in the 1970s. Clinton denied the charge, although Flowers then produced tapes of some phones calls between the two. Clinton later admitted to the affair, including in a later legal deposition. Midway through Clinton's first term a story broke involving a woman named Paula Jones, who alleged that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas in 1991, had propositioned her, after Arkansas State Troopers brought her to Clinton's hotel room. Jones filed a lawsuit against Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. Jones' attorneys wanted to show that Clinton had exhibited a pattern of behavior over the years, thus more stories circulated about alleged Clinton affairs. This led to a claim by Kathleen Willey that Clinton had "assaulted" her in the Oval Office early in his first term. This brought Linda Tripp into the picture, an associate of Willey, who later testified that she believed Willey to have wanted a relationship with Clinton. Discrepancies in various stories and testimony by Willey became a part of the record in her case, although Willey gave a deposition in Paula Jones' lawsuit against Clinton. Willey has claimed fear of the Clintons and some of their supporters ever since, but that didn't scare her from publishing a book about the whole thing,  describing herself as being a "target" and in the "cross hairs" of the Clintons. 

Another acquaintance of Linda Tripp became the center of attention in all of the sexual issues involving President Clinton; that person was Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky became an intern at the White House later in Clinton's first term. She and Clinton developed a relationship, complete with sex. During that time. Lewinsky was friends with Linda Tripp, to whom she related stories about her relationship with the President, bringing Tripp to secretly record those conversations. White House personnel had noted the closeness between Lewinsky and Clinton, and she was transferred out of the White House, but she was asked about her relationship with Clinton during the Paula Jones lawsuit (during Clinton's second term), which brought a denial of any sexual contact between her and President Clinton. This prompted Tripp to turn over the secret tapes (it all sounds like Watergate stuff, and Lewinsky's mother lived in the Watergate Apartments!) to Ken Starr, who was the Independent Counsel investigating the Clintons for the Whitewater matter covered in a previous segment of this series (hey, I told you this was like a soap opera). Starr then lumped all of these allegations together in his investigation, since Clinton had denied any sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky in a legal deposition for the Jones lawsuit, targeting the President for perjury. Clinton also very publicly, and very famously, shook his finger at the media in denial of any sexual relations with Lewinsky. Then a dress worn by Lewinsky during one of her "encounters" with Clinton was turned over to Ken Starr, complete with a semen stain from the President of the United States. Besides the sexual affairs, the legal gymnastics of Clinton became something for the comedians of the country, as Clinton talked about the definitions of both "is" and of "sex," or more precisely of "oral sex," claiming it was not "sex."

All the while, these sex stories had political implications, as Republicans, emboldened by their takeover of both houses of Congress in 1994, held various hearings on the whole matter, culminating in a vote to impeach the President by the House of Representatives in late 1998. Impeachment is really like an indictment, which is voted by the House, and the matter then goes to the Senate for trial, with two-thirds of the Senate needing to concur for conviction to remove a president from office, and this was not achieved and Clinton survived. Don't get too comfy, because I'm still not done.

Republican leader Newt Gingrich believed pressing the Lewinsky matter would benefit Republicans in the 1998 midterm election, but not only did this not materialize, Republicans LOST seats.* With Gingrich's popularity tumbling after the government shutdown and Bob Dole's defeat, Republican representatives began to plot Newt's removal as Speaker of the House. Further, Gingrich's own personal life came into full view, when it was suspected that he had an affair as he pushed the Clinton sex scandal for impeachment. With opposition building among Republicans, Gingrich resigned as Speaker and refused to take his House seat, to which he had been reelected in the 1998 election. His successor as Speaker was Bob Livingston, a congressman from Louisiana. He barely lasted long enough to say "hello," as it was reported he had had an extramarital affair. So the Republicans, self-righteous to the point of being obnoxious, were out to get Clinton for a sex scandal, but Clinton survived and TWO Republican leaders were gone... for SEX SCANDALS!

Just a personal observation. While the American people didn't like what Clinton had done, they also began to wonder if all of the talk of sex scandals had anything to do with governing the country. Once the Republican leadership showed how hypocritical it was ("do as we say, not as we do"), much of the public seemed to have decided it had had enough and sided with Clinton, however reluctantly. I also think many an American thought about some of the things they'd done in their own lives too, and all of the talk for months and months about sex scandals made many a person a bit uncomfortable.    

* The party in the White House during second terms typically loses seats in the House, something Gingrich counted on, but with added emphasis because of the Clinton sex scandal.  

WORD HISTORY:
Hope-The origins of this word are uncertain, but it "could" be derived from the same source as "hop," with the notion being "hop around or dance in anticipation or expectation ("hope") of positive news or events." Apparently it developed in the West Germanic dialects of what is now northern Germany; that is, the ancestral homeland of the dialects (Anglo-Saxon) that developed into English, and it then spread to the North Germanic dialects, and to the high dialects further south. It is also unclear which came first, the verb form or the noun, but Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had "hopian" (verb) and "hopa" (noun). Later the verb form became "hopen," before the modern version, and the noun became "hope" (the "e" may have still been pronounced as "eh" or "ah"), before the modern version, where the ending "e" is not pronounced and it simply signals that the interior vowel is long. Low German Saxon has "hapen" (verb) and "Hööp" (noun), standard German has "hoffen" (verb) and "Hoffnung" (noun),^ Dutch has "hopen" (verb) and "hoop" (noun), West Frisian has "hoopje" (verb) and "ferhoping" (noun), Danish has "håbe" (verb) and "håb" (noun), Norwegian has "håpe (verb) and "håp" (noun), and Swedish has "hoppas" (verb) and "hopp" (noun-often in "förhoppning"). Icelandic apparently does not use a form, at least not with the same or similar meaning to the other Germanic languages. 

^ One of the characteristics of the "high" Germanic dialects was the frequent change in pronunciation of "p" to "f," "ff" or "pf," which occurred more than a thousand years ago.