Why are we watching Impeachment: American Crime Story? We know the entire lengthy sordid saga and its anti-climactic outcome, we who are middle aged and older and I mean the world over. The FX series, which Monica Lewinsky is a producer, presents all the juicy details in addicting soap opera segments. Each episode reveals intriguing behind-the-scenes storylines with plot and character development unknown to many of us who in the late 1990s had to deal with President Bill Clinton’s affair with a young White House intern, Ms. Lewinsky, and the subsequent big fat federal case made out of it, ram-rodded by his arch enemies the DC Republicans who would not stop investigating his every move (past, present and future) until they got him impeached.
And after an over-the-top drawn-out hardball investigation in which every single sexual detail between Clinton and Lewinsky was publicized online, in newspapers, conservative talk radio, and nightly news (not to forget late-night TV and weekly SNL and MadTV sketches) THEN painstakingly repeated during the impeachment trial—all of it seeming an eternity—President Bill Clinton was … shoot, what’s that word, you know when you’re not convicted? Yeah, he was acquitted. Do you understand? The same federal legislative body who voted to impeach President Clinton for lying under oath about an affair turned around and voted to acquit. That means he was found not guilty. He didn’t do anything major enough to forcefully remove him from office.
Wee doggies
Because of a sexual harassment suit against him stemming from Clinton’s time as Arkansas Gov, in his second term as President, Clinton had been brought in for questioning by the plaintiff’s lawyers. The deposition was videotaped and then presented on the news. Being a lawyer himself and overly confident, he thought he could pull a fast one over his own colleagues. One of his memorable responses was about the definition of the word ‘is.’ But when out of the blue specific details were brought out about his sexual escapades with a Ms. Lewinsky, he was caught totally off guard. His countenance revealed embarrassment. He was trapped. The jig was up. He lied in the deposition about the affair. In anger he lashed out to the media who questioned him about the affair, lying yet again and this meant to all of us. He lied to his closest confidantes like George Stephanopoulos. He lied to his wife.
Then when a certain unclean dress kept by Ms. Lewinsky became part of evidence against him (not sure how and why this mattered way back then), President Clinton was compelled to tell the truth. He went on national TV one evening to confess he indeed had had an affair with the specifically named former White House intern and that it was wrong. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, did not speak to him afterwards. He accepted his fate out in the White Dog House. Meanwhile, wisecracking Texas Gov. Ann Richards made light of the whole thing when he came down here to support her cause. She told the crowd: “Bill Clinton isn’t the first man to ever lie to me,” then quipped, “And he won’t be the last!” Everyone laughed, she was so funny, as the President of the United States stood behind her, red faced, head bowed but laughing right along with his people, the Democrats. We knew everything about Bill Clinton by then.
The good old days
Back in the 1990s, I was a government reporter. For eight years I covered many of Clinton’s innovative economic programs, which by the way worked wonders in communities and surrounding regions. He had a plan for everything. If a community lost a major industry, federal money came in for former employees in the manner of education and job training programs. The economy in the ’90s—which every Republican enjoyed while vehemently disagreeing with every step Clinton took—was the best of my lifetime as far as investment. Funny how after the ‘impeachment plan’ didn’t work, Republicans started tossing the word ‘recession’ around just to see if it might stick, just creating a mild panic if possible. They would not shut up about it as the 21st century neared. It seemed witchy, like they were ‘willing’ an economic catastrophe—because, see, when Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore naturally ran for President against Republican George W. Bush, the economy was in great shape and the budget was not only balanced but developed a bountiful surplus! Clinton handed his robust economy to Gore, but the Dem didn’t win. And the rest is history, perhaps more bitter than sweet.
During the Clinton presidency, there were always rumors of him being a skirt chaser, but then the rumors would go away. Hillary always pooh-poohed any questions about her husband having affairs. A well-educated, practical, dynamite mother, with a solid middle-class upbringing, the First Lady seemed a logical woman who did not bend to public pressure. She was the epitome of emotional if not spiritual strength. Every year, and for years after her time as First Lady, she was named in the top of the Most Admired Women in America and even in the world. I thought she didn’t believe any of the allegations and so we shouldn’t either. In fact, she always blamed “a vast right-wing conspiracy” for her husband’s troubles centering on rumored affairs and sexual harassment. I also remember how every time he was ‘under the gun’ regarding an affair, he’d suddenly bomb the Middle East. I’ve never forgotten that oddity especially for a peacenik that he claimed to be. A dark comedy movie was made about his administration, something along the lines of the ‘tail wagging the dog.’
The national media is at fault in bringing us Bill Clinton warts and all. Surely seasoned hard-nosed journalists would know the truth: that he carried on with a lot of women. The rumors were played down to nonexistence. Clinton had the ragin’ Cajun James Carville on his side, too. And when Carville talks, ever’body listens. He just makes sense. But he knew, too, the public and private Clinton were the same. Clinton’s friends—and he had a lot of them in very high places—played down silly gossip and lauded the great shape the U.S. was in.
Confused, because I don’t know these people or even people who know them, I would argue with others that there was no way Bill Clinton had time to have an affair with a White House intern. He was a very busy man. He traveled all the time, did a million things, and made few mistakes.
But then he told us he lied and indeed had had an affair with Ms. Lewinsky.
From that moment, any time I saw his mug on TV, I cussed the lying sack of (**&. I removed a framed photo of President Clinton arriving on Air Force One, taken by my brother who was in the Air Force and was part of military detail after the plane landed.
Time to think
As a reporter, I wasn’t sure what to think. How naïve was I, insisting like Hillary that Bill doesn’t do things like chase women, supporting him till he confessed he lied about an affair? How did I miss The Story? Everyone who ever lived in Arkansas knew the truth; they told me all along. Why did the national media miss the story, the truth about Bill Clinton, or not report it? There were women who would have flings with Clinton. The world thought he had charisma and was attractive. The only person I knew who thought Bill Clinton was attractive and charismatic was Bill Clinton. That’s reporter instinct. I never bought into his charisma. Maybe it’s because I’m southern, too.
Watching Impeachment and rehashing all our national memories and disgust with the former President, I’ve been impressed by the portrayal of certain journalists and the depiction of right-wing burgeoning internet gossipmonger Matt Drudge. One journalist in the series knows Clinton harasses women for sex but cannot report about it without the women talking to him or confirming through public information like lawsuits. When presented with Linda Tripp’s taped conversations of Ms. Lewinsky gushing about or sobbing over the affair with BC, the reporter refuses to take the bait. He explains journalism ethics prohibits him from reporting a story based on conversations in which someone is unknowingly recorded. Meanwhile, Drudge’s character literally goes through garbage for any gossip to type into his internet ‘report’ for all right-leaning readers to see, facts unchecked yet scooping real reporters. At a DC Republican party, he’s commended as a journalist who sides with their political views.
Impeachment makes me ponder: What exactly was the crime? A married man who’s the U.S. President lied under oath about an affair, so he’s impeached? The Europeans during that time thought we Americans were petty, childish, cruel, judgmental and obsessed about sex. My ‘Lou Grant’ editor held firm the whole ordeal over Clinton was politically motivated; the Republicans wanted to kick him out of office, they hated him so much. And lying about an affair is nothing to be impeached over. As a young adult back then, I wasn’t so sure and was persuaded by the community as well as the nation, even Oprah Winfrey, who were disgusted by the President. Clinton did lie under oath, and his actions (lying and having an affair with a young intern) were unbecoming of a U.S. President.
Through the decades since, I managed to come to my senses about Bill Clinton’s presidency: My editor was right all along.
Clinton said everyone wrestles with an addiction, whether food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex. Clinton as President said his hope for abortion was that it be ‘safe, legal and rare.’ Stephanopoulos’ book on Clinton was titled All Too Human. Impeachment is a much-needed study of a time in American history when national politics was sport to the death one way or another. Nothing has changed in American politics, but much has changed with the American people: from our lack of empathy then to our hard-wired cynicism today.