Posted on 07/10/2004 3:50:33 PM PDT by wagglebee
In perhaps his most revealing interview since leaving office, former president Bill Clinton said Wednesday that during the early days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he felt he had no choice but to lie about his relationship with the former White House intern, because if he had told the truth, "the overwhelming likelihood is that I would have been forced from office."
In the past, Clinton has said he lied out of intense shame over his conduct and to spare his family the embarrassment such an admission would bring. He has also said he lied because of his concerns about the virtually unchecked powers of independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
But Wednesday night, in an extensive interview with PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Clinton offered another reason for his actions. It came in response to Lehrer's questions about the January 21, 1998 interview in which Lehrer was the first journalist to question Clinton about the Lewinsky matter. During that interview, Clinton said a number of times that, "There is no improper relationship....There is not a sexual relationship" — a use of the present tense that suggested he was trying to hide an earlier relationship with Lewinsky. On Wednesday, Lehrer asked the former president whether that answer had been "an intentional dodge."
"It was an intentional dodge," Clinton said. "I didn't want to lie to you, and I thought that I had to, as I said in the book, buy two weeks time for things to calm down in order to avoid having Ken Starr and his boys win this long fight that they were fighting against me."
As the scandal moved through its first week, however, Clinton's denials became more assertive and more definitive, culminating in his "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" statement on January 26, 1998.
At times during those early days, before the White House gained traction in its counterattack against the independent counsel, Clinton appeared to have a tenuous hold on office. Even First Lady Hillary Clinton, in her famous "vast right-wing conspiracy" interview on January 27, said that if the allegations against her husband were proven true, "I think that would be a very serious offense." The worst-case scenario for the president was that he would lose the support of some Democrats in Congress, who might then join Republicans in pressing Clinton to leave. At that point, he might have found it very difficult to hold on.
Clinton conceded as much in the NewsHour interview Wednesday, when Lehrer asked Clinton, "If you had, in that interview with me, said, 'Yes, I did have an improper sexual relationship with this young women. I'm so sorry I did it. It was a terrible — and all the things you say now about it — 'It was a terrible mistake in judgment. It's an awful, awful thing,' what do you think would have happened?"
"I think that people would have said, 'He probably committed perjury at his deposition,'" the former president answered, "which I maintain to the present day that I did not."
"But the allegation is that you did," Lehrer said.
"That's correct," Clinton said. "And I think with — given the media hysteria and the fact that people were saying all the things that were said one more time, I was dead as could be, I think the overwhelming likelihood is that I would have been forced from office, because I think the Democrats would have — some Democrats might have abandoned me."
In his best-selling memoir, My Life, Clinton tells the story somewhat differently, leaving out the explicitly political calculation that lay behind his decision to deny a relationship with Lewinsky. "I was misleading everyone about my personal failings," Clinton writes on page 775. "I was embarrassed and wanted to keep it from my wife and daughter. I didn't want to help Ken Starr criminalize my personal life, and I didn't want the American people to know I'd let them down."
No doubt those matters did concern Clinton. But throughout the scandal, his most pressing consideration was keeping the support of congressional Democrats. At key points in the controversy — its first days, the week in August when Clinton testified before Starr's grand jury, the days leading up to impeachment — a loss of even a few key Democratic lawmakers might have been terribly damaging. But in the end, Democrats stayed in lockstep behind him, and Clinton survived.
I can't help but think about how the 'rats hero, John F. Kennedy, wrote "Profiles in Courage" about men who destroyed their own political careers in order to do what they knew to be the just and moral thing.
How far down we have come. There is now a former president who writes a book about how he lied and did what he knew was wrong in order to save his political career.
Clean? Live steam couldn't get the slime off this putrid punk.
unfortunately, the office of the presidency is soiled forever.
For certain the carpet was ruined.
Well, he did get to keep his office. He lost it for his party on the next go around though, and possibly for a long time to come.
Hopefully!
Bill Clinton Finally Comes Clean
If my memory serves me correctly it was Janet Reno’s option to ask Ken Star to take on this additional investigation or to appoint another special prosecutor. If this is the case then obviously Ken Star was intended to be the straw man all along.
Not forever... It just needs to be occupied by a good man..
The phrase you're looking for, Blubba is "I am a big fat liar."
One of three things would have to happen:
1. Hillary divorces him and he is free to openly be the rogue he really is.
2. Hillary loses a presidential election or it is clear she will never be nominated, and the Clinton's political careers are effectively over.
3. Hillary becomes president, serves her term (or two) and leaves office, then the charade can end. This would suck!
Only HE could have gotten by with this and remained in office. Truly a remarkable period in our History. Even Ronald Reagan would not have survived a Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky type scandal, because of course, he was a Republican.
This is a bit shocking if you think about it. Clinton just admitted how close we came to having the second President resign in disgrace.
And yet still not being reported by the mainstream media. So, as far as their concerned, it didn't happen. Only us astute, political junkie conservatives see it. Great post though.
For that, you win a link. Here it is: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/books/electivedecisions.shtml.
Chris
I have had an opportunity in the past to speak with Ken Starr about this and he confirmed that his initial interest in pursuing the Lewinsky scandal was because the coverup was the same modus operandi, with the same players (Vernon Jordan, et al), as was the coverup that silenced Webster Hubbell when he "rolled over" for the clinton's on Whitewater, having previously agreed to talk.
Star was going after the pattern of corruption and perversion of justice.
I was at Borders and freeped the shrine to Clinton. First, I found a pro-Bush book and an anti-Kerry book and put them in the middle of the shrine and then, and this was the best, I took the books from the "New Non-Fiction" rack and put them on the "New Fiction."
I don't know CR ...that first few days the story broke.....I think his resigning was very close.
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