Oral history: The Monica Lewinsky scandal ten years on

TimesOnline ^ | 15 Jan 2008 | Damian Whitworth

[seanmerc]

On the evening of Saturday January 17, 1998, the internet gossip merchant Matt Drudge posted a story that opened the most sensational scandal season in the history of the American presidency. He reported that Newsweek magazine had killed a story about President Clinton’s sexual relationship with a former intern. The next day he had her name: Monica Lewinsky.

The mainstream media were slow to catch up, but by the following Tuesday they were reporting that Clinton was being investigated for encouraging others to lie to cover up the affair.

For the next year the story dominated the headlines as Clinton was investigated, impeached and eventually found not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours in a Senate trial.

Ten years on we know what happened to Bill Clinton. He is campaigning tirelessly for his wife as she seeks to win the second Clinton presidency. It is a curious twist of fate, and an indication of how deep were the repercussions of the scandal, that her campaign might not be happening if it weren’t for Monica Lewinsky.

For it was in the wake of the scandal, in which Hillary was seen as the wronged wife, that she decided to run for the Senate from New York. Her shamed husband, anxious to try to make things up to her, eagerly threw his weight behind the move. A wave of sympathy helped to sweep her to victory. As soon as she was elected, talk began about her running for president.

But what of the other dramatis personae from that sorry saga? Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House, resigned when voters expressed their disapproval at the impeachment drive. Two years later, though, scandal fatigue severely complicated Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

[hunter112]

Did a search for “Lewinsky” and this thread is the most recent I came up with. Does anybody realize that today is the tenth anniversary of Bubba’s finger shake, and “Ah did nawt have sexshull r’lations with that woman, Miz Lewinsky!”