Clinton exacerbated the rancorous partisanship
that dominated national politics in the late 1990’s.
Virtually the entire process was dictated by party-line
thinking. The Republicans allowed their tremen-
dous personal disdain for the president to consume
them to the point that it prevented any compromise
with Democrats, even those who were disappointed
in their own leader. The Democrats orchestrated a
plan to win by fostering partisanship and using it as a
shield for the president.
In 1999, the Ethics in Government Act expired. It
was not renewed, both parties recognizing the inher-
ent dangers in granting virtually unchecked power
to a politically unaccountable independent counsel
to conduct a debilitating criminal investigation of
the president.
Further Reading
Baker, Peter.The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and
Trial of William Jefferson Clinton. New York: Scrib-
ner, 2000. The definitive account of the impeach-
ment and trial of President Clinton. Written
without spin, an extensively researched, incredi-
bly detailed, unbiased account of the events be-
tween August 17, 1998, and February 12, 1999.
Focus is not on Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky,
Kenneth Starr, or sex but rather on Clinton and
the Democratic and Republican leadership in
the Congress.
Isikoff, Michael.Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Stor y.
New York: Crown, 1999. A look at the events lead-
ing up to President Clinton’s grand jury confes-
sion on August 17, 1998—sex and all. Written by
theNewsweekreporter who exposed the presi-
dent’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Maraniss, David.The Clinton Enigma: A Four-and-a-
Half-Minute Speech Reveals This President’s Entire
Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. A fasci-
nating dissection of President Clinton’s nation-
ally televised curious apology confessing that he
had misled the American people about his rela-
tionship with Monica Lewinsky. A character
sketch of the president, showing how he was alter-
natively “reckless and cautious, righteous and re-
pentant, evasive and forgetful... transforming
his personal trauma into a political cause.”
Posner, Richard A.An Affair of State: The Investigation,
Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Written by a longtime and well-respected federal
judge and academic. Discusses the constitutional
history, law, jurisprudence, morality, and politics
of the impeachment of President Clinton.
Schippers, David P., and Alan P. Henry.Sellout: The
Inside Stor y of President Clinton’s Impeachment. New
York: Regnery, 2000. A criticism of President
Clinton’s actions and a lament on the Senate’s
failure to convict the president.
U.S. Congress. House.Referral from Independent Coun-
sel Kenneth W. Starr. 105th Congress, 2d session,- House Document 310. The so-called Starr
Report, sexual details included, which cited
eleven possible impeachable offenses against the
president.
Van Tassel, Emily Field, and Paul Finkelman.Im-
peachable Offenses: A Documentar y Histor y from 1787
to the Present. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1999. A
well-researched documentary history of the sev-
enteen impeachment proceedings against offi-
cers of the United States.
Richard A. Glenn
See also Clinton, Bill; Clinton, Hillary Rodham;
Clinton’s scandals; Lewinsky scandal; Reno, Janet;
Right-wing conspiracy; Scandals; Starr Report; Su-
preme Court decisions; Troopergate; Whitewater in-
vestigation. Clinton’s scandals
Definition Personal, political, and legal scandals
and allegations of illegal and unethical behavior
by President Bill Clinton during his presidency,
1993-2001
Clinton’s scandals included self-admitted, alleged, and
proven adulterous affairs and sexual harassment, invest-
ment improprieties in Arkansas, controversial fund-raising
sources from the 1996 presidential election, and indepen-
dent counsel Kenneth Starr’s extensive investigation and
explicitly written report to Congress regarding allegations
that Clinton committed perjur y and obstruction of justice.
The Starr Report was the basis for the decision of the U.S.
House of Representatives to impeach Clinton in 1998. Al-
though Clinton was narrowly acquitted by the Senate in
1999, he was only the second president in U.S. histor y to be
impeached.
After Bill Clinton’s landslide reelection as governor
of Arkansas in 1990, Clinton announced his presi-196 Clinton’s scandals The Nineties in America