The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

by the Republican-controlled Congress, led him to
discover that Clinton may have committed crimes re-
lating to the sexual harassment lawsuit of Paula
Jones and an adulterous affair with Monica Lewin-
sky, a former White House intern. After Clinton pub-
licly admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky but
denied committing perjury and other related
crimes, efforts to further investigate Clinton and ei-
ther pressure him to resign or impeach him became
a major conservative objective from late 1997 until
early 1999. However, public opinion polls and Dem-
ocratic gains in the 1998 midterm elections sug-
gested that most Americans opposed impeach-
ment. In 1998, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
stated in a media interview that she and her husband
were victims of a "vast right-wing conspiracy that has
been conspiring against my husband since the day
he announced for president." In particular, she re-
ferred to conservative-motivated investigations of
the Clintons’ investments in the Whitewater de-
velopment in Arkansas and Bill Clinton’s sexual
behavior.
Although Clinton was impeached, Gingrich re-
signed from Congress, and the Senate acquitted
Clinton in 1999. Many conservative activists, espe-
cially in the Religious Right and among media com-
mentators, remained convinced that Clinton had
proven that he was morally unfit to be president and
that his behavior personified liberal permissiveness
regarding sex and marriage.

Impact After the division among conservatives be-
tween voting for either President George H. W. Bush
or H. Ross Perot contributed to Bill Clinton’s elec-
tion as president in 1992, conservatives in Congress,
the media, and interest groups initially focused on
defeating or diluting Clinton’s more liberal policies,
especially on health care, taxes, gun control, and
abortion rights. They also forced Clinton, especially
after the 1994 midterm elections, to accept modified
versions of conservative policy proposals on welfare
reform, deficit reduction, and bureaucratic down-
sizing. However, Republican efforts to investigate,
impeach, and force Clinton to leave the presidency
provoked a public perception of conservatism as ex-
treme, harsh, and uncompromising.
Influenced by this new public mood, Texas gov-
ernor George W. Bush prepared for the 2000 presi-
dential election by articulating and advocating
“compassionate conservatism” as a more moderate,

reasonable, and unifying alternative to the divisive,

combative conservatism of the 1990’s.

Further Reading

Conason, Joe, and Gene Lyons.The Hunting of the

President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and

Hillar y Clinton. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

A pro-Clinton study of conservative efforts to op-

pose, discredit, investigate, and impeach Bill

Clinton.

Wilcox, Clyde.The Latest American Revolution? The

1994 Elections and Their Implications for Governance.

New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. An explana-

tion and analysis of the influence of conservatism

on the Contract with America and Republican

success in the 1994 midterm elections.

Woodward, Bob.The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White

House. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. An

analysis of Clinton’s early policy agenda that in-

cludes references to the growing conservative op-

position to Clinton.

Sean J. Savage

See also Abortion; Buchanan, Pat; Bush, George

H. W.; Christian Coalition; Clinton, Bill; Clinton,

Hillary Rodham; Clinton’s impeachment; Clinton’s

scandals; Contract with America; Culture wars; De-

fense of Marriage Act of 1996; Dole, Bob; Elections

in the United States, midterm; Elections in the

United States, 1992; Elections in the United States,

1996; Gingrich, Newt; Kemp, Jack; Lewinsky scan-

dal; Liberalism in U.S. politics; Limbaugh, Rush;

Perot, H. Ross; Right-wing conspiracy; Starr Report;

Welfare reform; Whitewater investigation.

 Contract with America

Identification Seminal legislative plan that

Republicans promised to bring before Congress

if they gained a majority of seats in the new

Congress

Date Announced in 1994 during the

congressional election campaign

This Republican platform trumpeted the mainstream ar-

rival of ascending conservative ideas.

To all but the most seasoned political observers, par-

ticular sessions of Congress typically do not make a

lasting impression on one’s memory. Unlike the

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Contract with America The Nineties in America