Bill Clinton responded to the end of the Lewinsky story with the same maddening concatenation of qualities that got him into, and out of, trouble in the first place. As he indicated in reviewing the trial with his lawyers on February 12, the president regarded the whole adventure, bottom line, as a victory. He thought this was a totally political attack on him from the beginning, and on those terms, he won and his enemies lost. For Clinton, the moral and personal implications of his behavior remained private and, apparently, not unduly troubling.
Indeed, on balance, the first family saw fit to turn trauma into opportunity. Back in the president’s first term, when Hillary Clinton had formal political responsibilities of her own, she quickly became one of the least popular first ladies in memory. Her defense of her husband during the Lewinsky scandal, however, drove her to great heights of popularity. Her character and ambition had changed little in the interim, but she and her husband decided to try to capitalize on the good feelings toward her. With the same tenacity that led Bill to reach the presidency and then to cling to it, they began to invest in Hillary’s nascent political career. The obstacles were large, but so were the Clintons’ ambitions. As their friend Linda Bloodworth-Thomason liked to say, “When they’re dead and gone, each one of them is going to be buried next to a president of the United States.”
And at some point in the distant future, Americans will likely regard this entire fin de siècle spasm of decadence with incredulity—at the tawdriness of the president’s behavior, at the fanaticism of his pursuers, and at the shabbiness of the political, legal, and journalistic systems in which this story festered. Mostly, though, these baffled future citizens will struggle with the same question about Bill Clinton. He was impeached for what? The answer will honor neither the president nor his times.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks begin with my terrific colleagues at The New Yorker. David Remnick has made the transition from consigliere to capo di tutti capi with characteristic grace, and my debt to him is vast—for his work on this book, for his leadership of the magazine, and for his incomparable friendship. Many thanks, also, to Dorothy Wickenden, for keeping a wary eye on me for several years now; to John Bennett, for hauling my words across the finish line; and to Amy Tübke-Davidson, for knowing the story better than I do. My gratitude also goes to my fellow writers on the Clinton beat: Rick Hertzberg, Joe Klein, and Jane Mayer. Also, I will always be grateful to Tina Brown for giving me a chance in journalism and for guiding my coverage of the early part of this case.
I also shared this story with many friends and colleagues at ABC News, and I am delighted to thank them all—especially the beat reporters, Jackie Judd and Linda Douglas. Chris Vlasto and I saw much about this case differently, so it is especially gratifying to thank him for his generosity to me while I wrote this book. I am grateful for the research assistance (and merciless criticism) of Josh Fine of ABC News and Sarah Smith, formerly of The New Yorker.
I am privileged, once again, to be published by Random House. Ann Godoff has guided this book with her trademark enthusiasm and savvy. The copy-editing team of Beth Pearson and Ted Johnson accomplished a great deal in a short time. Thank you also to Mary Bahr, Caroline Cunningham, Greg Durham, Richard Elman, Liz Fogarty, Kate Niedzwiecki, Tom Perry, and Carol Schneider. My agent, the great Esther Newberg, simply reigns.
I was blessed with an on-site focus group to address a much asked question in this case: What will the children think? At the age of eight, Ellen Toobin is herself a veteran news analyst, and I treasure her insights. Her brother, Adam, two years her junior, wisely took the high road about the details of the president’s difficulties, and I was delighted to explore other parts of the world with him. The mother of these great kids, Amy McIntosh, provides a living reminder of all that is best in our world. In return for the joy of sharing her life, the dedication of this book is the least I can offer her.
New York City
November 1999
SOURCE NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
This book is based principally on my observations and interviews during the two years I covered the Jones and Lewinsky cases. During this time, I interviewed more than two hundred people for this book. All quotations from private conversations come from one (or both) of two sources: my interviews with participants in the conversations, or a participant’s testimony in the course of the Starr investigation. The House of Representatives chose to release an unprecedented amount of material from Starr’s investigation, including thousands of pages of grand jury transcripts and FBI summaries of interviews. Though the wisdom of that decision remains open to question, that material stands as an extraordinary resource for journalists and historians, and I drew upon it heavily. All quotations from court proceedings come from the official court transcripts.
In addition to my own efforts, I have steeped myself in the voluminous media coverage of the case. I followed the continuing coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post. I am especially grateful to the Post’s superb web site, which maintains a useful archive of its coverage (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/clinton.htm).
I drew upon the following books and articles in my analysis of the case and its context.
BOOKS
Aldrich, Gary. Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1996.
Bennett, William J. The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
Berger, Raoul. Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Black, Charles L., Jr. Impeachment: A Handbook. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1974.
Brock, David. The Seduction of Hillary Rodham. New York: The Free Press, 1996.
Brummett, John. High Wire: The Education of Bill Clinton. New York: Hyperion Books,1994.
Clinton, Roger. Growing Up Clinton: The Lives, Times and Tragedies of America’s Presidential Family. Arlington, Texas: Summitt Publishing Group, 1995.
Coulter, Ann. High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Davis, Lanny J. Truth to Tell: Notes from My White House Education. New York: The Free Press, 1999.
Dershowitz, Alan M. Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis. New York: Basic Books, 1998.
Drew, Elizabeth. The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why. Secaucus, New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1999.
Flowers, Gennifer. Passion and Betrayal. Del Mar, California: Emery Dalton Books, 1995.
———. Sleeping with the President: My Intimate Years with Bill Clinton. Carson City, Nevada: Anonymous Press, 1996.
Gabler, Neal. Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
Gerhardt, Michael J. The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996. Goldberg, Lucianne. Madame Cleo’s Girls. New York: Pocket Books, 1992.
———, and Sondra Till Robinson. Friends in High Places. New York: Richard Marek Publishers, 1979.
———, and Jeannie Sakol. Purr, Baby, Purr: You Can Be Feminine and Liberated. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1971.
Hitchens, Christopher. No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton. New York: Verso, 1999.
Hubbell, Webb. Friends in High Places. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997.
Isikoff, Michael. Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story. New York: Crown Publishers,1999.
Janeway, Michael. Republic of Denial: Press, Politics and Public Life. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999.
Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. Warp Speed: America in the Age of Mixed Media. New York: Century Foundation Press, 1999.
Kurtz, Howard. Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
Lyons, G
ene. Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater. New York: Franklin Square Press, 1996.
MacKinnon, Catharine A. Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1979.
Maraniss, David. The Clinton Enigma: A Four-and-a-Half-Minute Speech Reveals This President’s Entire Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
———. First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
McDougal, Jim, and Curtis Wilkie. Arkansas Mischief: The Birth of a National Scandal. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1998.
Moldea, Dan E. A Washington Tragedy: How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a Political Firestorm. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Morgan, Peter W., and Glenn H. Reynolds. The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business, and Society. New York: The Free Press, 1997.
Morris, Dick. Behind the Oval Office: Getting Reelected Against All Odds. New York: Random House, 1997.
Morton, Andrew. Monica’s Story. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Posner, Richard A. An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment and Trial of President Clinton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Stephanopoulos, George. All Too Human: A Political Education. Boston: Little, Brown &Co., 1999.
Stewart, James B. Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Tyrell, R. Emmett, Jr. Boy Clinton: The Political Biography. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1996.
Woodward, Bob. Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate. New York: Simon &Schuster, 1999.
ARTICLES
Beinart, Peter. “Private Matters.” The New Republic, February 15, 1999, p. 21.
Blumenthal, Sidney. “The Friends of Paula Jones.” The New Yorker, June 20, 1994, p. 38.
Didion, Joan. “Uncovered Washington.” The New York Review of Books, June 24, 1999, p. 72.
Dunne, Dominick. “Mr. Dunne Goes to Washington.” Vanity Fair, May 1999, p. 152.
Dworkin, Ronald. “The Wounded Constitution.” The New York Review of Books, March 18, 1999, p. 8.
Ellis, David, et al. “The Perils of Paula.” People, May 23, 1994, p. 88.
Graves, Florence, with Jacqueline E. Sharkey. “Starr and Willey: The Untold Story.” The Nation, May 17, 1999, p. 11.
Henneberger, Melinda. “The World of Paula Jones.” The New York Times, March 12, 1998, p. A1.
Kavanaugh, Brett M. “The President and the Independent Counsel.” Georgetown Law Review, vol. 86, p. 2133 (1998).
Kotler, Steven. “The President’s Nemesis” (John W. Whitehead). GQ, September 1998, p. 362.
Lardner, George, Jr. “The Presidential Scandal’s Producer and Publicist.” The Washington Post, November 17, 1998, p. A1.
Lewis, Anthony. “The Prosecutorial State: Criminalizing American Politics.” The American Prospect, January/February 1999, p. 26.
Lizza, Ryan. “Mister Hyde.” The New Republic, December 28, 1998, p. 14.
Maxa, Rudy. “The Devil in Paula Jones.” Penthouse, January 1995, p. 107.
———. “The Devil in Paula Jones.” Penthouse, April 1998, p. 51.
Mayer, Jane. “Dept. of Accomplices.” The New Yorker, February 2, 1998, p. 25.
———. “Distinguishing Characteristics.” The New Yorker, July 7, 1997, p. 34.
———. “Portrait of a Whistleblower.” The New Yorker, March 23, 1998, p. 34.
McClintick, David. “Town Crier for the New Age.” Brill’s Content, November 1998, p. 113.
O’Sullivan, Julie R. “The Interaction Between Impeachment and the Independent Counsel Statute.” Georgetown Law Review, vol. 86, p. 2193 (1998).
Pollitt, Katha. “After Virtue.” The New Republic, June 7, 1999, p. 42.
Rich, Frank. “All the Presidents Stink.” The New York Times Magazine, August 15, 1999, p. 42.
Rosen, Jeffrey. “Jurisprurience.” The New Yorker, September 28, 1998, p. 34.
———. “Kenneth Starr, Trapped.” The New York Times Magazine, June 1, 1997, p. 42.
Schippers, David. “Schippers Speaks Out.” Human Events, May 28, 1999, p. 1.
Semple, Kirk. “Witness for the Prosecution” (Bruce Udolf). Miami New Times, August 21–27, 1997.
Shalit, Ruth. “The President’s Lawyer.” The New York Times Magazine, October 2, 1994, p. 42. Sunstein, Cass R. “Bad Incentives and Bad Institutions.” Georgetown Law Review, vol. 86, p. 2267 (1998).
———. “Unchecked and Unbalanced: Why the Independent Counsel Act Must Go.” The American Prospect, May/June 1998, p. 20.
Symposium. “The Independent Counsel Act: From Watergate to Whitewater and Beyond.” Georgetown Law Review, vol. 86, p. 2011 (1998).
Taylor, Stuart, Jr. “Her Case Against Clinton.” American Lawyer, November 1996, p. 57.
———. “Jones’ Credibility.” Legal Times, June 23, 1997, p. 20.
Waas, Murray. “False Witness” (David Hale). Five-part series, www.salon1999.com, 1998.
Walzer, Michael. “News Unworthy.” The New Republic, September 28, 1998, p. 10.
Weiss, Philip. “I Love Luci.” The New York Observer, June 29–July 6, 1998, p. 21.
York, Byron. “False Witness” (Vernon Jordan). The American Spectator, February 1999, p. 24.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFFREY TOOBIN is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the legal analyst at ABC News. He served as an assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn and as an associate counsel in the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh—which provided the basis for his book Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case—United States v. Oliver North. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and the author of the bestselling The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson. Toobin lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
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