Judge Roy Moore Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has been accused by several women of sexual assault, some as young as 14 at the time of the alleged assault. Former Saturday Night Live cast member turned Democratic U.S. Senator Al Franken is accused by a female radio newscaster of sexual assault, Sen. Franken even had a picture taken of himself committing the assault. Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) says that the House has paid out millions in harassment settlements from 1997-2016. Some have suggested that the reason for all this perverted, illegal and certainly immoral behavior, is because of 2 people, one being the world’s most powerful person, having sex in one of the nation’s most sacred places.
In 1995 Monica Lewinski a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, was hired during the first term of then President William Jefferson Clinton as an intern at the White House, and was later an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. According to Ms. Lewinski beginning in 1995-1996, she at the age of 22, engaged in sexual acts on several occasions with then 49-year-old President Bill Clinton on the grounds of the White House. Clinton lied and denied the affair while giving testimony under oath in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
This gave Independent Counsel Ken Starr the only viable reason he could find after a 70 million dollar investigation into alleged Clinton corruption, to recommend impeachment to the Republican-led House. On December 19, 1998, The House voted for 2 articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton, one for perjury and the other for obstruction of justice. Clinton became the second U.S. president in American history to be impeached, following Andrew Johnson in 1868. The perjury and obstruction of justice articles were passed over to a Republican-controlled Senate for trial which began on January 7, 1999, with Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist presiding. On February 12, 1999, the Senate voted on the articles of impeachment. A two-thirds vote, 67 votes, would have been necessary to convict and remove the President from office. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction and 55 against. The obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50 for conviction and 50 against.
Two months after being acquitted by the Senate, Clinton was cited by Federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright for civil contempt of court, for his “willful failure” to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. For this citation, Clinton was assessed a $90,000 fine, and the matter was referred to the Arkansas Supreme Court to see if disciplinary action would be appropriate. The day before leaving office in January 2001, President Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license.
Thursday during a New York Times podcast Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated that she thought Clinton should have resigned, implying that he got off Scott free sending the message that sexually abusing and assaulting women was acceptable.
Obliviously based on the aforementioned facts the notion that Bill Clinton suffered no consequences is flat out wrong. Sen. Gillibrand seems to be confusing both the facts of the sexual incidents and the sentiment of the country at the time of the Clinton/Lewinski scandal.
First, all the sexual activity between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski was legal and totally consensual. Lewinski readily admits that she was the one who initiated their first sexual encounter by, voluntarily with no suggestion or prompting from Clinton, exposing herself to him. Unfortunately for Lewinski, Hillary Clinton and America, Clinton failed to be the adult 49-year-old man and leader of the free world that he was by refusing her advance. Instead over the course of a year, he engaged in several more legal consensual sexual encounters.
It was immoral for Clinton as a husband to cheat on his faithful wife Hillary, he was irresponsible and set a bad example as our President by committing adultery, he selfishly took advantage of the adult but naive mind and heart of Monica and he was disrespectful of the nation’s citadel of power, the White House, by engaging in adulterous activity on its hallowed grounds. These disappointing and embarrassing sentiments were broadly and loudly expressed at the time, along with the ultimate low point of “how do I explain this behavior and the term blowjob to my kids”.
Sen. Gillibrand and other like-minds seem to have forgotten how upset and embarrassed the entire nation was, no one was jumping up for joy over Clinton’s failings. The country thought Clinton’s behavior was adulterous and wrong but did not rise to the level of removal from office. Sen. Gillibrand shouldn’t twist that to mean that the country was saying that if there were an upcoming election that Clinton should be reelected. Apparently, they were saying the opposite, the disgust was so strong that it possibly tarnished his wife Hillary. What else explains how she left office as Secretary of State in 2012 as the most admired politician in America, only to write a best seller book, give several six-figure paid speeches and by her 2016 presidential run be the most hated and distrusted politician in America. The possibility that his failings might have tainted Hillary must give Bill Clinton a few sleepless nights.
Further proof that the political environment was anything but hostile to Clinton’s behavior, several Republican politicians suffered consequences. Speaker of the House at the time, Newt Gingrich was forced to admit to having had an affair with a House intern while he was married to his second wife, and at the same time as he was leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury regarding an affair with intern Monica Lewinski. Republican Congressman Bob Livingston who had been widely expected to replace a resigning Speaker Gingrich, to become the next Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, had to resign before taking that office when it was revealed that he too had committed adultery.
America was rightly disturbed and deeply hurt by Bill Clinton’s legal irresponsible consensual adulterous affair on the grounds of the White House. The conclusion by the majority of Americans that the Senate should not remove him from office, was not a declaration that had he been eligible for a third term that America would have re-elected him, it simply meant that as immoral as what he did America didn’t think we should un-elect him for lying about cheating on his wife.
To blame the disrespectful, illegal and abusive way some powerful men treat women, on Bill Clinton’s failings and the way America responded to them is a stretch beyond human comprehension. Unfortunately, this is an injustice that dates back to biblical times with passages in the Bible, Koran, and Hebrew Torah that unfortunately condones male domination over females. Hopefully, Sen. Gillibrand and others won’t be fooled by shiny objects but will look far deeper into the systemic issues that are the true cause for the mistreatment of God’s most precious gift to humanity, FEMALES!
