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Buy the Book
Beating the Yard Dog
Bill Clinton and the death of American virtue.
The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs.
Starr
By Ken Gormley
(Crown, 789 pages, $35)
On his last day in office, having survived impeachment and what should have been a horse whipping by at least one angry father, our 42nd president, as part of the deal with Kenneth Starr’s successor to conclude the Whitewater investigation, acknowledged that he had lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, gave up his license to practice law for five years, and paid a $25,000 fine.
Given this appropriate conclusion, capping as it did the consistently distasteful details of his entire political and personal life, some might have expected him to slink offstage, perhaps retreating to a refuge somewhere back in the Ozarks, where he’d find a roadhouse chanteuse who’d swallow the old line, tell him he was a great man, and minister to those various quirks that might well have landed a lesser man in jail.
But this is no lesser man. There he is, a decade later, still snarling defiance during a series of interviews with Ken Gormley, interim dean and professor of law at Duquesne and author of this exhaustive study of the events leading up to Clinton’s impeachment trial. Asked by Gormley to comment on Rep. Henry Hyde’s observation that as only the second president to be impeached by the House, his name would carry an asterisk in the history books, his response, typically, was informed by a strong streak of self-pity. “‘Yeah, l will always have an asterisk after my name, but I hope I’ll have two asterisks: one is ‘They impeached him’ and the other is ‘He stood up to them and beat them. And he beat them like a yard dog.’”
Nevertheless, animal cruelty aside, he was impeached, and that asterisk will always be there. Why? For many who lived through the Clinton years, and as this massive work documents, it was the result of the sociopathic and misogynistic urges he was unable — or unwilling — to bring under control throughout his political career. But that’s not how he sees it. For Clinton, it was all part of “a partisan hit job run by a bitter right winger, Henry Hyde” which “pleased Tom DeLay and his right-wing masters.”
The thought of Henry Hyde, described by Gormley as a “conservative Republican lion,” taking marching orders from Tom DeLay may be ludicrous. But no matter. Our second asterisked president, whose various pathologies don’t permit him ever to take blame for anything, has the proper scapegoat at hand — the same sinister force (to borrow a phrase from Al Haig) that conspired against him since the earliest days, when he first discovered vulnerable girls — the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, identified as such by his long-suffering wife in one of her finer Lady Macbeth moments.
The strains in those days were great. On July 20, 1993, just six months after Clinton took office, Vince Foster, one of the First Lady’s knights-errants, had allegedly committed suicide under suspicious and never satisfactorily explained circumstances. Rumors abounded, among them one linking Foster and the First Lady romantically. The suicide — if that’s what it was — in turn stirred memories of the Whitewater scandals in Arkansas, a shady land deal involving the Clintons and several friends, which Vince Foster, representing the Rose Law Firm, unsuccessfully tried to put to rest.
“It was the ultimate irony,” writes Gormley, “that the Foster suicide helped to revive the Whitewater scandal — since this is the last thing Vince Foster would have intended if his mind had been clear enough to assess the consequences.” Then, shortly after Foster’s death, “Another event jostled the dormant scandal [Whitewater] back to life. During the fall of 1993, the Los Angeles Times was busily working on a story involving rumors that then Governor Bill Clinton had engaged in various extramarital affairs facilitated by former Arkansas state troopers.”
Thus, the table was set. “By the early days of 1994,” writes Gormley, “allegations of scandal had burst into full bloom, like a garden suddenly flowering with a dozen dark-colored, scary, potentially poisonous species….From this cross-pollination of tainted blossoms, an unexpected political scandal that threatened the existence of the Clinton presidency would emerge.”
It came in December 1993, “in the form of an article in a hot new conservative magazine, the American Spectator [hot, to be sure, but hardly new]….On the cover was featured a cartoon that depicted Bill Clinton sneaking out of the governor’s mansion at night carrying his shoes, with the provocative title ‘His Cheatin’ Heart.’ The inside headline read: ‘Bill’s Arkansas bodyguards tell the story the press missed.’” Gormley goes on to summarize: exploits with dozens of women; Hillary’s “wild, screaming, door-kicking tirades when she caught Bill on the prowl”; Clinton’s assertion to one of the troopers that “he had researched the subject in the Bible and oral sex isn’t considered adultery.” (He would later share the results of this biblical research with Monica Lewinsky.)
Immediate impact aside — and the response to the article was sensational — what most counted were the long-term effects. It was “Troopergate” that defined and set the character of the main player, led to the lawsuit by Paula Corbin Jones that blew it all open, and like Watergate, subsumed a great assortment of perceived misdeeds under one rubric. In fact, in a very real sense, this book, like the Clinton administration itself, owes its shape and structure to Troopergate, for it was Troopergate that opened Pandora’s box.
Ironically enough, it was because of an editing lapse in the Troopergate article that the lid blew totally off. In a brief description of an Arkansas hotel tryst in the article, Gormley writes, “a tiny paragraph” would “rise up from the ashes to threaten the entire Clinton presidency.” A trooper approached a woman, told her the governor found her attractive, and escorted her to his suite. “The brief paragraph ended succinctly: ‘After her encounter with Clinton, which lasted no more than an hour as the trooper stood by in the hall, the trooper said Paula told him she was available to be Clinton’s regular girlfriend if he so desired.’”
But, as Bob Tyrrell tells Gormley, TAS “hadn’t intended to include the name ‘Paula’ in the story; it had a policy against identifying names of alleged victims of sexual misconduct. ‘It was an accident. An editorial mistake,’ said Tyrrell. ‘There never would have been a lawsuit if we hadn’t erroneously left her name in the piece.’”
Editorial mistake or not, the Troopergate article, among other things, enabled the national media to pick up the story they’d been sitting on. The substance of the article was to have been the basis for the story in the Los Angeles Times. But when the Times backed off, TAS ran the story, and the White House responded with a propaganda barrage against Tyrrell and his publication that, as James Warren of the Chicago Tribune observed, “seemed to be largely embraced by official Washington and its solicitous press corps.”
The pundits, Tyrrell wrote in Boy Clinton, “deprecated the troopers’ stories as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘baloney’ even while claiming that everyone was already well aware of Clinton’s sexual improprieties and the citizens elected him president anyway. So the unbelievable was irrelevant because everyone already knew it was true.”
About the Author
John R. Coyne, Jr. a former White House speech-writer, is co-author with Linda Bridges of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Wiley).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (47) | Leave a comment
More Articles by John R. Coyne, Jr.
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Pingback| 5.15.10 @ 1:16PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Beating the Yard Dog [spectator.org] links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Al Cameron| 5.15.10 @ 2:04PM
Clinton is directly quoted claims that TAS lied several times.
Is this not slander or defamation and therefore actionable?
Ret. Marine| 5.15.10 @ 6:33PM
No, simply the truth, he got caught and impeached. End of story.
JmsA| 5.19.10 @ 10:06AM
Ret. Marine,
And don't forget, disbarred by the Supreme Court, fined $25,000.00, and disbarred in Arkansas for 5 years.
Pingback| 5.15.10 @ 4:48PM
Reminder Remembers, 5/13/10 | TV drama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
scythe| 5.19.10 @ 8:01AM
Hahahahahahahaha....love it!!!
Ken (Old Texican)| 5.19.10 @ 9:02AM
Heh,
Now I get a glimpse of where Rush got some of his material.
I was not aware of ASpec in those days. Darn it.
Conrad Spiracy| 5.20.10 @ 3:27PM
Ken,
I was a print subscriber back then. I still have the cited issue, as well as several others.
If I ever make it down your way, or you up mine, I'll be sure to pull them out fer ya.
Con Spiracy
R Martin| 5.19.10 @ 9:06AM
The junkyard dog may have taken a beating, but he is still barking and still nasty and dangerous. His Lady Macbeth is still venomous and her cauldron of political ambitions is still bubbling. The average junkyard dog deserves more respect than the Clintons, but the Clintons deserve more careful watching.
JmsA| 5.19.10 @ 10:10AM
He's only capable insofar as the leftist media and the democrat establishment allows him to be. He's not what he used to be. To wit, notice the short legs of his anti-Tea Party comments, and his utter miserable failure in helping Hillary during the primaries, including his crawling up to good old Teddy Kennedy in search of a endorsement for her.
Alan Brooks| 5.19.10 @ 9:20AM
LBJ and Nixon destroyed the virtue.
JmsA| 5.19.10 @ 10:11AM
And Clinton buried it.
JP| 5.19.10 @ 1:55PM
"LBJ and Nixon destroyed the virtue."
Who in turn learned thier trade from Joe Kennedy and his sons.
Alan Brooks| 5.19.10 @ 8:30PM
So much for Old Texican's optimism.
stmichrick| 5.19.10 @ 11:11PM
Clinton's lies and corruption made Nixon's transgressions look, well, bumbling and prudish.
Nixon had the misfortune of being of a party and constituency that held to some standards of personal behavior, which he realized condemned him.
Clinton formally established the modern liberal Democrat norm which approves of slothful personal behavior, as long as it is trumped by perceived compassionate governance; publicly funded of course.
cuban pete| 5.19.10 @ 9:29AM
Years ago I stumbled on a very interesting insight about the the Clinton presidency. The writer said its greatest achievement was that it defined the "womens' movement". First, it did not apply to homely southern women and second, as long as you were pro abortion it was okay to have oral sex in the Oval office.
canuckistani| 5.19.10 @ 10:08AM
Virtue? What about the virtue of using the most important balancer in the constitution, impeachment, for something like this? Who did he kill? Did he campaign on family values? Did he not get re-elected after at least two affairs were published to the electorate? He only had to apologize to his wife, who had long before understood what he was, a politician.
My disdain is for the hypocrites in the GOP caucus that had the audacity to impeach a president over a BJ. Years later it has been shown that many of that cabal were philanderers, cheats and thieves all the while campaigning under the banner of family values, Hyde being the richest case of them all.
High crimes and misdemeanors should be reserved for the basest of crimes - ones that involve the lives of citizens, like sending troops into a fraud war.
I resented his use of the Oval office as a bordello, but my resentment does not extend to demeaning the constitution with a show trial, it is shown at the ballot box that really hit Clinton in the legacy gut in 2000.
It was the GOP, the party I loved, that has started the bloodfeud in the electorate today. The stink of hypocrisy emanated from that group of thugs as soon as they tasted victory in 1994, and culminated in the orgy of lies and spending we witnessed for the first eight years of the century. I look at facts, and Clinton left a strong economy, a surplus and a global comity that had never been seen that century. He did it WITH practical GOPers. Instead after 2000, we acted like teenagers with the parents away and broke some windows, soiled the carpets and lost the cat - like we were on some absurd end-game to ransack the place before the rapture.
Dr. Chemical| 5.19.10 @ 10:35AM
He was impeached for lying under oath in regards to as civil suit he could have easily settled.
JoeJazz2000| 5.19.10 @ 10:46AM
He was not impeached for a BJ. If he had been it would have been truly hypocritical. He was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, both felonies. He plead-out to theses crimes on the last day of his term, before he had to face those charges in a real court.
Conrad Spiracy| 5.20.10 @ 3:32PM
Don't forget the other two ticks:
1. Suborning perjury, and
2. Dang, I can't remember the fourth
Net-net, he was brought up on, and impeached for, 4 separate felony counts. Seems to me, oral sex isn't a felony, not even in Texas after that one famous case a few years back.
Oh, he did plead guilty and is now the ONLY President in the history of the US to be a convicted felon.
Con Spiracy
MOS was 71331| 5.19.10 @ 10:53AM
Clinton was NOT impeached for getting a blow job. He was impeached for (1) lying under oath to obstruct a trial, (2) almost certainly raping Juanita Broaddrick AND a girl in England while he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, and (3) deliberately lying to the American people when he said he never had sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I admit those weren't the actions covered in the listed "charges." However, impeachment is a political process, and a president can be removed for any reasons deemed acceptable by two-thirds of the Senators.
George Will may have stated it best when he said that Clinton wasn't the worst president of the US, but Clinton was the worst person ever to have served as president of the US.
It's almost laughable when Clinton complains about the politics of personal destruction, when he and his wife tried their best to destroy decent individuals. The Clintons showed no mercy accusing Billy Dale, the director of the White House Travel Office, of dishonesty so they could install their cronies, the Thomasons, instead. It cost Dale hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against the Clinton charges. (If that's not "personal destruction," I don't know what is.) Fortunately, Dale was found not guilty on both counts brought against him, so he never received the 20-year sentence possible had he been convicted. (And Dale didn't have rich friends like Barbara Streisand or George Soros to pay his legal bills.)
Alan Brooks| 5.19.10 @ 8:33PM
"George Will may have stated it best when he said that Clinton wasn't the worst president of the US, but Clinton was the worst person ever to have served as president of the US."
No, LBJ.
el BJ!
JmsA| 5.19.10 @ 12:19PM
canuckistani,
I guess you forgot he lied about it under oath.
Steve A| 5.19.10 @ 12:32PM
Hey Canuckistani,
Couple things: #1: If you are the President, I'm sorry, but your ass should be fired if you screw interns in the Oval Office. #2: It is and was a matter of national signifigance: If you engage in behavior that reckless, you set yourself up to be manipulated by those who could blackmail with evidence of the scandal & use that pressure to exert control. This guy (Clinton) was and is complete jackass.
DG in GA| 5.19.10 @ 5:24PM
He lied under oath, which is why he was impeached. I am so sick of the MSM and stupid liberals who cannot get that through their heads!
Alan Brooks| 5.19.10 @ 8:35PM
"Years later it has been shown that many of that cabal were philanderers"
Well, they were supposed to be Real Men ;)
stmichrick| 5.19.10 @ 11:18PM
Hypocrisy?
You mean transgressions of personal behavior that supposedly GOP-types rail against?
In other words, failure of those with standards to live up to them, as opposed to those with no standards who are lionized because of their generosity with other people's money, personal vice be damned.
And BTW, Clinton's wonderful economy dod not take shape until it was wrested from his control by Republicans; heavy lifting done by John Kasich.
And you still think he was impeached over a BJ?
ncatty| 5.19.10 @ 10:09AM
A great trip down memory lane Mr. Coyne, and thanks TAS for not backing down. Each issue was a revelation. It was truly a David (TAS) and Goliath (ABC,CBS,NBC, NY Times, et al) battle, and you prevailed.
Cris Worth| 5.19.10 @ 11:00AM
Vince Foster and Bill were childhood friends. Just goes to show you be careful who you make friends with even at the age of 5. This article is right on...Vince Foster's death crystallized Clinton's lifelong morass of malfeasance leaving a toxic footprint to this day.
Seek| 5.19.10 @ 11:30AM
A few extramarital BJs, whether in the Oval Office or in a nearby Marriott, is not an impeachable offense, save to the bluenoses obsessed with punishing others for what they can't get themselves (but fantasize about all the time). Name me a politician, including any number of conservative Christians, who hasn't emanated a whiff of scandal sometime in his life. It's a mighty short list.
As for a horse-whipping, maybe that's the way things were done long ago in the Coyne home, but I think we've progressed beyond that point.
Ted| 5.19.10 @ 11:59AM
Seek,
You are correct. Blowjobs are not impeachable offenses. And Bill Clinton was not impeached for having those liaisons. He was impeached for lying under oath in a Federal court proceding. Nice try at defending the indefensible, though.
R Martin| 5.19.10 @ 12:13PM
Lighten-up, Seek; it was a metaphor...a metaphor.
cuban pete| 5.19.10 @ 12:22PM
Ted is right BJ's are not impeachable. And defiling the papel seat of our civic religion isn't impeachable either. However, it did trouble me as a obsessive bluenose.
Tony in Central PA| 5.19.10 @ 12:31PM
I laughed so hard I almost spit my lunch on my screen. The Hillary - channeling - Lady MacBeth reference was priceless.
Pat| 5.19.10 @ 1:15PM
Bill and Hillary have become wealthy exploiting the political game and expertly playing that Great American Game at the level of Wimbledon stars or NFL $20 million per year quarterbacks. Along with his taxpayer provided pension, his post-presidency perqs, government provided health care, Bill Clinton commands $50 to 100 thousand per speech in addition to his book royalties. For a loser, he did quite well for himself and at the expense of Americans who will never realize his level of personal wealth.
Contrast him with Harry Truman, a former president who didn't believe in personally profitting from his term as president and who modestly explained he lacked the wealth to travel the country giving speechs once he left the White House. In point of fact, Truman's lack of wealth was an embarrassment to many Americans and combined with the rare integrity which prompted him to turn down a chance to profit from his celebrity status through lucrative honorariums was instrumental in initiating today's taxpayer funded largesse toward ex-Presidents.
We've come a long way since Truman, but not in the right direction which may explain, in part, why no one who deserves to be President can get elected to the office.
JP| 5.19.10 @ 1:58PM
You don't hear much about the Clinton Dynasty anymore. Remember these months immediatly following Clinton's departure from the WH. The MSM was still enchanted by the Boy from Hope. Then 9/11 occured. The nation finally grew up to some degree. Clinton is now just a vague memory.
Tony in Central PA| 5.19.10 @ 2:08PM
If the nation had " grown up " why would it have elected somebody like our current President ? The answer is that people have short memories and they keep getting shorter.
Michael| 5.19.10 @ 3:29PM
One of the people you mentioned, Richard Mellon Scaife, is far from a conservative other than his opposition to Clinton. He's well known as an anti-Catholic bigot and pro-abortion.
Anthony| 5.19.10 @ 5:08PM
William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, our first white trash president with a Yale Law degree, without question, would beat someone like a "yard dog". It goes with who and what he is.
To the eternal shame of America, the whore-master- in -chief spent his entire eight years using the White House as his personal Animal House.
Clinton's stain on the presidency and American culture is far worse than the stain he left on Monica's dress.
One can only hope there is a canto in Hell that will adequately administer the punishment this sociopathic reprobate deserves.
Kay| 5.19.10 @ 10:18PM
There should be a psychological litmus test for all future presidents, including the present-- the pathological liar index. Bill Clinton should not go away mad (that he got caught), just go away. It's enough to contend with what we have now in the White House. But then, until we have learned our lesson, it is for our good, if we will just learn.....
darcy| 5.20.10 @ 2:00AM
I remember reading the Troopergate story in TAS at the time. What most caught my attention, however, was the utter foul, nastiness of Hillary Clinton. I have never forgotten it and have watched her closely since then. She puts on a good front and assumes the posture of a "lady," as she's worn her several political "hats."
But she's a shrew, through and through and driven by ambition. Reprobate Bill or no, as our current President declines in popularity, I expect her to make one last ditch effort to secure the prize.
From a long-time AS fan.