Clinton and Zippergate Scandal - Research Paper Example

?Clinton & Zippergate: William Jefferson Clinton became the 42nd President of the United s in 1993 at the age of 47. Prior to his election as President, he served as the Governor of the state of Arkansas for two successive terms between 1983 and 1993, prior to which he was Attorney General of Arkansas between 1977 and 1979. He was re-elected for a second term in 1996 and served until December 2010. He was the first member of the Democratic Party in the history of the United States since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be re-elected as President for a second consecutive term in office. In June 1995, a scandal began during the latter half of his second term involving Monica Lewinsky, 21, who came to the White House as an unpaid intern in the office of White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta. In November 1995, she got involved in a sexual relationship with President Clinton. Barely a month into the relationship, Lewinsky was moved to a paid position in the Office of Legislative Affairs, handling letters from members of Congress. She frequently ferried mail to the Oval Office. Around April, 1996, Lewinsky was transferred to a job as an assistant to Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon, by Evelyn Lieberman who was then the Deputy White House Chief of Staff. Lieberman told the New York Times later that the move was due to “inappropriate and immature behavior” and that Lewinsky demonstrated a lack of attention to work. At the Pentagon, Lewinsky met Linda Tripp, a career government employee. Around summer 1996, Lewinsky began telling Tripp during casual conversations about her relationship with President Clinton. Tripp reported these conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, who advised her to secretly record them. Tripp convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts she received from the President and the dress that got stained during one of her sexual encounters. About a year later, in the fall of 1997, when the relationship was over, Tripp secretly began taping the conversations with Lewinsky in which she explicitly talked about her alleged affair. Around October 1997, Tripp, with help from Lucianne Goldberg, met with Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, Kucianne & Jonah Goldberg at Jonah’s apartment in Washington, where they listened to a tape with the Tripp/Lewinsky conversation. In October 1997, Lewinsky interviewed with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Bill Richardson for a low level public affairs position in New York. She was offered a job but she declined. In early December that year, Lewinsky left the Pentagon. Later that month, Bettie Currie, President Clinton’s personal secretary, got in touch with Vernon Jordan, a friend of Clintons, to place Lewinsky in New York. Vernon Jordan obliged and introduced Lewinsky to several leads. Lewinsky allegedly had over 9 sexual encounters with the President in the Oval Office during the period between November 1995 and March 1997. On December 17, 1997, Lewinsky was subpoenaed by lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing the President on sexual harassment charges. She submitted an affidavit in which she declared that she never had any sexual relationship with the President. She also, allegedly attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case. Tripp, instead, gave the tapes to Kenneth Starr, who was the Independent Counsel investigating the Whitewater & Paula Jones case. Lewinsky made her final visit to the White House on December 28, 1997, when she and the President had a private meeting. During this meeting, the President allegedly encouraged Lewinsky to be as evasive as possible in her responses to any of the questions in the Jones’ lawsuit. On January 16th 1998, Kenneth Starr contacted United States Attorney General, Janet Reno, seeking permission to expand his probe to investigate possible impropriety on the part of the President. The Attorney General gave her consent and submitted a request to a panel of three Federal judges. The judges agreed to allow Kenneth Starr to formally investigate the possibility of subornation of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Jones case. Tripp and Lewinsky met again at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where FBI agents and U.S. attorneys interceded and took Lewinsky to a hotel room where she was questioned. Lewinsky, who wasn’t sure how to react, contacted her mother, Marcia Lewis, who, in turn, contacted her ex-husband. He engaged attorney William Ginsburg, a family friend. Ginsburg advised Lewinsky not to accept the immunity deal until he had learned more. On January 21st 1998, several news organizations reported the alleged sexual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky. Clinton denied all allegations as the scandal erupted. By August 20th 1998, all hearings before the Grand Jury concluded. On September 9th 1998, Independent Counsel Ken Starr submitted his final report along with 18 boxes of supporting documentation to the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives voted to receive the Starr report. The House Judiciary Committee, after taking possession of Starr’s submission, released the first 445 pages to the public. Notwithstanding objections from the democrats, the House Judiciary Committee released President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony and more than 3000 pages of supporting material from the Starr report, including sexually explicit testimony from Monica Lewinsky. The television networks immediately broadcasted more than 4 hours of President Clinton’s videotaped grand jury testimony. Along with the videotape, the Committee also released the Appendix to Starr’s report, which included 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including a photograph of Lewinsky’s semi-stained blue dress. On September 24th , 1998, the House Judiciary Committee announced that it will consider a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry against the President in an open session between October 5th and 6th , 1998. The House of Representatives granted its approval to two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton on December 19th 1998, after approximately 14 hours of debate, charging him with lying under oath to a Federal Grand Jury and the obstruction of Justice. Clinton became only the second President in the history of the United States to be impeached. He later apologized to the House of Representatives, the Senate and the people of the United States for his inappropriate relationship with Miss Lewinsky. Nixon’s Watergate Scandal President Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States. He was also the only Commander in Chief in United States history to resign well before his term ended. He joined the United States House of Representatives in 1946 after he won an election against 5 –term liberal Democratic opponent Jerry Voorhis by exploiting his alleged Communist sympathies. He was just 33 years of age but it was the beginning of a stellar political career. After four years in the United States Congress, Nixon ran successfully for the Senate in 1949 against Democratic Representative, Helen Gahagan Douglas, who was an outspoken opponent of the anti-communist advocacy and policies of Nixon. This is when Nixon got nicknamed “Tricky Dick” by The Independent Review, a small Southern California newspaper, as his campaign team distributed flyers on pink paper unfairly projecting Douglas’s voting record as pro-left wing. This was Nixon’s standard political campaign tactic for the rest of his political career. He served as Senator until 1953. In 1952, Nixon’s vehement anti-communist reputation drew the attention of Dwight E. Eisenhower, who was then the 1st Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and was getting ready to seek the Republican Party’s Presidential ticket at the upcoming Republican Convention. Eisenhower won the Republican ticket for the Presidential race and named Nixon as his running mate for Vice President. This was in spite of The New York Post reporting around that period, that Nixon had a secret “slush fund” provided by campaign donors for his personal use. Nixon sought to absolve himself of this by delivering a nationally televised address in which he acknowledged that the fund existed but denied any impropriety in its use. The Republican ticket won the Presidential and Nixon went on to serve as Vice President under Eisenhower until 1960. He narrowly lost his bid for the Presidential race in 1960 to his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Senator, John F. Kennedy, by 120,000 votes. He returned to California, and then moved to New York in 1962 with his family to practice law. In 1968, he again contested for President on the Republican ticket and won the race against incumbent President, Lyndon Johnson. He was sworn in as the 37th President of the United States on January 20th 1969. By 1972, when Nixon was running for re-election, the atmosphere in the U.S. was mired in the Vietnam War. Nixon wanted to leave no stone unturned in his bid to get re-elected. The Watergate scandal takes its name from Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., the site of a 17th June, 1972 break-in by 7 men into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Five men were arrested. On September 15th , a grand jury indicted the burglars -Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, James W. McCord, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, E. Howard Hunt Jr., and G. Gordon Liddy for conspiracy, burglary and violation of wire-tapping laws. The indictment occurred even as Nixon was running for re-election. He won the race against Democratic contender George McGovern. However, it came to light that all the seven men were either directly or indirectly employed by President Nixon’s Committee to re-elect the President [CRP, also referred to as CREEP]. The five were tried and convicted in January 1973. Investigation by the FBI, the Senate Watergate Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and the press brought to light that the break-in was one of several illegal activities, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping, and a laundered slush-fund which was used to finance these illegal activities, were authorized and carried out by Nixon’s staff. After two years of hearings, evidence implicating Nixon and his staff grew. On 20thOctober, 1973, Nixon fired special prosecutor Cox after he subpoenaed the secret tapes which Nixon used to record conversations relevant to the planning of the break-in. This led to the resignations of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. On February 6th 1974, Congress authorized the House Judiciary Committee, to investigate whether sufficient grounds existed to impeach Nixon. Three articles were approved by the Committee, recommending that the House initiate formal impeachment proceedings. On the 20th of July, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Nixon had to hand over the tapes to investigators. He did on the 30th of July. Ten days later, on August 9th, Nixon resigned, confronted by the additional pressure of impeachment proceedings in the Congress and an almost certain conviction in the case. In 1968, after 8 years in wilderness, he ran for President and succeeded. He was again re-elected in 1972 for a second term. In his political career before becoming President, Nixon served in the House of Representatives, as a Senator, as a Vice President and Senate Chair. He became President at the age of 55. While Nixon held his first political office as a Representative at 33, Clinton held his first as Attorney General of Arkansas at 31. A striking similarity between the Lewinsky affair and Watergate is that both these scandals led to sufficient grounds for the impeachment of ruling Presidents at the time respectively. Both scandals erupted in the second year of the second term of President’s Clinton and Nixon respectively. In Watergate, the President, Richard Nixon resigned when he learnt of the certainty of his impeachment, pre-empting the commencement of impeachment proceedings. During the Lewinsky scandal, Clinton went on to witness his impeachment by the House of Representatives in December 1998. This was the very first impeachment of a ruling President in the history of the United States. Clinton was subsequently acquitted of both charges- Obstruction of Justice and Perjury. Clinton was done in by secret tape recordings of his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky by a third person, Linda Tripp of her conversations with Lewinsky, while Nixon was done in by his own secret recording of his conversations in the White House. In both scandals, the tapes were made public and were aired on television and radio. Yet another difference between Watergate and the Clinton scandal is that the former was of the nature of political espionage while the latter was a full blown personal sexual affair between two consenting adults. In both the scandals, the defendants were pardoned by subsequent governments. While Watergate witnessed the premature end of the term of the 37th President, Richard Nixon, President Clinton, who was the Defendant in Monicagate scandal went on to complete his full term as the 42nd President. While Watergate shook up the Republican Party, Monicagate shook up the Democratic Party. Gerald Ford got the opportunity and took over as President because of Watergate. In contrast, Al Gore, Clinton’s Vice President failed to become President because of Monicagate. References Watergate, Monicagate or Benghazigate...Web, 2013 http://www.forbes.com A Chronology: Key Moments In The Clinton-Lewinsky ... - CNN.com http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=cnn+lewinsky+timeline&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2FALLPOLITICS%2F1998%2Fresources%2Flewinsky%2Ftimeline%2F&ei=Zi1tUfL4DMHorQe7joD4Dg&usg=AFQjCNFgRwDBz1Y_L7Z4srvBdof0aatPfg President Clinton impeached — History.com, Web, 2013  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-clinton-impeached Richard Nixon Biography http://www.biography.com/people/richard-nixon-9424076 Linda Greenhouse, A Primer: Prosecuting a President, Web, Jan.25th 1998 http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/012598impeach-review.html Kathy Gill, What was the Watergate Scandal? U.S Political History, Web, 2013 http://uspolitics.about.com/od/presidenc1/a/what_watergate.htm Watergate Scandal, Web, 2013 http://www.history.com/topics/watergate Watergate Info, Web, 2013 http://watergate.info/ Read More