I remember the Bill Clinton impeachment scandal, but I was like 10 or 12 at the time, so while I understood that the President had cheated on his wife and lied about it and that's why he was in trouble, I didn't really get it. After Hilary's 2016 loss, I was curious about the backstory that I "knew" but didn't actually know, so I picked up A Vast Conspiracy, Jeffrey Toobin's book on the Clintons in the 90s. It mostly focuses on the impeachment, but also spends a lot of time with Paula Jones' lawsuit and dips into the other scandals enough to give them context. After I read it, I felt much more informed...not just about the actual events of the impeachment, but about the history of the Clintons and how they've gotten to have that air of perpetual shadiness.

On one level, Toobin tells a straightforward story: a politician with a raging libido really likes getting blow jobs from women who are not his wife. When he's Governor of Arkansas, he has an encounter of some kind with a young woman named Paula, who originally seems unperturbed but eventually launches a lawsuit against him after he becomes president. While president, a young intern develops a crush and starts flirting with him and he decides to pursue her. His inability to either keep it in his pants or admit to his wife what he's been up to leads him to be untruthful when he shouldn't have been, and because of the profound dislike and determination of a special prosecutor, he comes very very close to losing his presidency. It's a compelling story, with lots of morally ambiguous parties to project either heroism or villainy onto. I understand why it transfixed the country for months when it happened.

But Toobin also ties it in to a larger story, in which the legal system has become part and parcel of the political arena. The technique was first used by liberal interests to find the victories through the judiciary that they struggled to achieve through the legislature, but as time passed, conservatives picked it up, too, and this is perfectly illustrated by the hounding of the Clintons via the courts. It's an interesting perspective, and even though I'm well-versed in both arenas I don't know that I'd made the explicit connection before. And while I ultimately think the courts do and should have a proper role in protecting and enforcing our legal rights and responsibilities, it is a double-edged sword. Judicial processes don't always lead to the results one thinks they ought to.

As always from Toobin, this is well-written and more interested in delving into the facts than with taking much of a side. That's not to say it's totally without a side...it does tend to favor Clinton, particularly over Starr and the scheming Joneses, but it doesn't shy away from digging into his flaws either. If this is an era you don't remember well, or at all, and want more information, this is a very solid introduction to it! ( )

This was interesting and well written in many ways. It is definitely biased. Also unbelievably sexist.
The author treats Monica and Paula very disrespectfully in the text.
He also is extremely dismissive of Clinton's behavior. He repeatedly strips it down to 'a middle aged man having sex with an office worker/co-worker.' That's not really what happened here at all. A more accurate comparison would be a company owner/CEO having sex with a significantly younger unpaid intern. For which the owner would be very much open to lawsuit.
First the author makes the argument that sexual harassment interferes with office hookups. Because the whole point of work isn't a career or paycheck, it's apparently for ease of hooking up. Sexual harassment workplace safety laws actually DON'T interfere with office hookups though, it interferes with UNEQUAL relationships. So bosses can't force their direct reports to date them or perform sexual favors by holding their job over their heads. Sexual harassment is incredibly difficult to prove and still happening all over. So the laws don't go far enough. In addition it's not just in work places where we acknowledge that relationships that have unequal power dynamics too easily turn into sexual coercion: teachers/profs can't date students, doctors and therapists can't date patients, so on and so forth.
The POTUS was 100% wrong for engaging in a sexual relationship with a young woman only a few years older than his daughter, who was placed in an unpaid government internship to learn about government. I don't care if she showed him her thong. He's a grown ass man who is constantly attended to. He should've had his staff looking out for crushes and REMOVING them from his direct staff to other positions. He should not have been having sex with a White House intern. There's no excuse for that bullshit.
Now I don't give a good goddamn about him being unfaithful to HRC. That's a private matter between them. The Commander In Chief fucking his staff and interns is the countries business. Those are OUR employees. He works for us. The world is FULL of women he should be smart enough to not shit where he sleeps. That he did not do that very much speaks to his basic character.
I voted for him twice. I found him charming and personable.
At the same time his bullshit 'tough on crime laws' directly lead to the current prison crisis. He knew Democrats have the black vote so he safely shafted my community.
This has caused irreparable harm to GENERATIONS.
He has to be held responsible for his actions.
As does Obama, the warmonger, who I also voted twice for.
Our politicians have to be held accountable.
This is how we got chump.
We never thought it would get this bad but we willfully ignored popular presidents bullshit policies.
To the detriment of the nation.
So this is nicely detailed and researched but all of the authors conclusions are sexist bullshit. ( )

5714. A Vast Conspiracy The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, by Jeffrey Toobin (read 1 Nov 2020) This book was published in 1999 and so it was written in the same year that Clinton was impeached and acquitted. It is unsparing in its depiction of Clinton's behavior but also is very critical of the people who sought to oust Clinton from the presidency. It tells the whole story of what Clinton did, and of the determination of his political enemies to drive him from office, even though his actions and words were all related to his immoral behavior with the woman, Monica Lewinsky, who pursued him, and his alleged gross behavior with Paula Jones. The book tells in chronological order the whole story which unfolded and which the public followed as it became known. We all know the story but this book was read by me because it was written by Toobin who wrote three other books I had good memories of: The Nine Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (read 19 Mae 2008), The Oath The Obama White House and the Supreme Court ( read 28 Oct 2012), and American Heiress The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst (read 19 Nov 2016). ( )