Quote:
Originally posted by Superbelt
Come now, you know the attacks on Clinton went much farther than that. Impeachment. That doesn't happen often. And over 'lying' about a blowjob. The millions of taxpayer dollars investigating Watergate that never turned up anything.
That goes well beyond what has happened to most any other president outside of Nixon.
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First off there is a big difference between just lying about a BJ and committing perjury. Minimizing the fact that he committed a crime while in office is unacceptable to me but that subject has been beaten to death elsewhere.
As far as why it went as far as it did, you don't think the unprecedented press coverage and the bitter disputes throughout the country at the water cooler had anything to do with Republican's ability to get it to that level? Even Democrats were open to censure and other options because the level of outrage around the country was significant enough for them to fear for their re election hopes.
Several trends converged to enable the impeachment vote. Clinton's constant story changes, the general distrust people had in him prior to the "scandals", the salaciousness (sic?) of the press which was growing for years before Clinton. Remember the Gary Hart scandal and the William Kennedy Smith story? Both had sex and politics interwoven. The ratings for these taught the media that these stories equalled viewers. Look back to the days of JFK and you didn't see many stories about his trysts because the public didn't have the appetite for it. The public was a little more respectful of others' "privacy" than they are now. Hell even while Reagan was in office there was talk about Nancy's "affairs" but the public didn't buy into it. People want to see scandal and the media is more than happy to portray anything they can that way to generate ratings.