William Jefferson Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton

42nd President of the United States
Term of office	January 20 1993 – January 20 2001
Preceded by	George H. W. Bush
Succeeded by	George W. Bush
Date of birth	August 19 1946
Place of birth	Hope, Arkansas
Spouse	Hillary Rodham Clinton
Political party	Democrat

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States. Clinton served five terms as the Governor of Arkansas. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is presently in her first term as the junior United States Senator from New York.

Clinton was the first baby boomer president and the first Democratic president to be re-elected since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. Clinton was the third youngest president in history at 46, while Vice President Al Gore was 44. Clinton was one of only two presidents in American history to be impeached. The vote to impeach was along party lines in the Republican-dominated Congress. He was acquitted by a vote of the United States Senate on February 12, 1999. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as president, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any president in the post-Eisenhower era.

Early life

William Jefferson Blythe III was born in Hope, Arkansas, and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was named after his father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., a traveling salesman who died in a car accident three months before he was born. His mother,Virginia Dell Cassidy, remarried in 1950 to Roger Clinton. Roger Clinton owned an automobile dealership business with his brother, Raymond. The young Bill was raised by his mother and stepfather, assuming his last name "Clinton" throughout elementary school but not formally changing it until he was 14. Clinton grew up in a traditional, albeit blended, family; however, according to Clinton, his stepfather was a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused Clinton's mother and sometimes Clinton's half-brother Roger, Jr.

Bill Clinton as a child went to St. John's Catholic School and Ramble Elementary School. While at Hot Springs High School, Clinton was an excellent student and a talented saxophonist. He considered dedicating his life to music, but a visit to the White House following his election as a Boys Nation Senator led him to pursue a career in politics. Clinton was a member of Youth Order of DeMolay International|DeMolay but never actually became a Freemason.

Clinton received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, worked for Senator J. William Fulbright, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he played rugby union as a lock, and later in life he played for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. There he also participated in the Vietnam War protest movement. After Oxford, Clinton obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1973. While at Yale, he began dating classmate Hillary Rodham. They married in 1975 and their only child, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Arkansas political career

In 1974, his first year as a University of Arkansas law professor, Clinton ran for the House of Representatives. The incumbent, John Paul Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton with fifty two percent of the vote. In 1976, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas without opposition in the general election.

In 1978, Bill Clinton was first elected governor of the state of Arkansas, the youngest to be elected governor since 1938. His first term was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle tax and popular anger over the escape of Cuban prisoners from the Mariel boatlift detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980.

In the 1980 election, Clinton was defeated in his bid for a second term by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As he once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history. But in 1982, Clinton won his old job back, and over the next decade he helped Arkansas transform its economy. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a branch of the Democratic Party that called for welfare reform, smaller government, and other ideas that reached out to Democrats and Republicans alike.

Presidential campaign

Clinton prepared for a run in 1992 against incumbent President George H. W. Bush. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, Bush seemed unbeatable, and several potential Democratic candidates—notably New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Senator Al Gore—passed on what seemed to be a lost cause. Clinton won the nomination, beating out Senator Tom Harkin, California Governor Jerry Brown and former Senator Paul Tsongas.

Clinton chose Al Gore from neighboring Tennessee as his running mate, surprising pundits who had expected a geographically balanced ticket.

Many character issues were raised during the campaign, including allegations that Clinton had dodged the draft during the Vietnam War, and had used marijuana, which Clinton claimed he had pretended to smoke, but "didn't inhale". Allegations of extramarital affairs and shady business deals also arose. Clinton displayed the resiliency in the face of these partisan attacks that would later be pivotal in his presidency.

Presidential election

Clinton won the 1992 presidential election against Republican George H. W. Bush and billionaire populist H. Ross Perot who ran as an independent, on a platform focusing on domestic issues; a large part of his success was Bush's steep decline in public approval. Previously described as "unbeatable" because of his approval ratings in the eighty percent range during the Persian Gulf conflict, Bush saw his public approval rating drop to just over forty percent by election time.

Clinton was victorious for several reasons. Polls showed discontent with Bush, with voters complaining he seemed out of touch with ordinary people and focused too much on foreign affairs. By contrast, the younger, telegenic Clinton projected an image as highly sympathetic to the concerns of ordinary families.

Clinton was the first Democrat to serve two full terms as President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His election ended an era of Republican rule, including 12 consecutive years in the White House and 20 of the previous 24 years. That election also brought the Democrats full control of the political branches of the federal government, including both houses of Congress as well as the presidency, for the first time since 1980.

Presidency, 1993-2001

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Official Presidential Portrait of President Bill Clinton

Domestic policies

Economy

During Clinton's tenure, the U.S. enjoyed continuous economic expansion, reductions in unemployment, and growing wealth through a massive rise in the stock market. The reasons for this growth are debated, but Clinton supporters cite his 1993 tax increase, which they believe assisted in reducing the annual budget deficits every year of his tenure. These deficit reductions stimulated consumption and consumer spending and strengthened the dollar, which encouraged foreign investment in the United States economy. Alan Greenspan supported the 1993 tax increase, which was approved by Congress without a single Republican vote.

Clinton and Vice President Gore talk while walking through the Colonnade at the White House.

Gays in the military

Clinton's initial reluctance to fulfill campaign promise relating to the acceptance of openly homosexual members of the military garnered criticism from both the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and the right (for being too insensitive to military life).^{[citation needed]} During the campaign, Clinton had promised to lift the ban on gays serving their country. After much debate, Clinton implemented the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which remained in effect under two Administrations of George W. Bush, stating that homosexual men and women may serve in the military as long as their sexuality is kept secret. By 1999, Clinton said he did not "think any serious person could say" that the policy was not "out of whack". Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise simply to get votes and contributions. These advocates felt Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry Truman ended segregation of the armed forces in that manner. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the then-Democrat-controlled Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it even harder to integrate the military in the future.

Critics, however, said that the issue was one that should be experimented on in society as a whole, not in the military. The military's goal was not to be a "social Petri dish," but to defend the nation.

Healthcare reform

The most important item on Clinton's legislative agenda was a health care reform plan, the result of a taskforce headed by Hillary Clinton, aimed at achieving universal coverage via a national healthcare plan. Though initially well-received in political circles, it was ultimately doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. Despite his party holding a majority in the House and Senate, the effort to create a national healthcare system ultimately died under heavy public pressure. It was the first major legislative defeat of Clinton's presidency.

Two months later, after two years of Democratic party control under Clinton's leadership, the mid-term elections in 1994 proved disastrous for the Democrats. They lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

The spotlight shifted to the Contract with America spearheaded by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. This initiative presented a blanket of traditional Republican proposals, plus several anti-corruption measures. Without a friendly legislative body, Clinton shifted from pushing new policy to blocking the Republican (GOP) agenda.

Budgetary issues

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Clinton visiting the Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1998. Source http://www.lanl.gov/history/people/images/President%20Clinton%20L.jpg

In August 1993, Clinton had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. It significantly raised taxes on the top 2% of taxpayers without providing middle class tax cuts as he promised during the campaign. Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over several years, and put spending restraints in place. The Republicans objected vociferously, claiming that it would wreck the economy. In November of 1994, the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. They were upset at being forced into spending cuts by the bill, but they could not ignore it without appearing to be softer on deficit spending than the Democrats.

In 1996, the GOP passed a budget with significant spending cuts, thinking that Clinton could either sign the bill (a major political defeat) or veto it (resulting in a shutdown of most government services). GOP leaders believed that their recently energized supporters would stand with them, while the shutdown would be blamed on Clinton's veto of the spending bills. Clinton instead vetoed the bills and staged a media blitz, rallying his constituencies to blame the shutdown on the Republicans. The public agreed with Clinton's interpretation of the situation, and the Republicans suffered a major political defeat. The perception that the congressional Republicans were dangerous radicals stayed with the public for the remainder of the Clinton presidency, and Clinton repeatedly made skillful use of this perception to pass his initiatives while blocking any Republican agendas.

Welfare reform

The welfare system, unpopular with middle-class voters, was a major target of the Republicans. However, rather than present the programs as inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive, as they had (unsuccessfully) done in the past, their new tactic was to focus on the success of welfare in its stated goal: fighting poverty. In this they were more successful. Using statistics often compiled by welfare advocates to demand more spending, they pointed to a widening gap between rich and poor and the emergence of a dependent welfare "underclass." Under their proposed welfare reform, individuals could not receive benefits for more than five years. States, meanwhile, would receive "block grants" of federal funds that they would be free to spend on anti-poverty initiatives as they wished, rather than according to federal rules. This amounted to a major shift in welfare policy, and it was contested by Democrats. Clinton, however, supported the plan (to the fury and astonishment of even some members of his Cabinet) when it was presented to him the third time, just before election time. In his 1996 State of the Union speech, taking a cue from Republicans, Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it". He later signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996.

This proved to be a major political victory, and a vindication of his strategy of "triangulation." With the welfare reform system, Clinton was presented as a fair-minded, mainstream moderate.

Other initiatives

Shortly after taking office, Clinton fulfilled a campaign promise by signing the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow their employees to take unpaid leave because of pregnancy or serious medical condition.

Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which imposes a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases so that background checks can be done to help keep handguns away from criminals. President Clinton expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits working class families with dependent children.

1996 presidential election

In the 1996 presidential election a few months later, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote). The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate but overall retained control of the Congress. Although he did not win a clear majority of the popular vote, Clinton received over 70% of the electoral college vote.

Foreign policies

Free trade

In 1993, Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for ratification by the U.S. Senate. Despite being negotiated by his Republican predecessor, Clinton (along with most of his Democratic Leadership Committee allies) strongly supported free trade measures. Though the measure was opposed by some anti-trade Republicans, most of the opposition came from protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. Ultimately, the treaty was ratified, which was a major legislative victory.

The Clinton Administration used the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights thirteen times and prevailed in the WTO thirteen times.

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Clinton embraces British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton.

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Clinton plays the saxophone presented to him by Russian President Boris Yeltsin at a private dinner in Russia, January 13, 1994

Use of military force

Clinton deployed the U.S. military several times under his Presidency. In 1993, U.S. troops, initially deployed to Somalia by the Bush Administration, fought the Battle of Mogadishu which attempted to capture local warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The U.S. withdrew troops after suffering 19 deaths and 73 wounded at the hands of Somalia militia. This militia was later proved to have been trained by the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In 1994, Clinton sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, ending a period of intense violence. Aristide, who had been elected, had been ousted in a coup just seven months into his term in 1991. Aristide was a socialist who had often spoke against America. He continued with his anti-American rhetoric even after he was reinstated as the Haitian leader by American troops. Clinton also committed troops twice in the former-Yugoslavia to stop ethnic violence, most notably in Kosovo. In addition, Clinton launched military strikes on Iraq several times to punish violations of United Nations sanctions.

In November 1995, Clinton committed troops to the Balkans, saying the mission would be “precisely defined with clear realistic goals” that could be achieved in a “definite period of time". Clinton assured Americans the mission would take about one year. In October 1996, shortly before Clinton's reelection, the Clinton Administration denied any change in the plans to withdraw troops in December 1996. However, shortly after reelection, Clinton announced troops would stay longer. Troops ultimately stayed in Bosnia for nine years.

On February 17 1998, Clinton gave a speech signaling the danger of rogue nations providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorist organizations with global reach. Clinton specifically pointed to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In August 1998, UN weapons inspectors left Iraq, leading to Operation Desert Fox in December.

Some critics argue that the Clinton Administration's attacks in Kosovo, Serbia, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, and Afghanistan violated international law. The action was never sanctioned by the U.N. and strongly opposed by Russia and China.

Clinton identified his major foreign policy failure as lack of response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Along with the United Nations, the Clinton Administration initially did not publicly acknowledge that genocide was occurring. This delayed the mandatory response to the crisis which eventually killed one million people. A report from the Organization for African Unity singled out the United Nations, Belgium, France and the United States for condemnation. In 1998, Clinton went to Africa where he said he "did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror." A report from the National Security Archive showed that the Clinton Administration had collected considerable amounts of information during the crisis and it was passed up to policymakers. In 2005, the former President apologized for his "personal failure" to stop the genocide. However, the U.S. deployed 2,300 troops to Rwanda in an attempt to stop the genocide. The troops were withdrawn two months afterwards.

North Korea

In 1994, Jimmy Carter negotiated and Clinton signed the Nuclear Accords with North Korea. The underlying concern was that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons technology under the guise of a nuclear power plant. In exchange for assistance with energy needs, North Korea agreed to abandon all ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons. However, by the mid 1990s defectors from North Korea, along with reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), indicated that North Korea was violating both the Nuclear Accords and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In December 2002, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and announced (privately in 2003 and publicly in 2005) that they possessed nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Accords with North Korea were a complete failure.

World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist attacks

In 1993, Al-Qaeda began to emerge as a major terrorist threat with the bombing of the World Trade Center. Four followers of the Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman were captured, convicted in March 1994, and sentenced to 240 years in prison each. The purported mastermind of the plot, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, was captured in 1995, convicted of the bombing in November 1997, and also sentenced to 240 years in prison. One additional suspect fled the U.S. and is believed to be living in Baghdad.

In 1998, the group bombed the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In retaliation, Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach, which involved cruise missile strikes on terrorist camps in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and a suspected chemical weapons facility in Khartoum, Sudan, that was believed to be tied to Osama bin Laden, and later turned out to be a pharmeceutical factory. Clinton also gave orders authorizing the arrest or, if need be, assassination of bin Laden.

On October 12, 2000, two suicide bombers detonated an explosives-laden skiff next to the USS Cole. The Navy completed its investigation of the incident on January 19, 2001, and a Yemeni judge sentenced Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Jamal al-Badawi to death for their roles in the bombing on September 29, 2004.

In 2004, Clinton said he regarded Al-Qaeda as the foremost threat to national security. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the independent investigating commission was critical of Clinton for focusing more on diplomatic than military means to eliminate the bin Laden threat.

Arab-Israeli conflict

Yitzhak Rabin, Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993. This famous handshake proved mostly symbolic.

After his presidency, Clinton identified his proudest foreign policy accomplishments as mediating peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, resulting in the Oslo Accords (1993). Subsequent events, including the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit and the commencement of the al-Aqsa Intifada, resulted in the Oslo Accords being widely discredited within Israel and in various Palestinian factions by 2004.

After initial successes such as the Oslo accords, the situation had quietly deteriorated, breaking down completely with the start of the Second Intifada. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David. However, these negotiations proved unsuccessful. Critics charged Clinton with trying to "shoot the moon" to benefit his historical legacy, but instead making the situation worse with a botched negotiation. Supporters consider Clinton to have attempted to address new tensions from the recent outbreak of violence at its root causes, and that Clinton can hardly be blamed for a decades-old conflict. Some further argue that the perception that Arafat walked away from an offer that supposedly contained all of his previously stated demands enabled the US to pursue a more pro-Israel policy in later years.^{[citation needed]}

Legislation and programs

Major legislation signed February 5 1993 - The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 August 10 1993 - Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Raised income tax rates; income tax, top rate: 39.6%; corporate tax: 35% September 21 1993 - creation of the AmeriCorps volunteer program November 30 1993 - Brady Bill September 13 1994 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, part of an omnibus crime bill, the federal death penalty was expanded to some 60 different offenses (see Federal assault weapons ban) February 1 1996 - Communications Decency Act February 8 1996 - Telecom Reform Act: eliminated major ownership restrictions for radio and television groups. February 26 1996 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a welfare reform bill March 14 1996 - authorized $100 million counter-terrorism agreement with Israel to track down and root out terrorists. April 9 1996 - Line Item Veto Act April 24 1996 - Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act August 20 1996 - Minimum wage Increase Act September 21 1996 - Defense of Marriage Act, allowed states the power to refuse to recognize gay marriages granted in other states August 5 1997 - Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 October 28 1998 - Digital Millennium Copyright Act October 31 1998 - Iraq Liberation Act

Major legislation vetoed national budget H.R. 1833, partial birth abortion ban Twice vetoed welfare reform before signing the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Congress overrode the veto, however, to enact the bill into law. Proposals not passed by Congress Health care reform Campaign finance reform (1993) Initiatives Appointed a committee on Social Security Reform and then dismissed their recommendations without ever proposing legislation. Tried to get Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian National Authority, to agree to a final settlement agreement. Initiated the Don't ask, don't tell policy toward gays in the military, 1993. Reversed a ban on senior Sinn Féin politicians entering the U.S. Proposed a national challenge to end the racial divide in America, the One America Initiative. Extraordinary rendition got approval for the first time in the USA from the Clinton administration.

Cabinet OFFICER | TERM President Bill Clinton 1993-2001 Vice President Al Gore 1993-2001 Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher 1993-1997 Madeleine K. Albright 1997-2001 Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen 1993-1994 Robert E. Rubin 1995-1999 Lawrence H. Summers 1999-2001 Secretary of Defense Les Aspin 1993-1994 William J. Perry 1994-1997 William S. Cohen 1997-2001 Attorney General Janet Reno 1993-2001 Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt 1993-2001 Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy 1993-1994 Daniel R. Glickman 1994-2001 Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown 1993-1996 Mickey Kantor 1996-1997 William M. Daley 1997-2000 Norman Y. Mineta 2000-2001 Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich 1993-1997 Alexis M. Herman 1997-2001 Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala 1993-2001 Secretary of Education Richard Riley 1993-2001 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros 1993-1997 Andrew Cuomo 1997-2001 Secretary of Transportation Federico F. Peña 1993-1997 Rodney E. Slater 1997-2001 Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary 1993-1997 Federico F. Peña 1997-1998 Bill Richardson 1998-2001 Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown 1993-1997 Togo D. West, Jr. 1998-2000

File:ClintonAdmin.jpg President Clinton's Cabinet, circa 1997

Supreme Court appointments

Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court:

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg - 1993, making Clinton the first Democratic President to appoint a female Supreme Court justice.
• Stephen Breyer - 1994

Investigation and impeachment

Monica Lewinsky

Throughout 1998, there was a controversy over Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton initially denied the affair, stating "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her." Four days later he also said, "There is not a sexual relationship, an improper sexual relationship, or any other kind of improper relationship."[1]

Clinton then appeared on national television on January 26 and stated: "Listen to me, I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." However, after it was revealed that investigators had obtained evidence as well as testimony from Lewinsky. Clinton then changed tactics and admitted that an improper relationship with Lewinsky had taken place: "Indeed I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible."

He apologized to the nation, agreed to pay a $25,000 court fine, settled his sexual harassment lawsuit with Paula Jones for $850,000 and was temporarily disbarred from practicing law in Arkansas and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was not tried for nor found guilty of perjury in a court, though he did admit to "testifying falsely" in a deal to avoid indictment for perjury.

Impeachment in the House

As a result of allegations that he had lied during grand jury testimony regarding his relationship with Lewinsky, Clinton was the second U.S. President to be impeached by the House of Representatives. The House held no serious impeachment hearings before the 1998 mid-term elections: Republican candidates rarely mentioned the issue of impeachment, but Democrats generally came out strongly against impeachment. In spite of the allegations against the President, his party picked up seats in the Congress. The Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December 1998 to hastily hold impeachment proceedings.

Although the House Judiciary Committee hearings were perfunctory and ended in a straight party line vote, the debate on the floor of the House was lively. The two charges which were narrowly passed by the House were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship with Lewinsky. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony. Two other charges were voted down.

Impeachment trial in the Senate

The Senate refused to convene to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress.

On February 12, 1999, the Senate concluded a 21-day trial with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with all of the votes to convict being cast by Republicans. On the perjury charge, 55 senators voted to acquit, including 10 Republicans, and 45 voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50. Clinton, like the only other President to be impeached, Andrew Johnson, served the remainder of his term.

Contempt of court citation

In April 1999, 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.[2]

Regarding Clinton's January 17, 1998, deposition where he was placed under oath, the judge wrote:

"Simply put, the president's deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. (Monica) Lewinsky was intentionally false and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false . . ." [3]

Later—in January 2001, on the day before leaving office—Clinton agreed to a five year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was also automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he chose to resign. [4]

Clinton's resignation was mostly symbolic, since he had never practiced before the Supreme Court and was not expected to in the future. The Paula Jones lawsuit was eventually settled out of court for $850,000.

Chinese espionage

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President Clinton with John Huang (center) and James Riady (right) in the Oval Office

Throughout his second term in office, President Clinton's policies of engagement and transparency with the People's Republic of China came under intense scrutiny by Congress and the media. It was learned that political appointees and fund-raisers of his either had direct ties to Chinese intelligence, or were found to have been illegally donating money wired to them from Asian sources to Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and legal defense trust. The issue was compounded when it was learned that a top Chinese arms merchant, Wang Jun) was allowed to attend a White House "coffee" meeting with Clinton and a number of his campaign donors in February 1996. These questions gained added urgency after Congress released the unanimous report known as the Cox Report in 1999, which documented that China had acquired intelligence about the United States' top military secrets. According to the report, MIRV, encryption, satellite, ICBM, and advanced nuclear weapon technology was stolen. Many members of Clinton's staff learned of the thefts as early as July 1995, but Clinton himself was not told until July 1997.

FALN pardons

Bill Clinton pardoned sixteen members of the FALN organization. These men belonged to a Puerto Rican freedom terrorist group, which was responsible for planting over 130 bombs in public places in the U.S. They killed six people and injured seventy. The FALN represented the single largest terrorism campaign in the U.S. “Yet Clinton’s clemency released individuals from prison after serving less than twenty years of terms running from fifty-five to ninety years.” President Clinton did not follow formal pardon procedures. He skipped the Department of Justice and attorneys. The FBI did not conduct any background checks, and the FALN did not execute a formal request. These facts, coupled with the Department of Justice’s 1996 denial of their clemency, make Clinton’s motives questionable. Clinton received bipartisan condemnation and public fury.

The House of Representatives later passed a resolution condemning Clinton’s pardon as an explicitly illegal action. Investigations were launched to find reasonable grounds for the clemency. However, “Congressional efforts to learn more about the FALN matter came to an end when Clinton invoked executive privilege to refuse subpoenas from congressional committee.” As the critics raged, the White House maintained that the pardon power is not subject to legislative deliberation. It is speculated that Clinton pardoned members of the FALN in exchange for funds for his wife's New York senatorial campaign in 2000. [5]

Pardons on the last day of office

On Clinton's last day in office, he pardoned over 200 convicted felons, including his brother Roger who had completed a prison sentence on drug charges and Dan Rostenkowski, the former Chairman of House Ways and Means Committee who had been convicted on corruption and mail fraud charges. Carlos Vignali (convicted of cocaine trafficking) and Almon Braswell (convicted of fraud), both of whom were clients of Clinton’s brother-in-law Hugh Rodham, were pardoned. Rodham later returned the $400,000 in legal fees he earned representing Vignali and Braswell. Another one of those pardoned was Marc Rich, a financier who had fled the United States decades before for tax evasion and other illegal activities including buying illegal oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Though his company put up a $200 million dollar bond on behalf of Rich and his partner, Rich fled the country before being indicted and was never tried or incarcerated. Many questioned the pardon because his wife, Denise Rich, was a generous donor to the Clinton campaigns and to his library. These actions quickly led to public hearings by Congress, headed by Congressman Dan Burton, into the legality of all of Clinton's presidential pardons. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate as well. The investigation revealed that Denise Rich's last donation to the Clinton library came a year before Marc Rich's attorney's discussed asking her to lobby Clinton on his behalf. Burton, as part of his investigation, listened to taped recordings of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pleading with Clinton to pardon Rich as well. Rich had provided millions of dollars in financing for Palestinian development projects, and the Israelis considered Rich a significant part of the peace process. Marc Rich was required to pay a $100 million dollar fine as part of the pardon and to waive all statutes of limitation in regards to any future civil charges. James Comey later replaced Mary Jo White, and he closed the investigation without filing any indictments.

Galagate

In June 2000, in an effort to raise money for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, Clinton detailed a friend and fund raiser from Chicago, James Levin, to serve as his direct liaison with a controversial Hollywood internet entrepreneur, Peter F Paul. Paul had expressed an interest, through Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell, in becoming a major contributor to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in order to engage Bill Clinton's post White House "rainmaking" services for his public company, Stan Lee Media. Paul was induced by Bill and Hillary Clinton, through Levin, to produce the Gala Hollywood Farewell Salute to President Clinton on August 12, 2000. Paul paid more than $1.2 million to produce the gala. Three days after the Gala, the Washington Post exposed Paul's felony convictions from his activities in the late 1970's. In 2003 Paul filed a landmark civil fraud and coercion suit against Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, James Levin and Gary Smith, which was upheld by the California Supreme Court to proceed to trial, and a trial date was set for March 27, 2007.

Miscellaneous accusations and criticisms

The "Clinton Chronicles"

Early in his first-term, a largely discredited documentary, the Clinton Chronicles, implicated Bill Clinton in numerous deaths of his acquaintances. This also became known as the "Clinton Body Count" and was the subject of a request for Congressional hearings in 1994. As many as 60 people were on this list of "suspicious deaths" including Jim McDougal, Vince Foster and Ron Brown.

Willey and Broaddrick allegations

In March 1998, White House aide Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had sexually assaulted her. However, Clinton critic Linda Tripp held that Willey's allegations were false. Tripp told both Independent Counsel Ken Starr and reporter Michael Isikoff that she had seen Willey after Willey left Clinton's office that day, and that Willey was joyful from the encounter. She also testified that she helped Willey plot to seduce Clinton. In the end, the Robert Ray report deemed Willey an "unreliable witness" because of, "the differences between her deposition and Grand Jury statements, as well as her acknowledgment of false statements to the office of the Independent Counsel".

Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in 1978; however, when subpoenaed by attorneys for Paula Jones, she responded with an affidavit that stated, "I do not know or have any information to offer regarding a non-consensual or unwelcome sexual advance made by Mr. Clinton." She later offered up an affidavit that stated that Clinton had raped her, but her previous statements under oath damaged her claims. In addition, contemporaneous news paper stories documented that Clinton was not at the location at the time that she claimed he was.

Cabinet Secretaries Espy and Cisneros

Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was acquitted on each of 30 charges of illegally accepting gifts such as sports tickets, lodging, and transportation from companies regulated by his department in exchange for favors. HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy, giving false statements and obstruction of Justice. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of lying to the FBI about the amount of money he gave his mistress, political fundraiser Linda Medlar. Medlar plead guilty to 28 counts related to the investigation. Both Medlar and Cisneros were pardoned by Clinton.

Political "co-opting" and "triangulation"

Clinton was criticized by those on the left for his practice of "co-opting" Republican policies, and "triangulating" himself. The triangulation practice caused the public to see Clinton on top of a triangle, putting himself above the Republicans and Democrats. The theory was that Clinton was, in his eyes, "doing the business of the American people", and not getting involved in partisan politics. He always stressed he was being bipartisan, but in the end many progressives concluded that he was simply a "Republican-lite".

Politically conservative policies that he supported and passed while he was President were NAFTA, GATT, welfare reform, more crimes eligible for the death penalty, the Defense of Marriage Act, and deregulating the telecommunications industry. He dropped a nominee, Lani Guinier, from a key civil rights post because of her Black Power ideological views. Environmental advocacy groups faulted Clinton in many areas, such as allowing the reversal of automobile fuel efficiencies and allowing more pesticide use in the United States. Progressives like Ralph Nader and union leaders complained that Clinton's enthusiastic support of free trade cost the Democrats the Congress in 1994. They argued he alienated working class voters and the party's traditional liberal base, and these voters figured that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats cared very much for them.

Public approval

Clinton's approval ratings throughout his presidential career

While Clinton's job approval rating varied over the course of his first term, ranging from a low of 36 percent in 1993 to a high of 64% in 1993 and 1994, his job approval rating consistently ranged from the high 50s to the high 60s in his second term. Clinton's approval rating reached its highest point at 73% approval in the aftermath of the impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999. A CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll conducted as he was leaving office, revealed deeply contradictory attitudes regarding Clinton. Although his approval rating at 68% was higher than that of any other departing President since polling began more than seven decades earlier, only 45% said they would miss him. While 55% thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", and 47% rated him as either outstanding or above average as President, 68% thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal" rather than his accomplishments as President, and 58% answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" 47% of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.

In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing President Clinton's job performance with that of successor President George W. Bush, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on most issues. (The poll of 1,021 adult Americans was conducted May 5-7 by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN. Margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.)

When asked which man was more honest as President, 46% favored Clinton to 41% for Bush. Respondents favored Clinton by a greater than 2-to-1 margin when asked who did a better job at handling the economy (63% Clinton, 26% Bush) and solving the problems of ordinary Americans (62% Clinton, 25% Bush).

On foreign affairs, the margin was 56% to 32% in Clinton's favor; on taxes, it was 51% to 35% for Clinton; and on handling natural disasters, it was 51% to 30%, also favoring Clinton.

Public image

Clinton sitting with a child.

As the first Baby Boomer President, Clinton was the first President in a half century not shaped by World War II. With his sound-bite-ready dialogue and pioneering use of pop culture in his campaigning, such as playing his saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, Clinton was sometimes described as the "MTV President".^{[citation needed]} Until his inauguration as President, he had earned substantially less money than his wife, and had the smallest net worth of any President in modern history, according to My Life, Clinton's autobiography. Clinton was popular among African-Americans and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency.

The Clintons were a political partnership unknown since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Many jokes implied that the First Lady was the real President of the United States.

Social conservatives were put off by the impression of Clinton having been a "hippie" during the late 1960s, his coming-of-age era.^{[citation needed]} In the 1960s, however, Clinton might not have been viewed as such by many of those in the hippie subculture.^{[citation needed]} Clinton avoided the draft with a student deferment while studying abroad during the Vietnam War. Clinton's marijuana experimentation, excused by Clinton's statement that he "didn't inhale", further tarnished his image with some voters. In terms of policy Clinton was to the right of most recent Democratic candidates for the presidency on many issues^{[citation needed]} — he supported the death penalty, curfews, uniforms in public schools, and other measures opposed by youth rights supporters, and he expanded the War on Drugs greatly while in office.^{[citation needed]}

Post-presidential career

Like other former American Presidents, Clinton has engaged in a career as a public speaker on a variety of issues. In his speaking outside the country and in public forums, he continues to comment on aspects of contemporary politics. One notable theme is his advocacy of multilateral solutions to problems facing the world. Clinton's close relationship with the African American community has been highlighted in his post-presidential career with the opening of his personal office in the Harlem section of New York City. He assisted his wife, Hillary Clinton, in her campaign for office as Senator from New York.

In February 2004, Clinton won a Grammy Award forBest Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Wolf Tracks. Clinton won a second Grammy in February 2005, Best Spoken Word Album for My Life.

Hillary Clinton is sworn in as a U.S. Senator by Vice President Gore as Bill and Chelsea Clinton observe.

Clinton's autobiography, My Life, was released in June 2004.

On July 26 2004, Clinton spoke for the fifth consecutive time to the Democratic National Convention, using the opportunity to praise candidate John Kerry. Many Democrats believed that Clinton's speech was one of the best in Convention history. In it, he criticized President George W. Bush's depiction of Kerry, saying that "strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

On September 2 2004, Clinton had an episode of angina and was evaluated at Northern Westchester Hospital. It was determined that he had not suffered a coronary infarction, and he was sent home, returning the following day for angiography, which disclosed multiple vessel coronary artery disease. He was transferred to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where he underwent a successful quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on September 6 2004. The medical team claimed that, had he not had surgery, he would likely have suffered a massive heart attack within a few months. On March 10 2005, he underwent a follow-up surgery to remove scar tissue and fluid from his left chest cavity, a result of his open-heart surgery.

He dedicated his presidential library, the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center] in Little Rock on November 18 2004. Under rainy skies, Clinton received words of praise from former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, as well as from the current President George W. Bush. He was also treated to a musical rendition from Bono and The Edge from U2, who expressed their gratitude at Clinton's efforts to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict during his presidency.

On November 22 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Clinton and the other living former Presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

In 2005, the University of Arkansas System opened the Clinton School of Public Service on the grounds of the Clinton Presidential Center.

On December 9 2005, speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal, Clinton publicly criticized the Bush Administration for its handling of emissions control.

While in Sydney to attend a Global Business Forum, Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of his presidential foundation with the Australian government to promote HIV/AIDS programs in the Asia-Pacific region.

File:Jp2presidents.jpg

Clinton, along with President George W. Bush, Laura Bush, and President George H. W. Bush pay their respects to Pope John Paul II before the pope's funeral.

Friendship with George H.W. Bush

There had been reported signs of a friendship growing between Clinton and George H. W. Bush. After the official unveiling of his White House portrait in June 2004, the Asian Tsunami disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 election, Clinton and Bush met, although the nature of the meetings did not appear to include a reconciliation of political opinions.

Clinton with former President George H.W. Bush in January 2005.

On January 3 2005, President George W. Bush named Clinton and George H. W. Bush to lead a nationwide campaign to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. On February 1 2005, he was selected by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to head the United Nations earthquake and tsunami relief and reconstruction effort. Five days later, he appeared with Bush on the Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show on Fox in support of their bipartisan effort to raise money for relief of the disaster through the USA Freedom Corps, an action which Bush described as "transcending politics." Thirteen days later, they traveled to the affected areas to see the relief efforts.

On August 31 2005, following the devastation of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, Clinton again teamed with George H. W. Bush to coordinate private relief donations, in a campaign similar to their earlier one in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. Clinton was highly critical of the federal government's response to the hurricane, saying that the government "failed" the people affected, and that an investigation into the response was warranted.

Trivia

• Clinton is left-handed (other sinistral Presidents include James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush).
• Following the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005, Clinton stirred up a mini-controversy saying the late pontiff, "may have had a mixed legacy…there will be debates about him. But on balance, he was a man of God, he was a consistent person, he did what he thought was right." Clinton sat with both President George W. Bush and former President George H.W. Bush as the first current or former American heads of state to attend a papal funeral.
• Clinton is an amateur saxophonist (other recent musical presidents include pianists Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon).
• Clinton was a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity and Kappa Kappa Psi, a band service fraternity.
• Clinton was the only President to be married to a member of Congress: Hillary Rodham Clinton's service as a senator officially began 18 days before his second term ended.
• Clinton owned two pets during his presidency: a male chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever named "Buddy" and a cat named "Socks". Socks arrived in 1993 and was the first cat to live in the White House since President Carter's daughter's cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Clinton acquired Buddy as a puppy in 1997 and named him after his late uncle. Buddy and Socks fought frequently at the White House and were kept in separate quarters. Since this would be no longer possible in the Clintons' smaller home in Chappaqua, New York, Socks was given away to Clinton's secretary when he left office. Buddy died after being run over by a car near the Clintons' Chappaqua house in 2002.
• Clinton reportedly owned a 1970 El Camino at one time. Speaking to a group of General Motors employees, Clinton joked, "It had astro-turf in the back. You don't want to know why."
• Clinton's campaign song during his first Presidential campaign was "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac. He even managed to persuade the defunct group to perform for his inaugural ball in 1993.
• Clinton is, to date, the only sitting U.S. President to have shaken hands with Cuban President Fidel Castro. The two leaders found themselves standing next to each other at a UN photo op in September 2000. As the 150 leaders in attendance were exiting for lunch, the two met at the door, putting them side by side and the handshake took place. They shook hands and exchanged what was described as small talk for a couple of minutes. Richard Nixon shook Castro's hand when he was Vice President, and Jimmy Carter has done so during his post-presidential years.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Primary sources

• Albright, Madeleine Korbel. Madame Secretary. New York, N.Y. : Miramax Books, c2003 ISBN 0786868430

• Blumenthal, Sydney. The Clinton Wars. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003 ISBN 0374125023

• Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Living History. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2003 ISBN 0743222245

• Clinton, William Jefferson. My Life. New York : Vintage Books, 2005 ISBN 140003003X

• Starr, Kenneth W. The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair. New York : PublicAffairs, 1998 ISBN 189162024X

• Stephanopoulos, George. All Too Human: A Political Education. Boston : Little, Brown, c1999 ISBN 0316929190

• Patterson, Robert, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) (2003). Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing Company, 101-118. ISBN 0895261405. 

Popular books

• Baker, Peter. The Breach : Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton. New York : Berkley Books, 2001 ISBN 0425172457

• Bovard, James. Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years. New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2000 ISBN 0312230826

• Conason, Joe and Lyons, Gene. The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. St. Martin's Griffin, 2001 ISBN 0312273193

• Drew, Elizabeth. On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1994 ISBN 0671871471

• Hamilton, Nigel. Bill Clinton: An American Journey. New York : Random House, c2003 ISBN 0375506101

• Hitchens, Christopher. No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton. London ; New York : Verso, 1999 ISBN 1859847366

• Isikoff, Michael. Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story. New York, N.Y. : Crown Publishers, 1999 ISBN 0609603930

• Klein, Joe. The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. Broadway; Reprint edition, 2003 ISBN 0767914120

• Maraniss, David. First In His Class : A Biography Of Bill Clinton. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1996 ISBN 0684818906

• Maraniss, David. The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life. New York : Simon & Schuster, c1998 ISBN 0684862964

• Morris, Dick and McGann, Eileen. Because He Could. New York : ReganBooks, 2004 ISBN 0060784156

• Roger Morris . Partners in Power: The Clintons & Their America. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1996 ISBN 0895263025

• Posner, Richard A.. An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999 ISBN 0674000803

• Rozell, Mark J. The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government. Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, c2000) ISBN 0878407774

• Waldman, Michael . POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2000) ISBN 0743200209

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