The World Watergate Made

In the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s resignation, public confidence in politicians and government institutions cratered. To address this crisis, Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. The law’s most important provision created a new, more powerful type of special prosecutor, called the Independent Counsel. The direct result was President Bill Clinton’s impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice concerning a consensual sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At the end of this long and sordid saga, most legal experts—and most Americans—concluded that an unchecked special prosecutor was a cure worse than the disease. In the end, Congress allowed the Independent Counsel statute to die a quiet and unmourned death. Two decades later, this era is widely understood to illustrate an essential lesson: Politics is just as important a check on special prosecutors as it is on presidents.

I Don't Know Monica Lewinsky, and I'm Not in the CIA. Now How about that Interview?

On January 18, 1998, I walked off a plane in São Paulo, Brazil. As I cleared customs and weaved through the hot, steamy airport, the cafes and newsstands, I noticed one young woman's face on the front pages of all the newspapers and journals I passed. She was wearing a beret and hugging Bill Clinton in the photo, and her name was Monica Lewinsky. Never having heard of her before, I assumed the interest in her was specific to Brazil.Surely I would know her name if she actually mattered to anyone, I thought, and went on.

Pastoral Response to the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair in Conservative and Liberal Churches

The study examined what factors led pastors to say something either negative or positive about former President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky for a sample from “Middletown.” There was no significant difference between three Protestant categories (Holiness/Pentecostal, white conservative Protestant, and mainline Protestant) in whether ministers said something or not. Analysis for those who said something indicated that the ministers who made the most critical statements in their sermons were from the most conservative/orthodox of our category of churches, i.e., Holiness/Pentecostal congregations, from the strictest churches and from churches with the greatest number of Republicans (betas were .30, .26, and .19, respectively). Also, members of Holiness/Pentecostal churches were more likely to be working class but not more Republican. Possible explanations are discussed.