Condit vs. Clinton

Gary Condit and Chandra Levy. I can tell you everything you'd ever want to know about popular California Congressman Gary Condit and his intern-turned-lover that is now mysteriously missing. In fact, I've heard those two names so many times that for a while I turned off the TV if the subject came up. If I needed to, I could turn to news anchor and Democratic strategist Dan Rather, who decided that the "CBS Evening News" wouldn't cover the story. As a news junkie, I couldn't keep this up for very long. Political news is like bread and water for me; it's part of my survival. Besides, it would be a very long summer if I didn't learn to take interest in this story.\nSo when I finally felt like I could stomach more news on missing intern Chandra Levy, pundits started comparing it to the "Clinton scandal" (as if there was just one), and I nearly fell over. Someone sent an e-mail to Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" and summed up the position of many pundits. She wrote, "The Clinton saga was all about sex. The Gary Condit story is also about sex. I don't care about their sex lives, so stop covering it."\nThree problematic (and false) suggestions arise from that e-mail. First, it suggests that the Clinton impeachment was a lynching that just concerned his personal sex life. Secondly, it suggests strong, and almost identical, similarities between the Condit and Clinton scandals. Finally, it suggests that the news media shouldn't cover these stories. All of these implications are wrong and, considering their popularity, very dangerous.\nOn May 8, 1991, Arkansas state trooper Danny Ferguson approached an employee of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. He handed her a slip of paper with a hotel room number on it and told her, "The governor would like to meet with you." He tried to reassure her by saying, "It's OK, we do this all the time for the governor." The employee was Paula Jones, and the governor was Bill Clinton.\nAfter arriving at the governor's room, Clinton began praising Jones' "curves," kissed her, slid his hand under her blouse, and "lowered his trousers and underwear, exposing his erect penis and asked Jones to 'kiss it.'" Jones jumped up and tried to leave, but not before Clinton reminded her of his friendship with her boss.\nAfter years of dodging hurdles placed in her way, Jones finally got to court on the matter. As any lawyer will tell you, one must next prove a pattern of behavior to back up an accusation of sexual harassment. This, of course, set off a flurry of depositions, investigations, cigars and stained dresses.\nIn the final analysis, Clinton's impeachment was less about sex or a "vast right-wing conspiracy" and more about an abuse of power. Sex was merely the vehicle through which Clinton committed his "high crimes and misdemeanors." Never mind the fact that thousands of others below the commander in chief lost their careers over lesser offenses. Unfortunately, this is only one of many similar sexual encounters, as well as numerous other offenses committed by "the most ethical administration in the history of the Republic" (yes, Clinton actually said that).\nWe consider it an abuse of power for a prison guard to sexually harass or even make sexual advances at an inmate. They're in a position of power, and it's immoral and unjust for them to misuse that power in order to gratify themselves and hurt the victim. How is it any different, then, for the leader of the free world to pressure and threaten a very young subordinate for sexual favors? Sex isn't what makes this a story; it's everything the sex carries with it, or perhaps everything that begot the sex.\nWhen it comes to abuse of power, Gary Condit and Bill Clinton do have a lot in common. But Condit doesn't come close to Clinton in corruption and immorality. We must never forget Clinton's perjury, witness tampering, illegal money laundering, suborning perjury, and obstruction of justice, just to name a few. Condit messed up big time, but unless it turns out he murdered Chandra Levy, he is no Bill Clinton. Then again, there is that long e-mail list of dead Clinton associates.