Shaken Not Stirred

To those who want to trivialize these perjury and obstruction charges against Scooter Libby, I would just suggest they take a quick look at the report that was filed publicly by Kenneth Starr against President Clinton (and which served as the basis of an impeachment in the House of Representatives.) Here’s a little excerpt in case you’ve forgotten what a restrained and dignified legal document it was:

According to Ms. Lewinsky, she and the President had ten sexual encounters, eight while she worked at the White House and two thereafter. The sexual encounters generally occurred in or near the private study off the Oval Office — most often in the windowless hallway outside the study. During many of their sexual encounters, the President stood leaning against the doorway of the bathroom across from the study, which, he told Ms. Lewinsky, eased his sore back.

Ms. Lewinsky testified that her physical relationship with the President included oral sex but not sexual intercourse. According to Ms. Lewinsky, she performed oral sex on the President; he never performed oral sex on her. Initially, according to Ms. Lewinsky, the President would not let her perform oral sex to completion. In Ms. Lewinsky’s understanding, his refusal was related to “trust and not knowing me well enough.” During their last two sexual encounters, both in 1997, he did ejaculate.

According to Ms. Lewinsky, she performed oral sex on the President on nine occasions. On all nine of those occasions, the President fondled and kissed her bare breasts. He touched her genitals, both through her underwear and directly, bringing her to orgasm on two occasions. On one occasion, the President inserted a cigar into her vagina. On another occasion, she and the President had brief genital-to-genital contact.

Whereas the President testified that “what began as a friendship came to include [intimate contact],” Ms. Lewinsky explained that the relationship moved in the opposite direction: “[T]he emotional and friendship aspects . . . developed after the beginning of our sexual relationship.”

As the relationship developed over time, Ms. Lewinsky grew emotionally attached to President Clinton. She testified: “I never expected to fall in love with the President. I was surprised that I did.” Ms. Lewinsky told him of her feelings. At times, she believed that he loved her too. They were physically affectionate: “A lot of hugging, holding hands sometimes. He always used to push the hair out of my face.” She called him “Handsome”; on occasion, he called her “Sweetie,” “Baby,” or sometimes “Dear.” He told her that he enjoyed talking to her — she recalled his saying that the two of them were “emotive and full of fire,” and she made him feel young. He said he wished he could spend more time with her.

Ms. Lewinsky told confidants of the emotional underpinnings of the relationship as it evolved. According to her mother, Marcia Lewis, the President once told Ms. Lewinsky that she “had been hurt a lot or something by different men and that he would be her friend or he would help her, not hurt her.” According to Ms. Lewinsky’s friend Neysa Erbland, President Clinton once confided in Ms. Lewinsky that he was uncertain whether he would remain married after he left the White House. He said in essence, “[W]ho knows what will happen four years from now when I am out of office?” Ms. Lewinsky thought, according to Ms. Erbland, that “maybe she will be his wife.”

That’s how a responsible prosecutor works. He writes a bodice ripping yarn as an indictment. You can certainly understand why everyone was expecting something a little bit more James Bondish in this spy thriller. No wonder everyone’s expectations are dashed. What a shame that Pat Fitzgerald is just a prosecutor instead of an all ’round entertainer like Ken Starr, eh?

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