The Hill News

When a curious reader goes to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum website and searches the name “Monica Lewinsky” â€" the White House intern who almost brought down the Clinton presidency â€" the search yields zero results. Searching the term “impeachment” brings the following: “In 1998, his relationship with a young White House intern resulted in the President’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. A trial in the Senate found the President not guilty of the charges brought against him. President Clinton apologized for his conduct and vowed to keep working as hard as he could for the American people. As a result, Bill Clinton left office with historically high approval ratings… .”

Th! e bricks-and-mortar Clinton Library, which opened in Little Rock, Ark., in late 2004, does offer an exhibit in an alcove titled “The Fight for Power” that focuses on “the politics of persecution.” The Lewinsky scandal, which broke on Jan. 21, 1998, tarnishing the last three years of Clinton’s second term and resulting in impeachment by the House and acquittal in the Senate, is treated as an ultimately futile and evil effort by Republicans â€" independent counsel Ken Starr and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich are portrayed as particularly villainous â€" to bring down Bill Clinton. The point is that Republicans were attempting to achieve by scandal mongering what they could not achieve at the ballot box.

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