The Clinton Meltdown: Overrating Watergate

‘CLINTON’S sex scandal is not on the same level as Richard Nixon’s abuse of office,” Carl Bernstein recently told college students in Helena, Montana. Bob Woodward, Bernstein’s partner in the Washington Post investigation of Watergate, agreed, telling Tim Russert on August 15, “no matter how some people are gonna try to elevate this to a grand constitutional issue, it’s unfortunately about sex.”

There are several fallacies in this argument, advanced by most surviving members of the Watergate Establishment (a select group that includes John Dean, Sam Dash, and Richard Ben-Veniste, among other old victors). The Big Difference, supposedly, is sex. President Clinton’s sexual relationship with a barely adult intern working in the government office he supervises is a “private matter” in no way comparable to the malfeasance known as Watergate.

About the Author

James Rosen

James Rosen is the chief Washington correspondent at Newsmax and the author of Scalia: Supreme Court Years, 1986–2001.

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‘CLINTON’S sex scandal is not on the same level as Richard Nixon’s abuse of office,” Carl Bernstein recently told college students in Helena, Montana. Bob Woodward, Bernstein’s partner in the Washington Post investigation of Watergate, agreed, telling Tim Russert on August 15, “no matter how some people are gonna try to elevate this to a grand constitutional issue, it’s unfortunately about sex.”

There are several fallacies in this argument, advanced by most surviving members of the Watergate Establishment (a select group that includes John Dean, Sam Dash, and Richard Ben-Veniste, among other old victors). The Big Difference, supposedly, is sex. President Clinton’s sexual relationship with a barely adult intern working in the government office he supervises is a “private matter” in no way comparable to the malfeasance known as Watergate.