Surviving a blow job

Bill Clinton  among the Bushes.  

The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was blazing in the media in 1998. I was not much involved in partisan politics at the time,  but I was very much engaged in issues that had political consequences.  As a professor,  there were a number of matters I was tracking and supporting through Congress , and work on them slowed down severely as the nation obsessed over  blow jobs in the  Oval Office.

I was a frequent visitor to the Aberdeen offices of Senators Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson.  My spouse was a staff member in the  Daschle office,  but my visits were mostly to keep abreast of and stay engaged with the issues  which I and some colleagues had interests in advancing.  John Thune was the U.S Representative, but the nonpartisan group I worked with had little trust in him and little to do with him.  He was referred to as that "feckless f*cker."   Staff members of the two senators kept us updated on our interests and helped us with various agencies and departments of government with which we had business.  Our interests involved copyright and academic freedom issues,  access to records, civil rights, the environment,  and the many things that professors and other professionals work with.  There were some local projects we thought were important for the community, too, such as making U.S. 12 a four-lane highway to connect with I-29.

But as the Clinton-Lewinsky affair moved toward impeachment,  government was at a standstill at times.  It was difficult to carry on the routine work, and members of Congress and their staffs reflected the frustration.  Like many of my colleagues,  I was frustrated that Clinton, who was under investigation almost continuously, would do something that would give his opponents further cause to attack him and create more obstructions.  Our exasperation reached a point where we were going to circulate a letter asking for his resignation.  Such a letter was drafted, and we were making plans for obtaining signatures of influential people.  Then one day, a staff member for Sen. Daschle asked to speak with us.

He was a specialist on agricultural issues, and he came from Washington along with a staff member from a North Dakota senator to meet with us. They weren't coming to town just to speak to us, but were on a mission on which our letter might have some effect.   There was a new farm bill in place, but 1998 saw a sharp downturn in the agricultural economy for the northern plains.  Senators and staff members from the upper plains were working hard on measures that would provide relief for farmers and ranchers in the region.  They had worked out a plan with President Clinton and needed his cooperation and leadership to pass it successfully through Congress.  Their message to us was that we should register our concerns with the President, but that any additional controversy and pressure could further obstruct important business that needed to get done.  They said there was an effort to impeach the President under way along with investigations into the affair,  and we should let those efforts work their course rather than take actions that could bring government to a halt.  

Clinton was impeached late that year and later acquitted of the charges against him.  But in the meantime  $500 million was appropriated to bolster farmers, provisions were made to enhance the trade of farm products, and adjustments were made in the existing farm program,  all of which took prodigious work on the part of senators and the President.  

In the end, we decided not to circulate the letter, and the Lewinsky affair did not bring down government,  but its leader arduously and deftly worked to address serious issues among the people.  We survived a blow job.  But can we survive a blow hard who has nothing in place to actually help the people?