Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis - Hardcover

Dershowitz, Alan M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465016286 ISBN 13: 9780465016280

Publisher: Basic Books, 1998

Synopsis

Discusses the Whitewater, Jones, and Lewinsky cases and the role of the independent counsel, and considers effects on the presidency

About this title

Synopsis:

Beneath the daily sizzle of headlines lies one of the most insidious and serious constitutional crisis in modern American history. Bestselling author and Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz explains how we got to this point and what it may mean for the future of the Presidency. . The greatest threat to the future of the office of the American Presidency may turn on whether William Jefferson Clinton told a lie, under oath, and then triedunsuccessfullyto keep secret his sexual relationship with a twenty-two-year-old White House intern. The medias feeding frenzy and the publics voyeuristic prurience have been fueled by almost daily disclosures, making The Starr Report itself an instant #1 national bestseller. Yet all of this obscures the very real matters of state that lie at the heart of the Starr investigation. In Sexual McCarthyism, bestselling author Alan M. Dershowitz addresses the key issues at stakeissues that transcend the titillating daily headlinesand what their long-term effects may be.

The greatest threat to the future of the office of the American Presidency may turn on whether William Jefferson Clinton told a lie, under oath, and then triedunsuccessfullyto keep secret his sexual relationship with a twenty-two-year-old White House intern. The medias feeding frenzy and the publics voyeuristic prurience have been fueled by almost daily disclosures, making The Starr Report itself an instant #1 national bestseller. Yet all of this obscures the very real matters of state that lie at the heart of the Starr investigation. In Sexual McCarthyism, bestselling author Alan M. Dershowitz addresses the key issues at stakeissues that transcend the titillating daily headlinesand what their long-term effects may be. Among the many important questions Dershowitz raises and then answers are these:Why the Presidents private life actually is the business of the American people. Why the independent counsel law is a necessary evil, but why the appointment of Kenneth Starr was improper. Why the Supreme Court was right in requiring the President to submit to the Paula Jones lawsuit.

Why Kenneth Starrs leaking of testimony and evidence are at least as serious obstructions of justice as anything alleged against the President. What the lasting constitutional, historical, and political legacies of this case are likely to be. Long after the buzz and sizzle of Monicagate have subsided, readers will still be looking to Sexual McCarthyism as a substantive, clear, and definitive analysis of the underlying importance of one of the most serious, yet entirely avoidable, crises in modern American Presidential politics.

About the Author:

Alan Dershowitz is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Known as a defense lawyer, he is also a litigator, columnist, lecturer, book reviewer, and prolific author. His recent books include Sexual McCarthyism, on the Starr investigation, and Reasonable Doubts, on the O. J. Simpson case. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0465016286
• ISBN 13: 9780465016280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256