- by Fish

First off, I would like to say that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an adulterer. This is in part because I do not now have, nor have I ever had, a wife. But credibility seems to be an issue nowadays, and I'd rather get that last statement right out in the open. Speaker-elect Bob Livingston announced on December 19 that he would step down from his Speaker position and would resign within six months' time. It had been revealed that Livingston had once had an extramarital affair -- the result of dirt-digging that had become inevitable in the wake of the political scandals of 1998. Once the Starr Report was published, the gloves were off and it was time to fight dirty. And speaking of "dirty", the party who revealed the Livingston affair was none other than Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and I find it strange to be on the same side of a debate with a man with whom I have previously stated I do not see eye-to-eye. While I condone Flynt's revelation of someone else's affair about as much as I condone his "men's magazine", he and I do agree that this country's Right had gone too far and something needed to be done about it.

The Republican party opened the Pandora's Box of extramarital affairs because they were unable to make any other scandal stick to Clinton. With Whitewater failing to capture sufficient attention and "Travelgate" a limping also-ran, rabid bulldog Kenneth Starr scrambled for anything, anything at all with which to smear. (Oral sex is a far cry from his original domain: investigating Whitewater.) Thereafter, the boomerang was inevitable. Dan Burton, Henry Hyde... the unspoken gentleman's agreement was sundered, and bit by bit the media began publicizing Republican "youthful indiscretions". Larry Flynt offered up to a million dollars for information on adulterous affairs by members of Congress. Having no principles, Flynt was more than happy to publicize these details; being a Democrat, Flynt aimed his mud at the Right. And thus Bob Livingston, the scarlet "A" in his closet revealed, announced his resignation. He argued that the exposure of his affair made him no longer fit to lead the House, and called upon President Clinton to follow his example.

But wait! The Republicans have been insisting all along that the impeachment issue is not about adultery. They insist this was not a witch hunt about one man's private affairs. No, it's about perjury. It's about the "rule of law" and how Clinton's lies have "betrayed the trust of the American people." If that's true, why should Clinton follow Livingston's example? Livingston has not lied. Livingston has not perjured. Livingston has betrayed no one's trust other than his wife's. If it follows that Clinton should imitate Livingston, then being exposed as an adulterer must be the issue at hand. But in committing adultery, Clinton has not violated the rule of law. Nor has he betrayed the trust of the American people, who have known (since his admission in the 1992 campaign) that his marriage has been far from perfect. Bob Livingston may have felt he needed to resign, but ultimately he and his party must confront the fact that, by their own logic, his situation and Clinton's impeachment are unrelated. Clinton should follow Livingston's "example" only if Livingston has been perjurious. And he hasn't. And good for him! Moral high ground to the Republicans there. But in pursuing their House crusade, they lose the high ground: hypocrisy of cause. Don't pitch "perjury" by selling "adultery".

Partisan politics is not new to impeachment proceedings. The only other President to be impeached, Andrew Johnson, was impeached in a partisan feud as well. But the issue at hand there was the largest scar on our nation's psyche. From such lofty issues we have fallen: from "the Civil War" to "exchanging fluids with an intern". Personally, I don't care who or what the President sleeps with. That's his problem. I'm not going to condone adultery -- far from it -- but I don't think it has any effect on his job. Bob Livingston, apparently, does. And apparently he feels that FDR and JFK and LBJ (and presumably some of our other three-initialed adulterer Presidents) should have resigned mid-term. Livingston's resignation has led Congressmen to decry the new standard that seems to have been set: commit adultery and be expelled from the House. But this is merely the pendulum swinging back, a pendulum set into motion by the Right and a pendulum that has now knocked aside the Speaker-elect. Clinton's own semantic wranglings aside, President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky never went to bed together. That's why it's ironic that it is his opponents who have moved me to remark that they have made their own bed... and now get to lie in it. Strange bedfellows, indeed.