Do we really have to explain how Bill Clinton survived? It was a high-wire act that perhaps no other modern politician could have duplicated. Long dogged by rumors of extramarital dalliances, President Clinton in 1998 was finally hit with public evidence of an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. At first, he flatly denied the charges. Then he tried to lawyer his way out of them by parsing words narrowly. (Who can forget his argument with an interlocutor over the meaning of “is”?).
He survived impeachment in part because the public did not appear to want him booted from office. The final vote for conviction in the Senate was on two charges: one of perjury, and one of obstruction of justice. A two-thirds majority was needed to convict him. The vote was generally along party lines, and fell short of two-thirds in both cases. Forty-five senators voted to convict Clinton on the perjury charge, and 50 on the charge of obstruction of justice.
Of course, having already won a second term, Clinton at that point no longer had to face voters. What might have happened if he’d been up for reelection after that? We’ll never know.
