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Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court:
Following up on a campaign promise, President Clinton pursued a balanced budget and made attempts to keep inflation in check. Throughout the 1990s, Clinton presided over continuous economic expansion (which, according to the Office of Management and Budget, began in April 1991), reductions in unemployment, and growing wealth through a massive rise in the stock market. Although some question the main reason behind the economic expansion during his term, upon leaving office, President Clinton could point to a number of economic accomplishments, including:
In 1994, Bill Clinton signed the Nuclear Accords with North Korea. The deal under these accords was to allow North Korea a modern nuclear plant and oil, in exchange for the cessation of construction on an old nuclear plant, and a promise to abandon all ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons. However, by the mid 1990s defectors from North Korea, along with reports from the IAEA, indicated that North Korea was violating both the Nuclear Accords and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Also in 1994, Clinton sent U.S. troops into Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president, ending a period of intense violence. Aristide, who had been elected, had been ousted in a coup just seven months into his term in 1991.
Clinton was unable to gain support to end genocide in Rwanda, the troops that were there under Kofi Annan fled and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
He was able to end ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, by twice having military intervention there. He had some success in the peace talks between Israel and Palestine, as well conflicts in Ireland.
On Iraq, Clinton had several times launched military strikes on the nation, often in response of Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with UN inspectors and another time when Saddam attempted to have President Bush Sr assassinated.
Clinton sparked a good deal of opposition from the very beginning of his presidency, leading Hillary Clinton to complain that her husband was targeted by a " vast right-wing conspiracy", although others criticized him as well; it was Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. in 1992 (a Democrat running against Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination) who first brought allegations of potential ethical and legal lapses surrounding Clinton [1].
Clinton's political success triggered a firestorm of reaction from right-wing activists, led by a newly effective network of conservative media outlets and funded by wealthy conservatives such as Pittsburgh banking heir Richard Mellon Scaife. Radio broadcasters such as Rush Limbaugh daily made accusations of corruption and dishonesty against Clinton, often without solid evidence or by shading facts. Scaife's Arkansas Project went about trying to find suggestions of wrongdoing in Clinton's past and publicizing allegations without solid evidence. When Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton described this informal network as a "vast, right-wing conspiracy," she was ridiculed by the conservative media; however, former conservative journalist David Brock has described in books such as Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative and The Republican Noise Machine : Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy his own involvement in exaggerating claims against the Clintons and the network of conservative media operations (including those owned by Rupert Murdoch and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon) that kept such accusations at the forefront of the public's attention.
Much of Clinton's presidency was troubled by accusations of wrongdoing, notably including the Kenneth Starr-led " Whitewater" investigation. The various investigations and scandals led to polarized, partisan debates both in Congress and in the media. Supporters and accusers of the President accused each other of having solely political motivations.
Originally dealing with the failed land deal years earlier known as Whitewater, Starr's investigation eventually expanded (at the request of the bipartisan special prosecutor three-judge panel) to include the suicide of the Clintons' friend Vince Foster and perjury during the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas government employee, Paula Jones. Jones later confirmed taking money from conservative political groups to fund her suit and described herself as a "patsy" for the right wing.
Some supporters of the Clintons saw this as evidence of a "right-wing conspiracy" against Clinton and his presidency. Other observers complained that mainstream feminist organizations would not support Jones's quest to clear her name and punish Clinton's (alleged) sexual harassment of her while he was governor of Arkansas and she was a civil servant. Eventually, Clinton settled [2] with Paula Jones out-of-court, paying her $850,000.
Describing an alleged occurrence that came to be known as "Troopergate", an article in the conservative American Spectator by David Brock claimed that Arkansas state troopers had arranged sexual encounters for then-Governor Clinton. Brock later repudiated the article, and one of the troopers recanted while admitting he had taken money from the publication.
Upon taking over the Whitewater investigation, Starr set about expanding the investigation, abandoning the focus on the Whitewater land deal. This eventually led him to the Paula Jones case and Clinton's testimony in that case, in which he denied any relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Kenneth Starr's successor, Robert Ray , declined to prosecute the Clintons on all the charges raised during Starr's multi-year investigation.
Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998 by the House of Representatives on grounds of perjury to a grand jury (by a 228-206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221-212 vote), becoming only the second U.S. President to be impeached (the previous one being Andrew Johnson in 1868). Two other articles of impeachment (a second count of perjury in the Jones case (by a 229-205 vote) and one accusing Clinton of abuse of power (by a 285-148 vote)) were defeated.
On January 7, 1999, the Senate began impeachment proceedings, ultimately acquitting the President on all charges on February 12. No witnesses were called during the trial. A two-thirds majority, 67 votes, is necessary to convict the President on impeachment charges. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction and 55 against. The obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50 for conviction and 50 against. Both votes were essentially along party lines; only Republicans voted for conviction on either charge. Despite protestations of impartiality, many Senators on both sides were on record with their views before the trial. For example, Senator Harkin called the case a "pile of dung ... that the reckless partisan House has handed us".
Clinton was charged with perjury (lying under oath) about his affair with Lewinsky to gain advantage in a sexual harassment case brought by Paula Jones, a case he later settled by paying Paula Jones $850,000. A Federal judge found Clinton also to be in contempt of court for lying in a deposition and ordered him to pay a $90,000 fine. This contempt citation led to disbarment proceedings similar to Richard Nixon's. To avoid these proceedings, Clinton surrendered his law license.
In November 1998, Juanita Broaddrick (also known as 'Jane Doe 5') gave an interview to the well respected television news show, "Dateline NBC". The interview, broadcast in January 1999, centered around Broaddrick's accusation that Bill Clinton had raped her in 1978. Dateline also said that the White House declined to provide any information regarding Clinton's schedule on the day of the alleged incident. Beyond this interview (transcript) the national media did not pursue this story to any degree. Broaddrick's rape accusation is contradicted by the record in the Jones lawsuit, which includes an affidavit which she gave under penalty of perjury, and Broaddrick's sworn deposition testimony that no such assault had occurred.
There were other political scandals associated with the Clinton Whitehouse. Travelgate involved the allegedly improper firing of staff at the Whitehouse Travel Office in 1996. Filegate refers to Whitehouse handling of hundreds of personnel files from individuals without asking for their permission. Chinagate involved Democrats accepting improper campaign contributions from John Huang ; allegedly the ultimate source of this money was the Chinese government. Pardongate refers to a grant of clemency to FALN members in 1999 and pardons to Marc Rich and others in 2001.
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