Ken Gormley - "The Death of American Virtue"
In times of personal trouble I reach for writings on the Clinton administration. No matter your political affiliation, I think we can all admire the former president’s perseverance, his refusal to resign, and fulfilling his oaths of office. A master of compartmentalization, I read about Clinton so I can emulate him.
Extensively researched, The Death of American Virtue exclusively explores the uppening legal stakes that the former president deftly dodged over two terms. Ken Gormley has done the homework for us and sheds light on Whitewater, investigations into Vincent Foster’s suicide, accusations against the first lady, and the other legal bogs that slowed Clinton’s accomplishments.
Gormley benefits immensely by having immediately undertaken this project in the wake of Clinton’s return to private life and by taking nine years before presenting the facts to the public. In the intervening years he has seemingly interviewed all the key players, including the two men who squared off in the end: Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr.
And has often happens when two men square off, it is the women caught in the crossfire who come off as the most heroic. Susan MacDougal and Monica Lewinsky are the real heroes of a national ordeal barely noticed by a nation fattening up on easy credit and gadgetry. Bill Clinton was only the second president to be impeached and Americans trivialized the situation by acting as if they were watching a new reality show and making jokes about the president’s penis and Paula Jones’ nose. Meanwhile MacDougal and Lewinsky refused to provide false testimony despite being threatened by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, incarcerated, and/or hounded by the press. Their separate stands demonstrate that American virtue is not dead; undermining Gormley’s argument, one he never really makes. That to me is the flaw of this book.
On the other hand the strength of The Death of American Virtue, is in the presentation. Perhaps this is to be expected since Gormley is a law professor at Duquesne, but he presents his findings like a lawyer and leaves it to the reader to be the juror.
My verdict is 8 hellbombs.
