Posted on 06/17/2004 6:27:55 AM PDT by Know your rights
Former US president Bill Clinton said he had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky “just because I could”.
In an interview to promote his new book, Mr Clinton told how his “terrible moral error” nearly destroyed his family.
But he insisted that attempts to remove him from the White House following the affair were illegitimate, and fighting those attempts was a “badge of honour”.
Millions of advance copies of the book, entitled My Life, have already been ordered. Mr Clinton received an advance of £5.5 million for his memoir, which will be published on June 22.
In the hour-long CBS interview, Mr Clinton said he never considered resigning over the Lewinsky scandal.
“I didn’t quit, I never thought of resigning and I stood up to it and beat it back,” he said.
“The whole battle was a badge of honour. I don’t see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate,” he said, calling attempts to impeach him as “an abuse of power”.
Nevertheless, Mr Clinton said he deeply regretted straying from his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is now a New York senator.
Calling it a “terrible moral error”, he said the affair left him “in the doghouse” with his wife and also threatened to alienate his daughter, Chelsea.
The family underwent counselling to overcome the devastation they suffered.
Mrs Clinton did not demand a separation because she needed time to decide whether she wished to remain married in the aftermath of the 1999 Senate vote on his impeachment, Mr Clinton said.
“We’d take a day a week, and we did – a whole day a week every week for a year, maybe a little more – and did counselling,” he said.
“We did it together. We did it individually. We did family work.”
Asked why he committed adultery, he answered: “I did something for the worst possible reason – just because I could.
“I think that’s just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything.”
Among the high points of Mr Clinton’s presidency was his role in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic.
“The day that Kosovar war ended and I knew Milosevic’s days were numbered was a great day. I had a lot of great days,” he said.
His biggest achievement, he said, was his economic plan.
“I kept score, how many people’s lives were better off,” he said.
“I think the fact that we were able to have 22 million jobs and record home ownership and lower interest rates ... people actually had the ability to do more things than ever before.”
But he was disappointed he was never able to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The interview will be shown on the CBS 60 Minutes programme on Sunday.
THe Scumbag still doesn't get it.....
Liberal illogic at its best.
He admits to committing a 'moral error,' then compounds the 'moral error' by lying to obscure his transgression - and proceeds to describe fighting his persecutors as a 'badge of honor.'
How in his sick rapist mind do his actions have any semblance of honor?
The thought that these people are back in our faces is enough to make me sick. I thought we were finished with this jerk and his ugly family but of course we've never been finished the jr. senator from New York.
Well Bush gave us even lower interest rates and even higher home ownership. I am not sure where the 22 million figure comes from, but still by Clinton's standard Bush is doing a great job.
I don't give a flip about Clinton's life.
Has he no ears>? IT WAS THE PERJURY, STUPID!
I wish this jerk would just shut up and go away.
You have not seen nothing yet. The media is going to be all over him like stink on excretement for weeks on end. Poor Ole John Kerry!
“The whole battle was a badge of honour. I don’t see it as a stain".........
Oh, that one is just begging for it!!!
He'll never go away.
The most disgusting line in the whole article:
The interview will be shown on the CBS 60 Minutes programme on Sunday.
**
Nothing the Impeached Slimebag says would shock me, but I continue to be appalled and infuriated over the continuous lewinskys he receives from the media, the latest installment of which will be their full court press to help him sell his book "My Lies". (Sorry about the mixed metaphor.)
Bill Clinton is the epitomy of the "if it feels good, do it and anybody else be damned" mindset. Ironically it is what he spent 8 years condemning Ronald Reagan for.
Not only did he make a bad decision...look at the choice.
A woman that keeps a nasty dress like that without having it cleaned as long as she did, just imagine what her panties must look like...ewwww!
The true test of ethics is what you would do if you knew you no one would ever find out. In this case, Clinton didn't even know that he could get away with it (since obviously, he didn't) and he still chose the immoral action...
I've had some four year olds who did things "because they could".
That's our "Bubba"! Just one heckuva, stand-up guy. The kind of man you'd be proud to call a friend.
"That's a lie. I never touched that chick. 'Mr. Winky' did! Not me! It was an abuse of power!"
And to think that he chose to refer to this whole Lewinsky episode as a "stain". Nice choice of words. Geez.
That clown is TOO funny.
"But he was disappointed he was never able to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict"
-maybe he'd have had better results if he hadn't kept Yassur Araffat waiting while Monica 'serviced' him.
And the crap about all the 'family counselling' regarding the Monica scam. -As though it were the one and only time he ever bagged a babe behind Hillary's back!
This guy is a comedian!
Hey Bill, How about LYING TO A GRAND JURY - a crime that would get ME thrown in the clink? Got an answer for THAT one?
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