Jeffrey Toobin has been making the talk show rounds lately peddling his new book, “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President.” His message has largely been that the president?s behavior was abhorrent, but that it did not justify impeachment. He says the vast right-wing conspiracy was actually, “a conspiracy within the legal system to take over the political system of the United States.”

Toobin is despicable in his efforts to exonerate Clinton of the two most serious charges of sexual misconduct made against him. Juanita Broaddrick, the nursing home operator and Clinton supporter, who came forward last year to tell how Bill Clinton had raped her when he was attorney general of Arkansas, had contemporaneous witnesses who verified that she was telling the truth. She impressed reporters for NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post as being highly credible. She impressed the viewers who saw her interview on NBC. Toobin cites a dubious source who contradicts all this, saying that the sex was consensual.

He also claims that Paula Jones lied, that she too had consensual sex with Clinton. This is based on the claim of some man that Paula had sex with 15 men before she was 17. Paula Jones was on the Larry King Show at the same time as Toobin when this came up. She knew the source of the story, and she was flabbergasted that Toobin would regard him as being the least bit credible. Distraught, Paula, like Juanita Broaddrick, told her workmate and her friends what Clinton had done right after it happened. She impressed the reporters who interviewed her and investigated her story with her credibility. Toobin sinks to the lowest level of supermarket tabloid reporting in his effort to discredit her.

Toobin brushes aside the larger scandals of this administration.

He says “The Clinton years abounded in purported scandals that offered much in the way of colorful names – Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, to name only the best known, but little in the way of actual criminal offenses.” Toobin states that Clinton was a “humiliated middle-aged husband who lied when he was caught having an affair with a young woman,” but it probably didn?t fit the technical meaning of perjury. He says Clinton?s critics were “willing to trample all standards of fairness…in their effort to drive him from office.”

Toobin uses the failure of Ken Starr to bring charges against both Bill and Hillary Clinton for obstruction of justice and perjury to justify that claim. Charges could have been brought against the Clintons for obstructing the investigation of the death of Vincent Foster, the payment of hush money to Webb Hubbell, the illegal use of FBI files, and the transfer of high technology to China in return for illegal campaign contributions.

Starr?s failure to indict the Clintons or refer any of these matters to Congress as possible grounds for impeachment gives Toobin an excuse for saying there was nothing there. The problem was the timidity of Kenneth Starr and the Republicans in Congress, not their overreaching to get Clinton.

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