Dubai: Monica Lewinsky is in the news, again. And it has to do with the White House.
Earlier today, when American psychologist, Adam Grant @AdamMGrant, decided to ask a career-related question through his Twitter account, Lewinsky responded.
He posted: “What’s the worst career advice you’ve ever received? Mine: (1) Don’t waste your time helping others. (2) Drop 90% of your projects, because you can only do one at a time. (3) Don’t write a book.”
To which, Lewinsky @MonicaLewinsky, replied along with a flushed face emoticon: “An internship at the white house will be amazing on your resume.”
Her response has gotten more attention than Grant’s initial tweet, with over 1,200 likes and 7,800 retweets. And, understandably, because she almost got US president Bill Clinton removed from office.
Over 20 years ago, Clinton and Capitol Hill intern Monica Lewinsky were involved in one of the most talked about sex scandals at the White house.
Tweeps appreciated that Lewinsky, who was involved in a scandal that gained global notoriety with the former president, when she was 22 years old and interning at the White House, seems to have got past it.
Twitter user @LennyLLM wrote: “You win twitter... again.” @imanshu_ added: “That answer wins internet for today.”
Tweep @heyjackscal replied with: “You still have a great sense of humour after all these years. I love you.”
What was the scandal?
In June 1995, 21-year-old American college graduate Monica Lewinsky joined the office of Clinton’s chief of staff Leon Panetta at the White House. The president already had a reputation of being a womaniser. During the course of her regular interactions with him, Lewinsky began a relationship with Clinton that lasted about two years, which was discovered accidentally as part of another investigation. In 1998, the scandal became public.
Bill Clinton’s impeachment
“On December 19, 1998,” Time magazine wrote that Clinton became “only the second president ever to be impeached when, in the wake of his affair with a 22-year-old White House intern, the House of Representatives formally accused him of perjury and obstruction of justice.
“The Senate acquitted Clinton two months later, but for the time being he faced the possibility of becoming the first [US] president to be convicted and removed from office.”
What is impeachment?
“In the United States, impeachment is the process by which federal officials, including the president and federal judges, can be prosecuted and removed from office,” reported Time magazine. “While elections are the conventional way of replacing a president or other official, impeachment is intended for situations in which wrongdoing is so severe that more immediate action is necessary.”
Impeachment is a concept from the British legal system wherein it applies to both officials and the general public, but in the US constitution it only includes federal officials.
Time magazine quoted Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina professor who specialises in US constitutional law, in the same report: “...the framers used impeachment as a way to make certain that everyone, including the president, is subject to the Constitution. It thus functions as part of the system of checks and balances that ensures each branch of the government has the ability to temper the power of the others.
“They didn’t want to go back to a world where the king was immune to impeachment....”
