It is not until the end of the first episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story, the new FX series that dramatizes the tale of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, that Clinton, played by Clive Owen, makes his first appearance. It’s only for a few seconds. He’s on the phone with Lewinsky, who has begun a new job at the Pentagon after being exiled from the White House to distance her from the chief executive. The single line of dialogue is benign. He asks, “How was your first day?” But the scene is extremely creepy. Clinton is sitting alone. In the dark. The moment appears to signal that this project—of which Lewinsky was a producer—will not go easy on the former president. And it caused me to wonder if this 10-episode series will spur further reappraisal of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal—perhaps even its very name. After all, the appropriate nomenclature for this saga ought to no longer contain “Lewinsky.” She was no equal partner. It simply should be called “the Clinton scandal.”

In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, the Clinton affair does look somewhat different than it did to many at the time. While conservatives and Republicans treated it as a mammoth outrage that warranted the political equivalent of capital punishment, many Democrats downplayed the matter. Not surprisingly, the combative politics of the day defined the scandal. And the reality of what had happened between these two people—even though monstrously detailed by Kenneth Starr, a misguided, modern-day Javert who himself has become a figure of scandal and low repute—was trampled by the political war it triggered.

To her credit, Lewinsky, after suffering public humiliation for years, has reclaimed the narrative, as the pundits say, and become a smart and compelling voice on the related issues of shaming and bullying. (Her 2015 TED Talk, titled “The Price of Shame,” has 20 million views.) And she has done so as American society has become more attuned to noncriminal sexual predation in the workplace. Clinton’s actions have become harder to dismiss with the passage of time.

During the red-hot political battle of the Clinton era, there was no room for nuance. (Remember when Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell accused Bill and Hillary Clinton of committing a host of murders on their way to the top?) At the time, I believed that those Americans horrified and disgusted with Clinton’s behavior—enraged that he had disrespected and disgraced the office of the presidency—had the right to be. That was a justifiable position, and anger and denunciation were warranted. Yet the Newt Gingrich–led impeachment crusade was not, for Clinton’s actions were not an official abuse of power. Yes, he lied in a civil lawsuit when he denied the affair—and he lied to the public. But this was a matter best kept separate from the Constitution. Weaponizing his personal transgression seemed dangerous.

Holding this balanced view did me no favors. The only time in my career I was blocked from covering a topic occurred when my editors at The Nation decided that, though I was the magazine’s Washington editor, I should not write about the Clinton scandal. The only angle for this story, they believed, was that the puritanical (and hypocritical) warriors of the far right were using sex to undermine and destroy a Democratic administration. That was indeed a key element. But thinking that Clinton’s critics had a point was considered heresy.

The left’s reassessment of the Clinton scandal has been underway for several years. In 2017, for example, Gloria Steinem noted that she would not expound what she had in 1998 about Clinton. During the scandal, she penned a much-discussed New York Times article, headlined “Feminists and the Clinton Question,” that was seen—rightly or not—as a defense of Clinton’s conduct. “If all the sexual allegations now swirling around the White House turn out to be true, President Clinton may be a candidate for sex addiction therapy,” Steinem wrote. She said the main “equation” of the Clinton-Lewinsky case was “Yes means yes.” Pointing out that the “power imbalance between them increased the index of suspicion,” she insisted the “real violators of Ms. Lewinsky's will were Linda Tripp, who taped their talks, the FBI agents who questioned her without a lawyer and Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor who seems intent on tailoring the former intern's testimony.” Referring to allegations Clinton harassed other women, she said that if true they only showed that he had made “clumsy” sexual passes. Two decades later, Steinem said, “We have to believe women. I wouldn’t write the same thing now because there’s probably more known about other women [Clinton allegedly accosted] now...What you write in one decade you don’t necessarily write in the next.”

Might this new series, created by the unstoppable Ryan Murphy, extend this reconsideration among liberals and Democrats? And what of conservatives? The covert right-wing plot, starring the noxious Ann Coulter, that snagged Clinton in a perjury trap—the first episode flicks at this—doesn’t look any better in hindsight. Ditto for impeachment, especially now that we know that Starr and Gingrich were so reprehensible in their own personal conduct. Was any of this political warfare worth the effort? Did it serve the country well? Less than three years after the Clinton impeachment, 9/11 occurred, and the nation experienced a true crisis.

The show is a reminder of the stark difference between Republican and Democratic scandals of the past few decades. Watergate, Iran-Contra, George W. Bush’s lies about the Iraq War, Donald Trump’s not one but two impeachments—these controversies were about serious constitutional matters and concerned profound abuses of trust and power. Nixon was a crook. Reagan mounted a secret war. Bush conned the country into a military invasion overseas. Trump ran a Mafia-like extortion scheme and incited a seditious attack on Congress. Clinton exploited his position to have a clandestine extramarital affair with a subordinate. That was wrong, but it doesn’t compare.

Yet Clinton’s actions and the reactions it triggered did have global consequences. There’s little doubt that his misconduct was a factor in the all-too-close election of 2000 that landed a second Bush in the White House (with an assist from the Supreme Court). Had the Clinton scandal not been whipped into such a frenzy, perhaps Al Gore would have made up the difference of 537 votes in Florida and become the man in charge on 9/11. And to follow this further: Perhaps Gore, not surrounded by advisers already obsessed with attacking Saddam Hussein, would not have launched a disastrous invasion of Iraq. In that case, thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians would not have lost their lives. We can never prove a counterfactual, but we can speculate whether one consequence of the Clinton scandal and impeachment was a war that destabilized an entire region of the world and caused tremendous damage and loss.

It’s unclear from the first episode how far Impeachment will lead us toward a better understanding of the Clinton scandal and what it wrought. One reviewer, who has watched more of the series, criticized it for overly focusing on the tabloid-y aspects and missing the big points. But that doesn’t mean we have to.

What do you remember of the Clinton scandal? What do you think about it now? Email me at thisland@motherjones.com.

What to Read, Watch, and Listen To

The Survivor. I’m going to be a bit unfair here and recommend a movie you can’t see—yet: The Survivor, the new Barry Levinson film based on the real-life story of Harry Haft, who was deported to Auschwitz and then sent to the Jaworzno slave-labor camp. There he was trained by his Nazi overseers to be a boxer, and he was forced into bouts against his fellow Jewish inmates. Whoever lost was executed. Haft fought 76 times, according to a book written by his son that was based on Haft’s account. Toward the end of World War II, Haft escaped a death march and eventually immigrated to the United States. For a few years, he had a middling career as a boxer under the ring name the “Survivor of Auschwitz.” Levinson, who directed Wag the Dog, Rain Man, The Natural, Diner, and many other movies, has created a stunning piece of work that follows Haft as he deals with trauma and guilt and tries to construct a life in America while searching for his prewar girlfriend, who was also deported to a camp. The camp scenes, shot in black and white, are gruesome and disturbing; the boxing sequences in Jaworzno and in America are brutal. This moving story is tough to watch. Ben Foster puts in an intense and impossible-to-forget performance as Haft—he dropped 60 pounds to film the camp scenes—and the producers have good reason to expect him to collect a series of nominations, if not awards, for this portrayal. That is, if the film ever hits theaters or a streaming service.

As I reported recently, The Survivor was ready for audiences at the start of the 2020, but the pandemic thwarted a theatrical release. And the film, surprisingly, was turned down by the various streaming services. “The streamers told us it doesn’t fit what we’re doing now,” Levinson tells me. “They said, ‘It’s great. It will be nominated. Ben Foster will be nominated. But it doesn’t match our platform.’ It was bizarre.” The movie, though, is having its world premiere this week at the influential Toronto International Film Festival. As someone who has seen it, I find it hard to imagine that The Survivor won’t garner a flood of praise. It is arguably the best Holocaust film since Schindler’s List. A good reception in Toronto would give the film a boost, but that’s no guarantee it will be soon released, given that Hollywood is still trying to figure out what audiences want as the pandemic wanes (in certain parts of the country) and movie watchers return to theaters. So keep a lookout for The Survivor and see it when you can. This film deserves your attention.

Every Dog Is a Rescue Dog, John Dickerson. If you have ever had a dog as a pet or if you have ever known anyone who had a dog as a pet, you ought to read this Atlantic article by John Dickerson, the CBS News correspondent and host. This summer, George, the Dickerson family dog, was struck by a car and killed. Dickerson’s remembrance of George is an elegantly written exploration of the bond between humans and canines, an enduring cross-species relationship that began between 14,000 and 29,000 years ago. The piece contains one of the best descriptions of dog walks and their unique value: “In a life of busyness and ambushes on our attention, dog walks air out the brain. Sometimes they might seem like an inconvenience, but only in the way G. K. Chesterton defined inconvenience—an adventure wrongly considered. Considered correctly, the daily dog walks are a regimen of escape and pause. They enlarge our sympathies and sweeten our disposition. They pry open the day when it balls up into a little fist.” The internet tells us that George Carlin once said, “Every pet is a tiny tragedy waiting to happen.” And I know that the relationship I have with Moxie, my dog, will last only so long. One thing that helps is that I know she doesn’t. And that is the point. Dickerson’s essay is a poignant contemplation of this affinity between human and (tamed) beast. It’s a wonderful tribute to George that he inspired such a thoughtful examination. That’s a good dog.

Have anything to recommend? Email me at thisland@motherjones.com.

Read Previous Issues of This Land

September 11, 2021: How Trump’s conspiracy theories are killing people in West Virginia and elsewhere; more 9/11 reflections; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Special Confederacy Edition); a look at HBO’s very odd White Lotus; MoxieCam™; and more.

September 8, 2021: 9/11 plus 20: a remembrance and a thank-you; the chilling climate crisis warning in HBO’s Reminiscence; and more.

September 3, 2021: Texas shows how Trumpism has become fascistic vigilantism; Dumbass Comment of the Week; Rock ’n’ Roll Flashback (how I was popped by Iggy Pop); MoxieCam™; and more.

August 31, 2021: How a 1954 analysis perfectly explains today’s Republican Party; on his new album, James McMurtry captures the spirit of Warren Zevon; and more.

August 20, 2021: Yes, there are laws Trump may have broken while trying to overturn the election; Dumbass Comment of the Week (special Afghanistan edition); the Mailbag (should we report on Trump’s inane remarks?); MoxieCam™; and more.

August 16, 2021: The Afghanistan debacle: How Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden bamboozled the American public; the “Banana King” of Wellfleet, Massachusetts; and more.

August 13, 2021: Hey lefties, stop telling me not to report on Trump’s dangerous comments; Dumbass Comment of the Week; rock ’n’ roll flashback: Sting abuse at a Police show; MoxieCam™; and more.

August 10, 2021: Look who’s organizing a pro-January 6 rally at the Capitol; an inspiring tale from the Myanmar jungle; the best album of the year so far; and more.

August 7, 2021: Are non-vaxxers and anti-maskers just too damn selfish?; Dumbass Comment of the Week; Mailbag (can you still watch your favorite old movies if they now make you cringe?); MoxieCam™; and more.

August 3, 2021: When “worse than Watergate” is really worse than Watergate; Apple TV+’s “comedy” Physical is no comedy, but it’s worth watching; This Land in Photos (West Virginia); and more.

July 31, 2021: Can you still watch your favorite movies?; Dumbass Comment of the Week; Mailbag (more on Lennon versus McCartney); MoxieCam™; and more.

July 29, 2021: Is a country music star encouraging more January 6-like violence?; a civil rights hero more people should know; and more.

July 27, 2021: Are Republicans going to sabotage police reform that doesn’t even go far enough?; how to put a senseless murder to good use; how sober is Liz Phair?; and more.

July 24, 2021: Has Paul McCartney finally won me over?; Dumbass Comment of the Week; Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

July 22, 2021: My bizarre encounter with Rep. Jim Jordan—and why Speaker Pelosi was right to bounce him from the 1/6 committee; celebrating and grieving with musician Steve Earle; and more.

July 20, 2021: The time a Republican president did the right thing to stop an epidemic; Trump’s big narcissism fail; Nelson Algren and Norman Podhoretz; a new psychedelic Beatles-esque tune; and more.

July 17, 2021: Why the Guardian’s Trump-Russia bombshell—dud or not—doesn’t fully matter; Dumbass Comment of the Week; why Bosch works in spite of Bosch; MoxieCam™; and more.

July 15, 2021: Does President Joe Biden really stand with the Cuban people?; the time I really pissed off the Cuban regime; J. Edgar Hoover vs. MLK; one of the best movie reviews of all time; and more.

July 13, 2021: A coming referendum on Donald Trump; a suggestion for Hunter Biden; a new book on how the super-rich screw us all; and more.

July 10, 2021: Why the Republicans are right to be terrified of the new House committee investigating the 1/6 attack; Dumbass Comment of the Week; Joni Mitchell’s Blue 50; and more.

July 7, 2021: How The Summer of Soul counters the GOP’s season of hate; a debate on the recent UFO report; Garry Trudeau, American Dostoyevsky; MoxieCam™; and more.

July 3, 2021: Donald Rumsfeld, Christopher Hitchens, the Iraq War, and me; the perils of taking a home DNA test; Dumbass Comment of the Week; a Springsteen story; and more.

July 1, 2021: Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and perjury; Adam Serwer’s new book; Cézanne’s crime scene; and more.

June 29, 2021: How the new UFO report is bad news for UFO believers; my own UFO tale; HBO Max’s Hacks; an anti-racist anthem; and more.

June 26, 2021: Is Josh Hawley dumb or evil? (The answer is not both); Dumbassery that encourages mass “executions” in the United States; renowned guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson’s new tour and new book (and his claim regarding the best strings arrangement ever on a popular song); MoxieCam™ (before and after photos!); and more.

June 24, 2021: How an alleged 1/6 conspirator who called for executing Trump’s foes hooked up with a prominent Republican Party official; new Los Lobos; and more.

June 22, 2021: Why the GOP is pushing “political apartheid”; Ted Cruz wins Dumbass Comment of the Week; recommendations for an Apple TV+ series and a book on the curious origins of the universe; the first Clash tour of the United States (and being trapped in a van driven by a punk on acid); MoxieCam™; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at thisland@motherjones.com.