High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton [Hardcover]

Ann Coulter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

The problem with arguing for President Clinton's impeachment is not that there's enough evidence--it's that there's too much.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bill Clinton pledged to run "the most ethical administration in the history of the republic." In High Crimes and Misdemeanors, conservative lawyer and pundit Ann Coulter finds this promise laughably off the mark. Although she devotes a fair amount of space to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Coulter covers the gamut of Clinton controversies, from the Whitewater deal to the death of Vincent Foster to Filegate (plus others--ever heard of "Wampumgate"?). Her tone is aggressively anti-Clinton, but she also has the virtue of engaging and straightforward prose that explains why each individual scandal matters. (The chapter on Whitewater begins: "This is the boring part. Whitewater gets interesting only when you understand why it is boring. It is boring by design, like a New York Times editorial. Don't skip to the next chapter! That's just what the Clintons want you to do.") The best section of the book is a serious examination of the impeachment process--how the Founding Fathers envisioned it, how it's been used throughout history, and why, in Coulter's opinion, it should be invoked against Clinton. --John J. Miller

Review

...reads like the closing argument of a long trial by a prosecutor who plainly hates the guilty bastard at the defence table... -- The Economist

Its sprightly style is a welcome relief from the lugubrious, Teutonic language in which Clinton defenders describe the unthinkable disaster of impeachment. -- The Wall Street Journal, Robert H. Bork

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 358 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; First Edition edition (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895263602
• ISBN-13: 978-0895263605
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANN COULTER is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Godless, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), Treason, Slander, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors. She is the legal correspondent for Human Events and a syndicated columnist for Universal Press Syndicate. You can read her weekly column on her website, www.anncoulter.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Partisan but powerful, August 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (Hardcover)

The author, and the publisher, are aggressively conservative, and if you've seen Coulter on the talk show circuit recently (how could you not?) you have no doubt where she stands on the Clinton administration (firmly against). What we get here is more of the same. A lot more.

Coulter's forceful argument for impeachment is unlikely to leave any reader sitting on the fence. It will harden those convinced he has to go, and even his most ardent supporters would be hard-pressed to ingest this 300+ page indictment and continue to insist that Clinton's detractors have "nothing" on him.

The first third of the book covers the Lewinski affair; the remainder--Whitewater, Filegate, the travel office firings, IRS audits, campaign finance issues, *ad nauseum*--take up the remaining 200 pages, with varying degrees of persuasiveness. But even the weakest arguments, frequently compared directly to the articles of impeachment drafted against Richard Nixon, nonetheless demand thoughtful consideration. Her book isn't the last word, but the issues it raises belong in the debate.

The rhetoric here is at times irritatingly repetitive and unrepentantly abrasive, and nobody is likely to agree with everything she says. But love her or hate her, Coulter has done her homework, her notes are copious, and her conslusions damning.

It's a quick read, ably written and extensively documented. It's important to consider both sides of an issue as wrenching as impeachment, and this book asks questions that the U.S. Congress may be asked to consider in the days and months ahead.

Even so, this book is to the presidency what "Saving Private Ryan" is to war--at times graphic, brutal and hard to stomach. I came away from this book feeling more than a little queasy. It's not a pretty read.

But as the scandalous headlines show no sign of abating and the sound-bite debate on the talking head shows produces more indigestion than understanding, this book demands not only awareness, but consideration. Read it, read the arguments of Clinton's supporters, then make up your own mind.

155 of 204 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Kiss It", February 17, 2003

By 

Ben Hekster (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (Paperback)

"High Crimes and Misdemeanors" are grounds, per Article II of our Constitution, that provide for the impeachment of civil officers of the government. In this age of moral relativism where "truth is lies", Ann Coulter gives a much-needed background to the historical meaning of these words, from the days of the British monarchy where they originated, through their inclusion by the Founding Fathers, to the day when they were used to frame articles of impeachment against President Nixon.

The bulk of the book is dedicated to applying this standard to the catalog of misbehavior of the Clinton Administration. Written as it was when the question of removal from office was still open, the book has a passionate tone which in hindsight feels somewhat futile now that we know Congress was unable to live up to its responsiblity. Nonetheless, that tone demonstrates a certain credibility of someone who cares deeply about our government and the presidency.

And on reading this book, one cannot but feel saddened to realize how low the stature of the Presidency has sunk under that administration. Barely palatable even when spread out over its full eight years, the sheer volume of muck concentrated in one volume is almost too much to swallow. Bill Clinton abused his positions as governor and president to procure and then pay off women at taxpayer's expense, and to cover it up lied countless times, perjured himself under oath, and suborned perjury of others. But all that is only the beginning.

In Travelgate, the White House travel office staff was fired at the behest of Mrs Clinton so that she could fill those "slots" with "her people". Filegate had nine hundred FBI background files on Republican officials illegally in the possession of the White House. During Fostergate, White House officials obstructed an FBI investigation into the suicide of White House counsel Vincent Foster. In the Whitewater affair, taxpayers were defrauded of millions of dollars while the White House obstructed the investigation every step of the way and paid off the silence of indicted counsel. The White House was rented off like a common bed-and-breakfast and coffee house. The Clinton Administration used IRS audits as an instrument of threat and vengeance on its enemies. Perhaps worst of all, in what comes horrifyingly close to treason, the Administration permitted the release of CIA briefings and classified missile technology to China in return for staggering campaign contributions.

Since the book was written while Mr Clinton was still in office, it does not even mention the later scandals that plagued the last years of that administration, such as the eleventh-hour pardoning of fugitives and felons who made large contributions to the Democratic Party in Pardongate.

It is hard to say whether it is worse that this person served as our president, or his apologists' astounding insistence that the perfidy of his presidency somehow doesn't matter. It wasn't always like this. The Rodino report, which laid down the reasoning for proceedings against President Nixon, noted that "the scope of impeachment was not viewed narrowly" as a purely criminal matter but also considered maintaining the prestige and respect of the office. Fascinatingly, party to the Rodino hearings was none other than Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ann Coulter is a knowledgeable, deliciously sharp, and unquestionably intelligent writer-- I would recommend any of her books, as well as the syndicated column which appears also on her Web site. High Crimes and Misdemeanors is well researched and annotated, and leaves me asking rhetorically about those eight dark years: what in the world were we thinking?

65 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Was it just about sex?, November 13, 2001

By 

Mister Zer0 (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (Hardcover)

I followed Watergate very carefully and I thought that I understood the impeachment process. Ann Coulter's book disabused me of this notion and informed me about the role of the impeachment process envisioned by the founders as understood at the time of the creation of the constitution and by the Rodino committee as applied to Richard M. Nixon.

The founders never envisioned that a sitting president would have conducted himself in such a manner that he would not be allowed to appear before the Supreme Court because of his perjury. However, this book clearly shows how and why the impeachment mechanism that the founding fathers designed as an integral part of the structure of our republic should have been applied to Bill Clinton. That this remedy was not used is a great tragedy for our country. The scope of this failure is clearly and forcefully chronicled by this book.

I strongly recommend it to those who seek a broader perspective on the Clinton legacy.