The Death of American Virtue

December 14, 2009
This book’s readers will quickly think of water. Facts overwhelm you like Niagara. And when you’ve finished reading about President Clinton and special prosecutor Ken Starr, you may want to take a long shower. Gormley, a professor of law at Duquesne (Archibald Cox
), reviews the entire sordid business of Clinton’s foolishness and his enemies’ efforts to bring down his presidency. It’s not an edifying tale. Very few of the book’s cast come off well, except for Secret Service officials and a judge or two. If there’s a sympathetic character, it’s Susan McDougal, who refused to rat on her friends. Starr makes error after error and confuses vindictiveness with duty. While not altering the basic story in any way, Gormley gains much from effective interviews 10 years after with participants and his use of newly available documents. While his book is too long, Gormley remains in control of the details, and this riveting first look at events that only future history will put into full relief shows how affairs of sex and enmity can become affairs of state. 24 pages of b&w photos.

December 15, 2009
A law professor revisits the scandals, investigations and trials that crippled and nearly killed a presidency.

Three locomotives barreling down separate tracks—independent counsel Ken Starr's investigation of shady Arkansas real-estate and banking transactions, a private lawsuit filed by Paula Jones alleging sexual harassment against President Bill Clinton and the president's dalliance with a White House intern—smashed horribly together Clinton's impeachment hearings in 1998. Gormley (Law/Duquesne Univ; Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation, 1997) appears in remarkable possession of every detail pertinent to this complex story, beginning with Jim McDougal's ill-fated 1978 Whitewater land development and ending with a still-secret Department of Justice investigation of the Starr deputies' initial interview of Monica Lewinsky. An acknowledged expert on special prosecutors, Gormley handles the many legal aspects of this story especially well—the inner workings of Starr's office, the strategies of the many defense lawyers representing multiple defendants and the controversial Supreme Court decision that exposed a sitting president to civil suit. He explains the unholy political warfare and the special role played by the mainstream, partisan and emerging Internet press, and he offers sharp snapshots of the many players that marched across TV screens for too many years. For most Americans, an intervening decade is perhaps insufficiently long for reintroduction to the likes of the vapid Lewinsky, her turncoat confidante Linda Tripp, her"avuncular" attorney William Ginsburg, the smarmy Webb Hubbell and the egregious Susan Carpenter-McMillan; too soon to be reminded of the stained dress, the Vince Foster suicide,"the vast right-wing conspiracy" or the details of the Starr Report. But for those wishing to understand exactly what happened during this confusing, dismal time, Gormley's informed reporting and evenhanded analysis is the place to start.

The entire nightmare vividly recalled.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 15, 2010
The Whitewater investigation, led by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, investigated the scandals that tarnished the Clinton administrationscandals that, says Gormley (law, Duquesne Univ.; "Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation"), diminished respect for the office of the President. The author interviewed many major players, including Bill Clinton himself, who would not discuss the Lewinsky affair. The result is an illuminating account that could overwhelm the general reader with oceans of detail. Starr is presented as a highly respected attorney and not a religious fanatic determined to destroy Clinton. His weakness was his lack of experience as a prosecutor; he later acknowledged that he should not have expanded the Whitewater investigation to include the Lewinsky affair. Starr resigned in 1999, and the Office of Independent Counsel's final report, issued by his successor, Robert Ray, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Clinton. VERDICT This is the most complete and likely the most impartial account available of the Clinton scandals. It will appeal to readers of such recent serious works as Richard Sale's "Clinton's Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief" and Taylor Branch's "The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President".Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2010
In 1999, the shocking revelation of President Clintons affair with a White House intern captivated the nation and nearly sank his career as well as that of prosecutor Ken Starr. Legal scholar Gormley offers new revelations: Starr drafted an impeachment referral long before the Monica Lewinsky scandal emerged, and investigators considered indicting First Lady Hillary Clinton for Whitewater irregularities. Gormley draws on newly released documents, including transcripts of depositions and grand jury testimony, and interviews with major figures, including Clinton and Starr, to offer a deliciously detailed account of the investigation that nearly led to the impeachment of the president and continues to reverberate in American politics. Starrs initial charge to investigate the Clintons involvement in Arkansas real-estate deals morphed into an investigation of the suicide of Vince Foster and Paula Jones allegations of sexual harassment and the ostensible connection of an affair with Lewinsky. Gormley chronicles the behind-the-scenes political machinations of Republican elves out to get the Clintons and White House efforts to save his presidency, playing out in a titanic political clash as Americans were repulsed by Clintons actions and Starrs excessive zeal. Gormley recalls the missteps and irregularities on both sides as partisan politics poisoned efforts to get at the truth. Gormley is masterful at building the high drama of stranger-than-fiction political skulduggery and nuttiness with a cast of fascinating characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)