Bill Clinton goes to jail over Lewinsky scandal. How well does Al Gore do?

With this, Bill Clinton is remove from office, and is sent to jail. Al Gore becomes the 43nd President of the United States. How well does he do? Would he be able to reelection over Bush, or whoever wins the republican nomination for 2000?
 
I don't see Clinton going to jail in the event that the house impeaches him AND the Senate votes to convict him. He'd have to pay a ton of fees and lose his law license like OTL (at least I think that's what happened OTL), but that's about it. As for Gore, I don't see 1999 and 2000 faring any differently economically or internationally than OTL. Gore would still go into Kosovo, even if Tony Blair had to drag him into it the way Blair dragged Clinton into it OTL. As for 2000, President Gore would have the advantage of incumbency, given how close the 2000 election was OTL, Gore could easily pull it off. Gerald Ford had to run on much worse (Watergate, the Nixon Pardon, the '73-'75 recession, the Reagan Primary Challenge) in 1976 and damn near beat Jimmy Carter, I don't see why Gore would lose to Bush or any other GOP nominee TTL.
 

EMTSATX

Banned
I honestly do not see Bill Clinton going to jail. If Nixon didn't go Clinton sure was not. I'm not sure how you even get him convicted in the Senate. Let us pretend for a moment people cared about a sex act. I *think* the best chance was a single charge of lying to a Federal Grand Jury. Perhaps, he lies about additional things that are more substantial and there is a conviction in the Senate. Nothing says that his punishment is removal from office. I still think at worst he is censured. But for your POD - somehow the Senate says yes, lying to a Federal GJ is bad enough to warrant conviction and removal of office.

Well, he'll be pardoned before he walks out of the West Wing by President Gore. Was Gore disgusted by Clinton's behavior? He sure acted like it (although, his later actions kind of make me doubt it.) But, if he wanted to have a future he would pardon him. Billary would then fly to New York and we would get to hear about the vast right wing conspiracy for the next 20 years. Bob Woodward goes ballistic.

Gore has to select a VP who is very competent and boring as hell. Oh, it wouldn't hurt if they were thinking about running in a primary or two in a Couple of years. Maybe Dick Gephardt or Bayh. Someone who can be confirmed so a member of Congress would be good.

Almost nothing gets done at any level. The election starts immediately. Gore can get nothing done on a Domestic front and if things our IIRC nothing foreign policy wise happens.

If Bush is the nominee still (and I'm not sure he is, but sticking with the OP) I think he picks like someone like Ashcroft to run with ( former Minister, moral etc...) You have a different 2000 race. The Nation is torn apart you have a POTUS who has been removed from office. You are going to have a lot of fatigue with the Democrats and a longing to return to a "kinder, gentler nation". You also see a bunch of very pissed off people who think that their vote was stolen and their President was stolen from them because a 22 year old woman and the President did a consensual sex act and he lied about it.

I think Gore most likely wins. People just would not care what Clinton did and would be puzzled why he was removed.

Please do not think I am a Clinton apologist. Heck, I voted for W. I think lying to a Federal Grand Jury is a huge deal and if you or I did it we would go to jail. But removing a POTUS over a BJ? Not so much. It's not like people did not know what they were getting with " slick Willie" they just didn't care

Edit - nijaed..
 
Gingrich was jealous duh.

Because he wasn't invited? :p

That said, Clinton didn't do anything that was illegal, so I don't see how getting him into jail for it is possible ... It could well be said that it was immoral, but morality and legality doesn't have much, if anything, to do with each other directly, even if there is a number of cases where they overlap (and a number of cases where they don't
 
In the unlikely event Clinton ends up in jail over it... either Gore loses forty-nine states because Clinton must've fucked up so hilariously bad, or the public is so much more sympathetic to Clinton that they vote for Gore in troves.
 

Minty_Fresh

Banned
Why would he go to jail over a blowjob? WTF?
Perjury is indeed a crime. Adultery is a crime with a 10 dollar fine in most states for divorce court reasons.

But sexual assault, if it was alleged, would do the trick. Perjury may have been an impeachable offense, although the interpretations of "High crimes and misdemeanors" largely relied on partisan persuasion, but I doubt it would have come to that. The Senate was not going to let Clinton be impeached. The House only did so because Gingrich made sure there was a heavy whip for the vote. Many GOP congressmen were indeed very moralistic and would have voted that way anyways, and many were not and would not have, but at that time, there were serious penalties for going against party leadership and serious incentives for staying in line. The Senate GOP saw it as a national embarassment, the House GOP saw it as a chance to nail Clinton once and for all for his scandals.
 
It means that the Republicans will bang the morality drum all the harder (phrasing),
leading to howls of mirth from the Democrats whenever a Republican gets caught with
his pants down. Kinda like the Tories with that Back to Basics nonsense.
 
If William Jefferson Clinton is indicted for Perjury ( in this case it would be lying to Federal officials and a Grand Jury) then the Democrats in the Senate might have to vote to impeach, President Clinton would be facing a legal trial and if the Democrats were to stand any chance of winning in 2000 Clinton had to go. As for Pardoning him President Gore could do that but there was bound to be a back lash against Gore when he ran as there was with Ford when he ran.
 

Minty_Fresh

Banned
It means that the Republicans will bang the morality drum all the harder (phrasing),
leading to howls of mirth from the Democrats whenever a Republican gets caught with
his pants down. Kinda like the Tories with that Back to Basics nonsense.
Obviously, but keep in mind that OTL, there was a heavily moralistic urge in the GOP base around this time. The late 90s saw quite a few cultural changes that led to serious backlash from people who weren't comfortable about it.

The 2000 primary saw this exemplified with Bush rallying Born Again Christian support.

The only reason the party didn't go harder on this was because they knew it would be grossly hypocritical and unpopular to do so.
 
If William Jefferson Clinton is indicted for Perjury ( in this case it would be lying to Federal officials and a Grand Jury) then the Democrats in the Senate might have to vote to impeach, President Clinton would be facing a legal trial and if the Democrats were to stand any chance of winning in 2000 Clinton had to go. As for Pardoning him President Gore could do that but there was bound to be a back lash against Gore when he ran as there was with Ford when he ran.

Right, but Watergate was a scandal. The Lewinsky affair was practically nothing. I'm sure plenty of presidents had affairs. FDR did, JFK did, etc. It's not going to happen. The public saw it as a joke, and if the Republicans under Gingrich somehow are able to do this, they'll lose SO much support, it won't even be funny.
 

Deleted member 96212

Right, but Watergate was a scandal. The Lewinsky affair was practically nothing. I'm sure plenty of presidents had affairs. FDR did, JFK did, etc. It's not going to happen. The public saw it as a joke, and if the Republicans under Gingrich somehow are able to do this, they'll lose SO much support, it won't even be funny.

These are the kinds of people who tried to shut down the government over Obamacare and won big in the midterms the year after that. They would not lose support over this.
 
Lying to a federal official is a felony. Lying to a Grand Jury is Perjury and under the Federal code it is a felony. That is the crime that he is guilty of. Perhaps if he had not lied to either Federal officials or the Grand Jury then the Public might not have cared. It is the fact that this was a cover up that made this the bigger problem. My Point is that if the President had be indicted for a criminal act that would have changed the votes in the Senate and he would have been removed from office.
 
The other way for it to actually be a scandal would be if instead of Lewinsky it was an intern who was marginally under 18.

Or, as was used as a POD here once, have it be more than a blowjob and Lewinsky get pregnant.

The former is very illegal, and the second isnt illegal but is scandalous. Especially if she has an abortion.
 
The other way for it to actually be a scandal would be if instead of Lewinsky it was an intern who was marginally under 18.

Or, as was used as a POD here once, have it be more than a blowjob and Lewinsky get pregnant.

The former is very illegal, and the second isnt illegal but is scandalous. Especially if she has an abortion.

The former is actually the main way you see this happen. Also if there was more than rumormongering that it wasn't consensual.

Oh, and neither case gets him a pardon.
 
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The other way for it to actually be a scandal would be if instead of Lewinsky it was an intern who was marginally under 18.

Or, as was used as a POD here once, have it be more than a blowjob and Lewinsky get pregnant.

The former is very illegal, and the second isnt illegal but is scandalous. Especially if she has an abortion.

The age of consent in Washington DC is 16 so the former isn't technically illegal but would be very scandalous due to culture. However, I doubt if anyone under 18 could even be a Presidential intern.
 
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