Book Description
The greatest threat to the future of the office of the
American Presidency may turn on whether William Jefferson
Clinton told a lie, under oath, and then
tried--unsuccessfully--to keep secret his sexual relationship
with a twenty-one year old White House intern. The media's
feeding frenzy and the public's voyeuristic prurience have
been fueled by almost daily disclosures about this affair,
making The Starr Report itself an instant #1 National
Bestseller. Yet all of this obscures the very real matters of
state that lie at the heart of the Starr investigation.
In Sexual McCarthyism, best-selling author Alan M.
Dershowitz addresses the key issues at stake--issues that
transcend the titillating daily headlines--and what their
long-term importance and effects my be. Among the many
important questions he raises and then answers are these:
Why the President's private life actually is the business
of the American people.
Why the independent counsel law is a necessary evil, but
why the appointment of Kenneth Starr was improper.
Why the Supreme Court was right in requiring the President
to submit to the Paula Jones lawsuit.
Why Kenneth Starr's leaking of testimony and evidence is
at least as serious an obstruction of justice as anything
alleged against the President.
What the lasting constitutional, historical, and political
legacy of this case is likely to be.
Long after the buzz and sizzle of "Monica-Gate"
has subsided, readers will still be looking to Sexual
McCarthyism as a substantive, clear, and definitive analysis
of the underlying importance of one of the most serious, yet
entirely avoidable, developments in modern American
Presidential politics.
About the Author
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of
Law at Harvard Law School and is one of the country's most
prominent legal scholars. He is the best-selling author of
numerous books including Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal
Justice System and the O. J. Simpson Case; Chutspah; Reversal
of Fortune; The Abuse Excuse; and The Vanishing American.
