Clinton not the first scandalous prez

According to Cabrini's history professors, the presidency has survived more serious scandals and affairs.

by Laura Casamento editor in chief

President Bill Clinton is not the first president to get caught up in a scandal, and chances are be will not be the last.

According to two of Cabrini's history professors, there are many scandals, whether sexual or not, that have occurred during a person's presidency.

"There have always been scandals," Dr. Jolyon Girard said. "[Thomas] Jefferson had a black mistress. [George] Washington may have lied about business deals that be made while he was at Valley Forge.

''The only difference was that people did not know about these things while these presidents were in office," he said.

Girard said that many American presidents have had questionable private lives. However, ''the details of their private lives usually never became known until after their deaths," he said

Clinton is not the first president to have an affair during his presidency, Girard said.

"Warren G. Harding had a variety of affairs, one of which being with an adolescent girl," Girard said. "[Franklin Roosevelt] had an affair for a very long time with a woman named Lucy who was his wife's social secretary. In fact, she was with him when he died."

The most notorious offender, according to Girard, was John F. Kennedy.

"Kennedy had many, many affairs throughout his presidency," Girard said. "Secret Service agents actually secured Marilyn Monroe's house dwing their affair so that no one would find out.

"Kennedy also had an affair with a woman who was an East German spy," be said. ''The Secret Service agents had to tell him to stop so that the story would not be broken in the newspapers."

Girard said that many presidents, however, do not have affairs while in office. "Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge-this is • not something that everybody does."

''Richard Nixon-who everyone always saw as this vicious campaigner-knew about Kennedy's affairs, but he did not use them against him. That election was decided by the smallest margin, but imagine how it would have turned out had he disclosed that information:'

History professor Dr. James Hedtke has noticed a pattern among presidents who participate in scandals while in office.

"Two-term presidents, like Clinton, are very likely to abuse their power;' he said.

The 22nd Amendment, which limits a president's time in office to two terms, or eight years, may lead to this abuse of power.

"After [Roosevelt],we caused the tyrannical behavior that we had tried to prevent," Hedtke said. "A second term leads to an arrogance of power by the president, which leads to a crisis. The president is then made to lookvery bad in the press."

Hedtke said that this is the first time that the arrogance has manifested itself in a sexual scandal.

"Usually, the pattern occurs in different ways," he said. ''The IranContra scandal, for example, occurred while Reagan was serving his second term."

Clinton, who is trying to focus the media's attention on the problems in