Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica Term Paper

Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica lewinsky - Term Paper Example The impeachment of the former president came as a result of the scandal and a law suit that was filled by Paula Jones (Neal, 2005:135). This served as the second impeachment of a president in power in the United States of America after the impeachment of the former president Andrew Johnson in the year 1868 (Neal, 2005:136). When the impeachment proceedings were brought forward against the president in 1998 several issues were raised against the governmental processes. While some scholars took the matter lightly, others argued that sexual conduct is a serious offense and is adequate to remove an elected president from the office. Those in support of the president argued that president just like any citizen of the United States have the right to privacy. They also stated that many other former presidents like John F. Kennedy, Roosevelt as well as Warren G. Harding had been linked to extensive extramarital sexual activity but their sexual conduct was not made available to the public. As observed by Chapman (2010: 99), the European observers were surprised that Americans engaged in impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton because he lied about his sexual conduct. In their argument, they stated that just like any citizen of America would avoid the truth about his sexual fidelity and so Bill Clinton will. In the impeachment case against Clinton, separation of power prevailed through the proceedings. In this context, the act of not telling the truth with respect to the sexual misconduct does not constitute enough evidences necessary for impeachable offenses as defined by the constitution of the country as â€Å"high crimes and misdemeanors† (Chapman, 2010:99). In this argument therefore, the impeachment against the president seemed partisan and was seen as an attempt by the legislature to extend its powers and responsibility past the boundary. According to Chapman (2010:100), the charges that the former president faced were not worth impeachment because the y did not grow from the failure of the president with regard to the state functions. However, the failure was from his personal life which is different from his public and political life. These differences in arguments divided the legislature and there was a clear boundary in terms of opinions between the republicans and the democrats. The question of what could constitute impeachment against a president had dominated the list of issues during Clinton’s administration. However, the fact that congress was dominated by the Republicans presented a threat to the former president since the issue had taken political angle dividing the house into pro and against impeachment camps. It is this time that the congress dominated by Republicans appointed a counsel to investigate the financial backgrounds of the president (Kogan & Kelso, 2009: 308). The counsel which was headed by Kenneth Starr was given further responsibilities to investigate the scandal surrounding the former president a nd the white house intern, Monica Lewinsky. In close analysis of the unfolding events, it is clear that the push for the investigations and the impeachment of the former president was more political than legal. This is because the political enemies took the opportunity finish him politically. The trouble began when it became apparent that the intern, Monica had told

The Policy Process, Part II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Policy Process, Part II - Essay Example Policy evaluation can be limited to the long term care policy to give a vivid explanation and meaning of policy evaluation. First is the assessment or judgment of quality, program effectiveness and impact of the policy. As a health care policy, the best judges on the quality of the program would be healthcare recipients. For this reason, an effective quality evaluation can be undertaken by implementing a quality assurance system. Preferably, the quality assurance system should e external; meaning that the assessment should be done by stakeholders outside the policy implementation process. A suitable example will be patients. In a pilot survey research, patients who receive treatment under the long-term care policy can be made to give their impression on the quality of the policy. Data collected in this manner can be analyzed to give policy makers a fair idea of the quality of the policy. On goal attainment evaluation, this can be left with the policy makers themselves as they are the goal setters. By definition of the strategic plan that was used in drafting the policy, policy makers should be in a policy to tell whether or not the policy has reached its goal. This assessment should, however, be done based on the timelines set for the policy. ... Data collected in this manner can be analyzed to give policy makers a fair idea of the quality of the policy. On goal attainment evaluation, this can be left with the policy makers themselves as they are the goal setters. By definition of the strategic plan that was used in drafting the policy, policy makers should be in a policy to tell whether or not the policy has reached its goal. This assessment should however be done based on the timelines set for the policy. For example if it was stated that one million people must join the policy by the end of the first year, it will be easier determining if this goal has been achieved because of the timeline and quantitative measure. Finally, assessment of the cost can be done by specially employed finance experts and consultants. The consultants will judge the cost effectiveness of the policy based on the strategic plan on cost used in drawing the policy. Analysis stage The policy analysis stage is synonymous to the evaluation stage but dif ferent in one specific way. Whereas the evaluation has the strategic plan as its focus and therefore judges only on the success of the policy, the analysis takes a step further to look into the failure of the policy as well. In the policy analysis therefore, the strategic plan is not the basis for judgment but the environmental outcome – that is how best it has influenced the world around the policy or how worse it has devastated the world around the policy. In this regard, the IEA Training Manual Module 5 (2011) explains that the policy analysis â€Å"provides baseline information, points out major linkages between decisions and environmental outcomes, and provides a starting point for consideration of more sustainable policy options.† An outstanding concept at the analysis stage