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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but too long
Comment: I started out enjoying this book. While not denying a modest democratic slant (an opinion that is at
least borne out by the facts), it's still a very well-balanced account of all the various Clinton
"scandals" and the legal wrangling that surrounded them. The characters involved in the whole
episode are well-presented and the story well-told. There certainly is a comic element, as most of
the characters - up to and including the President - are utterly hopeless in one way or another and
Toobin rather mercilessly runs them down for it.

That said, I just simply lost steam around page
200. The problem is just that the entire story is so utterly banal and sordid. Most of Clinton's
adversaries are utterly beyond social redemption. There are relatively few meaningful conclusions
that take more than a few incidents and a couple pages to state (one interesting episode is a
forshadowing of the Supreme Court's involvement in the 2000 elections, the appellate court that
ruled on whether or not a sitting President could be sued split along party lines - with the
Republicans voting for and Democrats against, in direct opposition to their traditional positions).
After reading some 25 pages of descriptions of Linda Tripp and her taping of the remarkably hopeless
Monica Lewinsky, one starts to lose their stomach for that sort of thing.

At any rate, this is an
important episode which deserves an honest, straightforward treatment. The only real flaw in this
book is that it really is about twice as long as it should be. Still, if you can deal with that, it
is recommended.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Toobin, Your Bias is Showing
Comment: I absolutely loved Jeffrey Toobin's O. J. Book, The Run of His Life, so I was really looking forward
to his taking on the Clinton Scandal(s). Unfortunately, Toobin has taken his cue from Paul Begala,
James Carville, and their ilk and decided to take on Ken Starr instead. The book is rich in detail
and undeniably entertaining, but Toobin just doesn't seem to get the magnitude of the President,
having sworn to defend and uphold the constitution of the United States, swearing falsely before a
Grand Jury. In addition, the single most important fact of this whole ordeal is completely absent:
that is, the fact that any man of honor would have resigned his office in the wake of such
scandalous behavior.

Customer Rating:
Summary: At last, an explanation for the common people
Comment:

Throughout Whitewater/Travelgate/Paula Jones and the ensuing Monica Lewinsky mess, I was
overwhelmed by the amount of information, the number of players and the implications they all had
for our government.

Jeffery Toobin took this jumbled up mess and made sense of it and put into a
readable form. And, I must add, he did it with little bias...the only time his feelings are known
is when Ken Starr and his 'elves' use their positions as bully pulpits.

After reading A VAST
CONSPIRACY, I believe I understand how deeply the Republicans hated Bill Clinton and to what lenghts
they would go to oust him from office.

I hope it was worth it to them.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive account of a modern day tragedy
Comment: Jeffrey Toobin takes the public ordeal that was the Lewinsky affair and weaves it into a first rate
political thriller. He never takes sides, never politicizes, and reserves his judgment in everything
except the introduction. I couldn't help reading this and comparing the entire affair,
investigation, and impeachment to a Shakespearean tragedy. If it wasn't for a series of bad
judgments, a few nefarious villains (on both sides), and just dumb luck this entire story would
never had occupied a year of our lives. Without question, there isn't a more comprehensive and
exciting take on this series of events. You will want the hardcover edition to stick on the shelf
and read again and again.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Cuts through the sleaze straight to the heart of the matter
Comment: This is probably the most excellent book written about this sordid period in American public
life.

Toobin works his book around two theses:

1. Never before had the judicial system been
used on such grand scale to pursue political goals.

2. No other major political controversy in
American history produced as few heroes as this crisis.

Like a clinical pathologist Toobin disects
all the legal cases and arguments and comes to the simple conclusion, which was shared by the
American people and indeed by many others world wide, that there was not much to each of the three
cases.

The Whitewater case died slowly; it was never proven that the Clintons had done anything
wrong in losing their $ 40.000

The Paula Jones case was viewed at what it was; a lady with quite a
sexual history who goes up to a hotel room to meet a man with quite a sexual history. Whatever
happened in that room was probably sleazy but did not make up much of a case.

The Lewinsky matter
was all about a consual sexual encounter between two adults. Again, from the President's side sleazy
and from a moral point probably inpardonnable but a crime?

The real thing was that Clinton lied
about that...but again what do you expect from a familyman to do. Isn't this what, unfortunately
happens in many other marriages as well.

Did Clinton commit perjury? Legal experts have been
fighting about this and it is not clear. Most probably they should not have asked him the question
in the first place.

The use of the judicial system to pusue political goals is painfully
described. Time and again cases that are nearly dead are refuelled. Not by a "vast right wing
conspiricy" but by all sort of individuals and groups with a grudge against Clinton's politics. The
five(!) investigations into the death of Vince Forster are a disgrace and makes one really worried (
what has this done to his widow and kids?).

All people, Clinton to start with, appear as being in
the game not for the good of the country but for their own miserable selfish needs, be them
financial, career or whatever. A notable exception is Justice Wright who deserves a statue for her
behavior.

An important question, of course, is whether a man like Clinton as President can
provide the country with the moral leadership which is expected of that high office. It is important
to realize however that whilst the people knew most of the facts of the scandals they have given him
a mandate with his re-election. That should have stopped all these cases and investigations.

Mind
you, I think Clinton has not been a good President; the economy has bloomed, that is true but also
not his doing and I will always remember him for his total absence of moral leadership. But... this
alone is no basis whatsoever for impeachment.

Toobin proves his two theses meticulously and
deserves therefore great credit; he brought the whole range of scandals back to what it was, a
number of very questionnable characters out on personal gain.

Some reviewers say that the American
People are the great winners with their steadfast viewing of all these allegations as rather
inconsequential and I wholeheartedly agree.

After reading this book we perhaps now should stop
reading all the trash which is still published about this period as a silent protest against
everyone that still tries to use the scandals to pursue their own goals.