CNN - Review: 'A Vast Conspiracy'

(CNN) -- "Oh, God," the reader might moan upon glancing at "A Vast Conspiracy" by Jeffrey Toobin. "Haven't we heard enough about Monica?" But this book about the events that led to the impeachment of President Clinton goes far beyond dredging up the Lewinsky scandal. Toobin digs deeper, trying to determine why a dalliance with a former intern led to a constitutional showdown between the president, the courts and Congress.

This is territory Toobin should know well. His first job was with Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-contra independent counsel, and his first trip to court was in the case of the United States vs. Oliver North. Now a writer for "The New Yorker," Toobin brings a former prosecutor's perspective to the case against Bill Clinton.

The title of the book comes from Hillary Rodham Clinton's famous complaint that the Lewinsky scandal was engineered by "a vast right-wing conspiracy." Toobin concludes that the First Lady was right, but for the wrong reason. As he weaves together the threads of scandal --Whitewater, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky -- he traces their beginnings to the committed political enemies of the president. They are far-flung, but their numbers are anything but vast. And they are less a conspiracy than a loose confederation of like-minded, zealous operators.

In another sense, however, Toobin argues that Mrs. Clinton was onto something. He identifies a different conspiracy. It's a concentrated attempt by the U.S. legal system to overtake the political system. Its roots are in the Civil Rights movement, which turned to the courts for remedies recalcitrant legislators -- state and federal -- refused to provide. Its successes spurred similar efforts by feminists. Now, politically conservative forces are using the same tactics to achieve their ends. In that sense, he says, "a vast right-wing conspiracy" did set its sight on crippling the Clinton presidency.

The evidence Toobin marshals to support his argument is persuasive. Even before the 1992 general election, one of Clinton's fiercest political foes was flogging the Whitewater story for all it was worth. The same man served as a midwife for the story of Arkansas state troopers who claimed they had facilitated Clinton's extramarital activities while he was governor. And he was an early player in the Paula Jones lawsuit against the president, which led inextricably to Monica Lewinsky. In each case, his efforts to disgrace and depose Clinton eventually ended up in court.

Despite its weighty premise, "A Vast Conspiracy" is immensely readable. Toobin casts a clear and irreverent eye on the people involved. None escapes unscathed, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. But his most pointed barbs are aimed at a woman who insinuated herself into the heart of the story.

"Lucianne Goldberg," he writes, "seemed to emerge from a virtual space somewhere between the Republican National Convention and the bar scene in 'Star Wars.' She banked a lifetime of obsessions -- about sex, gossip, secret tape recordings, tell-all books and conservative politics -- as if in preparation for her moment in this case. She acted throughout with a kind of joyous malice, pretending at every moment to be outraged by one thing or another (usually the behavior of Bill Clinton), but in truth she was thrilled to be, finally, at the center of the action ... Lucianne Goldberg reflected the new face of American politics -- personal, petty and mean."

Drawing from court documents, news accounts and his own reporting, Toobin manages to make the whole of the Clinton scandal beat comprehensible. He shows a mastery of both the political and legal aspects of the story, and an appreciation for its ironies. He notes, for example, that the House Judiciary Committee staff wrote the definitive history of the impeachment process during the Watergate investigation. "Among its authors had been a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham, who joined the committee staff shortly after her graduation from Yale Law School. Like many liberal lawyers of her day, Rodham had helped engineer the legal system's takeover of the political world. Now she and her husband were living with the consequences."

While Toobin finds Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky and his dissembling at his deposition in the Jones lawsuit inexcusable, he plainly believes the actions of the president's political enemies were at least as unconscionable. He excoriates the Paula Jones legal team for its sleazy and perhaps unlawful tactics. He concludes that independent counsel Kenneth Starr was not only inept, but also motivated by politics and avarice. And his disdain for the impeachment case presented by the House of Representatives fairly drips off the page.

"A Vast Conspiracy" will no doubt infuriate people who hate Bill Clinton. And it will offer little solace to his admirers. It is not designed to do either. It is a case history of politics as practiced on the streets, in the courtrooms, in the Congress and on the airwaves of contemporary America. It raises important questions about what our government institutions are doing to each other, and to the rest of us.

L.D. Meagher is a senior writer at CNN Headline News. He has worked in broadcasting for 30 years.

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