Travelgate. (Metaphors in Action).

NOW THAT THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY is over, we are starting to get some closure on the many charges and allegations that were directed against the President and the First Lady, also known as "Bill and Hillary." The Clinton '90s were a time of extraordinary vitriol in politics. An unending barrage of accusations against the Clintons culminated in "Monicagate," and an actual impeachment of the President by Congress. However, much of the sound and fury was within the Washington beltway and the major media -- the public did not get on board. Public opinion polls refused to support removing Clinton from office, and Congress did not convict him.

A series of metaphors played an important role in the partisan attacks on the Clintons -- the "--gate" metaphors referring back to the Watergate scandal. In a study of Watergate metaphors, I found 17 different "--gates" directed at the Clintons. The fact that Watergate was perpetrated by a Republican president did not curb the enthusiasm of the Republican "--gate" coiners.

The "--gate" metaphors had many advantages. They functioned well in an era of sound bite politics, immediately associating the Clintons with an odor of political scandal. The public understood the scenario of Watergate, the metaphors implied that this scenario was being repeated in the various incidents in the 1990s. There were depositions, revelations, Congressional hearings, accusations of cover-ups. There were special prosecutors, with the constant threat of indictments. The real Watergate scandal had, in fact, led to the resignation of President Nixon. The anti-Clinton forces hoped to force Clinton out of office also.

The most widely used "--gate" metaphor of the 1990s was, according to my study, "Travelgate." Early in the Clinton administration, in May, 1993, the entire staff of the White House travel office was fired. There was an immediate media storm of criticism, and the "Travelgate" metaphor was born. A Clinton campaign contributor had complained about the travel office's refusal to consider his charter airplane company for government business. It looked like old-style political cronyism of the sort Clinton had campaigned against. Bill Clinton defended his actions by claiming that there were financial improprieties in the office, and called in the FBI to investigate. This produced more criticism -- this time of misusing the FBI, or "FBIgate" (although this metaphor was not widely used). Congressional investigations and an independent counsel looked into the matter, along with another supposed scandal, the Whitewater affair, not surprisingly dubbed "Whitewatergate."

The seven former travel office employees were investigated, and there was only enough evidence to indict the former director for mismanagement of funds. He was acquitted at his trial in 1995. However, in early 1996 the "Travelgate" drama took another twist, when the investigators obtained a 1993 memo which indicated that Hillary Clinton had pressured an aide to proceed with the firings. Hillary had denied any such level of involvement to earlier investigators.

Suddenly "Travelgate" was back on the front burner, and Hillary Clinton was at the center of it. Again, "Travelgate" was mixed up with "Whitewatergate" and the suicide of former Clinton aide Vince Foster. Indictments were promised by right-wing critics. But none came. "Travelgate" charges continued through Hillary's campaign for New York's Senate seat. Three weeks before the 2000 election, independent counsel Robert Ray released his final report. He found insufficient evidence to bring charges for perjury or obstruction of justice against Hillary. However, he wrote that her claim to have had little involvement was "factually false" (Lewis, 2000). Even in exonerating Hillary, the investigation left a negative impression. "Travel-gate Report Raps Hil" headlined the New York Daily News (Oct. 19, 2000, p.6).

And the old "Travelgate" critic, William Safire of the New York limes refused to back down. In October 2000 Safire wrote a column entitled "Hillary the habitual prevaricator: Six years later, she clings to fiction that she was blameless in Travelgate." Safire wrote, "... the evidence that she has been lying all along is damning" (Oct. 24, 2000, p.A15).

Some newspapers reflected more of the national mood, however. "'Trayelgate' investigation proves to be a waste of time" editorialized New York Newsday (Oct. 20, 2000, p.A46). The editorial noted: "The closest thing to a crime here is that Washington spent so much time and venom probing something so inconsequential .... This report should never have been dumped on the public three weeks before New York voters decide whether to elect Clinton to the Senate." Hillary Clinton did win the Senate election, and the Clintons were also cleared of all wrongdoing in "Whitewatergate." Seven years of sound and fury had lead to very little of substance, but had produced constant turmoil, pain, and confusion in political life.

We are provided an interesting look inside the Clinton attack machine by a former insider, David Brock, in his book Blinded by the Right (2002). Brock makes it clear that there was a well-funded and coordinated effort by extreme right-wing foundations, think tanks, publications, and media personalities to remove Clinton from office. Brock served this movement by writing, among other things, attacks on Anita Hill in defense of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. He also broke the "Troopergate" stories which alleged that Arkansas State Troopers had been involved in transporting women for then-governor Clinton.

Brock writes:

After the Cold War ... conservative leaders opted for a new political tack, defining themselves against the "moral decay" of the 1960s. The plan was hatched by the GOP political leadership during the 1992 presidential campaign and spread through the right-wing media. The Clintons were made into metaphors for all the social changes of the past thirty years that the rightwing base in the country hated. Clinton was charged with having an affair with smoking marijuana; and with dodging the Vietnam draft .... The country was being conditioned to see an invention made up entirely by the Republican right: "Bill" and "Hillary" Clinton (pp.127-128).

The role of Watergate metaphors in this campaign against the Clintons was surely important. The metaphors affixed the stigma of Watergate to minor flaps like the travel office firings. The metaphors played well in sound bites. And the metaphors provided a scenario, an implication of things to come. Just as in Watergate, an independent prosecutor was investigating "Travelgate." Just as in Watergate, there were charges of crimes and cover-ups. And, just as in Watergate, the threat of impeachment loomed at the end of the scenario.

The "interactive" theory of metaphor says that each metaphor has a "tenor," (or "topic") which is the underlying situation referred to; and a "vehicle" or the actual word or phrase used (Richards, 1936). The effect of the metaphor comes from the interaction between the tenor and the vehicle. In "Travelgate," the tenor is the Watergate scandal. The vehicle is the term "travelgate," referring to the White House Travel Office firings. As I have pointed Out, the interaction between these terms casts aspersions of deep wrongdoing. But it also exerts a kind of rhetorical pressure toward the removal of a president, because of the nature of the Watergate scenario. This is just what the Clinton attack machine had in mind, with their 17 anti-Clinton "--gates." In fact, we can see the actual impeachment of Clinton as the fulfillment of this implied Watergate scenario, which had been repeated so many times through the 1990s.

The metaphors and their right-wing coiners did not succeed in removing Bill or stopping Hillary. However, they have created a haze of suspicion around the Clintons, which is difficult to penetrate. We may never know the full truth about "Troopergate," "Travelgate," "Paulagate," "Monicagate," "Filegate," "Indogate," "Fostergate," "Chinagate," "Nannygate," "Donorgate," and the other sleaze stories of the Clinton years.

And meanwhile, the "Travelgate" metaphor lives on ... in France. In 2001, French President Jacques Chirac found himself answering charges of using money from illegal kickbacks to pay cash for lavish trips around the world -- the "Travelgate Scandal" (Chirac Denies Charges, Los Angeles Times 2001).

REFERENCES

Brock, D. (2002). Blinded by The Right. New York: Crown.

"Chirac Denies Charges in Travelgate Scandal." (2001, July 15). Los Angeles Times, p.A4.

Goldschlag, W., & Siegel, J. (2000, October 19). "Travelgate Report Raps Hil." Daily News, p.6.

Lewis, N. (2000, October 22). "Farewell, Travelgate." New York Times, Sec. 4, p.2.

Richards, I. A. (1936). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.

Safire, W. (2000, October 24). "Hillary the Habitual Prevaricator." New York Times, p.A15.

"'Travelgate' Investigation Proves to be a Waste of Time." (2000, October 20). New York Newsday, p. A 46.

RAYMOND GOZZI, JR. *

* Dr. Raymond Gozzi, Jr., is Associate Professor in the TV-Radio Department at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY. His most recent book, The Power of Metaphor in the Age of Electronic Media, Hampton Press (1999), is available from ISGS.