1998 Work Against President Clinton's Impeachment
In the late 1990s, Lux joined People For the American Way, a major liberal organization working on constitutional issues and advancing the liberal movement. Once the name Monica Lewinsky began to appear above the fold on every newspaper in the country, he was put right in the middle of the ensuing political battle. He has said that he was "appalled" at what the President had done, but nevertheless also thought the impeachment campaign the Republicans began to wage against the President was a mockery of the Constitution. He and his colleagues at PFAW decided that given their vested interest in both combating the right and protecting the Constitution, they were the perfect organization to step into the middle of the issue.
Lux, along with PFAW and a handful of "Clintonites" such as James Carville, believed it to be politically disadvantageous to ignore the issue, and instead launched an ad campaign with the theme "It's time to move on". These ads were met with hostility from top Democratic Party leaders and consultants. Many of them began to publicly comment on the ads, saying that they were detrimental to the party as a whole, and that supporters should not be donating to PFAW.
Lux and PFAW soon partnered with Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, whose similar internet petition campaign was gaining ground quickly. PFAW along with a group that would become MoveOn.org worked to both rally grassroots groups around the cause and to deliver 500,000 signatures to members of Congress. The campaign was hailed by many as one of the key moments in the efforts to defeat impeachment of the President.
Read more about this topic: Mike Lux
Famous quotes containing the words work, president and/or clinton:
“It seemed pathetic and terrible to me and it still does, that men and women work eight hours a day at jobs that bring them no joy, no reward save a few dollars.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Throughout the 1980’s, we did hear too much about individual gain and the ethos of selfishness and greed. We did not hear enough about how to be a good member of a community, to define the common good and to repair the social contract. And we also found that while prosperity does not trickle down from the most powerful to the rest of us, all too often indifference and even intolerance do.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton (b. 1947)