Airing Clinton's Dirty Laundry

Where will the revelations about President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky end? A commentary by CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer.

During the 1976 presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter caused an uproar when he told Playboy magazine that on occasion, he had lust in his heart.

He stressed he had never acted on this impulse, but since the bible told him it was sinful, he said he regretted it.

Democrats cringed, Republicans hooted. I can still remember a one-time governor from the Old South bringing a crowd to its feet as he thundered "they say tell it all, but I don't believe I would have told that."

Well, it all died down and Carter went on to win the presidency, of course, but how quaint it all seems now. A little lust in the heart is pretty tame stuff in this summer of Monica Lewinsky.

Just the other day, when I called the CBS News desk to see
what was going on, a colleague I've known for years joked that she wasn't sure she knew me well enough to discuss what was on the front page of The New York Times -- an account of how the president's advisors were debating whether a certain kind of sex play qualified as sexual relations.

That's what has always set this story apart: it only gets worse. I have no idea what the president plans to tell the grand jury, or what, if anything, he intends to tell the rest of us, but whatever he says, let's hope it's enough to bring this story to some kind of conclusion, because frankly, I've heard about enough.

Written by Bob Schieffer