While grand jury investigations are supposedly secret and informal, the bourgeoisie has no qualms about abandoning this procedure "in the interests of justice." In fact, a grand jury's primary function is inquisitorial and accusatorial, serving as a fishing expedition or political witch-hunt by the wealthy rulers of working-class fighters or others challenging bourgeois prerogatives. In recent months, for example, supporters of Puerto Rican independence in Chicago have been called before a grand jury to testify about alleged terrorist activities - a move aimed at intimidating them and possibly framing them on trumped up charges.
Clinton's lechery and offensive behavior notwithstanding, working people have no interest in the massive release of pornographic material heaped upon them by Kenneth Starr and his men. The howls for Clinton's impeachment, built around another instance of the pornographication of bourgeois politics, mainly benefit rightist figures like Patrick Buchanan who seek a broader hearing by denouncing the "immoral and squalid conduct" of the "social and media elite."
Working people need to remember that decrying the smut and degeneracy of the ruling elite became the stock-in-trade of Hitler's Nazis in the 1920s on their road to power.
The demagogy by Buchanan and Co. is aimed at drawing working people into the pit of the politics of resentment and salacious envy. It serves to cover up the system of class rule that can survive only through obfuscating reality and denying democratic rights to the toilers. What the working class needs is not exposés of bourgeois politicians and their personal weaknesses. Class-conscious workers need to be able to explain why the working class has no common interests with the class these bourgeois politicians speak for - from Buchanan to Gingrich to Clinton to Maxine Waters. We need to spotlight every abuse of power by them, to advance a class understanding of politics, and to help our class forge an independent political organization that can lead the fight for a social and political program to advance the interests of the oppressed and exploited.