Can lying endanger the state?

According to Kant, a lie undermines the foundations of the state, while a deceptive truth is acceptable. Two centuries later, with President Clinton, the same logic still seems to be at work in the Lewinsky affair.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton nearly had to resign over a statement about his private life. One might be tempted to think this is a remnant of Puritanism. Upon closer inspection, however, the matter may be more nuanced. It wasn’t because U.S. President Bill Clinton allegedly received oral sex from his intern, Monica Lewinsky, in the famous Oval Office that he was indicted, but because he allegedly lied to the American people. Under oath, he stated: «I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.»

Bob Inglis, a Republican congressman determined to have the president removed from office, has