The White House may be quietly hoping that a federal government shutdown slams the political prospects of the Republican Party like it did during the last crisis in 1995, but something else happened at the start of that shutdown that nearly destroyed the presidency: the sordid Oval Office sex affair between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton began.

As that shutdown began November 14th after Clinton and Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich stopped negotiating, the White House was forced to slash its staff of 430 to a skeleton crew of 90, with unpaid interns helping out too.