The death of civil rights hero Vernon Jordan, who well merits most of the encomia he is receiving elsewhere, also brings to mind an episode that contradicts a longtime liberal myth about the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

The myth is that prurient, hypocritical Republicans “impeached Bill Clinton for sex.” Poppycock. They impeached him for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from attempts to cover up an abuse of power. The abuse of power being broadly investigated wasn’t merely Clinton’s sexual activities with intern Monica Lewinsky, but several aspects of misusing state power related to those activities. Vernon Jordan was central to one of those misuses of state power, even if, as he testified, he did not recognize the way his actions contributed to a legal impropriety.