Referring to media criticism of Nussbaum's advice, the President wrote "there would have no investigation, subpoenas, or grand jury if I had listened to him and refused to give into the demands for an independent counsel to 'clear the air.' Bernie's real offense was that he thought I should abide by the rule of law and accepted standards of propriety, rather than the constantly shifting standards of the Whitewater media, which were designed to produce the very results they professed to deplore." Life, p. 587.