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You are here: Home / The Clinton Wars

The Clinton Wars

by John Cole|  May 28, 200311:51 am| 16 Comments

This post is in: General Stupidity

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Why is everyone picking on poor Sidney Blumenthal, who is clearly telling the truth in his new tome? I mean, everyone is either lying about him or questioning his integrity and honesty. The list of liars include:

Ronald Brownstein: Ultimately [Blumenthal] is too much the believer to be believed.”

John Giuffo: The last thing Clinton White House strategist Sidney Blumenthal’s groin-pull of a hagiography can be called is objective.

Michael Isikoff: Sid Blumenthal rearranges facts and besmirches the character of his fellow journalists. And he wonders why people dislike him.

Christopher Hitchens: In his new book Sidney Blumenthal presents a disconcertingly cynical yet naive account of the Clinton years

Joseph Lelyveld: Out of all this turmoil, high aspiration, low comedy, and misspent passion, a certified writer who had achieved a little distance and perspective might have been able to fashion a memorable book. His dual status as a courtier would hardly have been a disqualification. But any thought that a Duc de Saint-Simon might have been lurking in the Versailles of the Clinton White House is soon dispelled as one endures the vertiginous experience of reliving our last president’s operatic ups and downs through this massive volume.

Dick Morris: For those who haven

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16Comments

  1. 1.

    Terry

    May 28, 2003 at 1:11 pm

    A good synopsis to which you might add something from Bob Bartley’s long piece in today’s WSJ. His closing comments aren’t bad:

    “…the Clinton foreign-policy record, lobbing cruise missiles at empty targets after depradations by Saddam Hussein abd Osama bin Laden, shows the same fecklessness as displayed in his sex life and reaction to scandal. The lesson of his presidency is that character counts after all.

    “It counts in authors too.”

  2. 2.

    Barney Gumble

    May 28, 2003 at 3:15 pm

    You forgot Tucker Carlson:

    CARLSON: Well, it’s interesting, Sidney, because I asked you a fairly clear question about the perception that you, in fact, while pretending to be a journalist, were really doing the partisan bidding of Bill and Hillary Clinton. And you evaded it by going to Matt Drudge and your so-called enemies. But the fact is, people you worked with loathed you because they believe you sold them out for partisan political ends because you were essentially a throne sniffer. And you ignored the question.

    BLUMENTHAL: No, I answered it twice and said it was false. But you’ve evaded my question, Tucker, about Matt Drudge and whether or not you wrote a story looking into it.

    CARLSON: I had no role in that, as you know. You subpoenaed me I believe twice, or perhaps it was three times. Quite a low thing to do. Let’s not bring that up.

    BLUMENTHAL: But did you write a story for “The Weekly Standard”?

    CARLSON: Of course I didn’t. I think I told your attorneys this, but thanks for bringing it up on television.

    http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/26/cf.00.html

  3. 3.

    the talking dog

    May 28, 2003 at 3:17 pm

    What’s your point? That Bill Clinton had a man as loathsome as Sidney Blumenthal on his payroll demonstrates that Bill Clinton was, well, a loathsome man himself? Point taken– in fact, game, set, match. So?

    The current president employs men in similar functions and loathsomeness as old Sid, of course. But the current President’s private life foibles are not for all to see– just his public policy foibles.

    Clinton tried to destroy any woman who accused him of a sexual advance (with Sid’s help), and indeed, devoted his presidency largely to that.

    Bush’s (current) private life seems much cleaner than Clinton’s. Bush merely tries to label as traitors any person (or even country) that dare question, let alone disagree with, his policies.

    Both are loathsome positions, of course, but Bush’s position is far more loathsome and anathema to a free country.

    As to Blumenthal, I’m ultimately with Susan Estrich: the best thing the Clintons and their yes-men defenders like Blumenthal can do is disappear, and give some OTHER Democrat a chance.

  4. 4.

    John Cole

    May 28, 2003 at 4:15 pm

    My point is that he is a liar, a hack, and a cynical hatchet man, yet certain people seem to think he speaks the gospel truth.

    And if your best defense of Blumenthal is that you think there are people who do worse in the current administration, well- that says a lot.

  5. 5.

    Courtney

    May 28, 2003 at 4:43 pm

    talking dog-
    From Hitchens’ review:
    “If this meant anything, it meant that the difference between a donkey and an elephant was the difference between democracy and fascism, or between pluralism and absolutism. But just wait for the good people’s party [Democrats] to be caught doing something shady or vile; at once you will be told that it’s no worse than what the bad people’s party would do or has done.”

    Wow, looks like your argument has been made before. Nobody’s buying.

  6. 6.

    HH

    May 28, 2003 at 5:28 pm

    “Bush merely tries to label as traitors any person (or even country) that dare question, let alone disagree with, his policies.”

    Yes we all remember the many speeches where he went around screaming “traitor” at his enemies…

  7. 7.

    Matthew

    May 28, 2003 at 5:53 pm

    I seem to recall President Clinton, in insider’s accounts (Morris, Carville, etc.), referring to several different Republican politicians, including Bob Dole, as “evil” men who had to be stopped. Does anyone have any record of Bush saying something similar about specific Democrats, or even about Democrats in general?

  8. 8.

    HH

    May 28, 2003 at 9:52 pm

    Well thus far Bush hasn’t accused anyone of “hate speech” or implied that his opponents were indirectly responsible for mass murder.

  9. 9.

    Barney Gumble

    May 28, 2003 at 9:54 pm

    “How do you like the book [The Clinton Wars]?”

    “It’s really quite good.”

    “The Post didn’t much like it.”

    “Of course, they didn’t it like. Most of it’s a scathing indictment of them.”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/may0304.html#052803107am

  10. 10.

    John Cole

    May 28, 2003 at 10:02 pm

    Don;t forget this part from the meeufacturer himself, Mr. Marshall:

    (Obligatory disclaimer: Blumenthal is a friend.)

  11. 11.

    JKC

    May 29, 2003 at 7:06 am

    “There ought to be limits on freedom” – GW Bush

    “People need to watch what they say…” – Ari Fliescher

    Just about anything out of the mouth of John Ashcroft.

    HH, I’m sorry, but if you keep making this argument about how the Bush League is really the ACLU in disguise, I’m gonna wet myself from laughing so much. That would look bad at work, so please stop.

    John, the last thing some Republicans want is for the Clintons to disappear. No one else can keep the base foaming at the mouth quite like Bill and Hillary…

  12. 12.

    JKC

    May 29, 2003 at 7:10 am

    And Terry, if we’re going to spew off about character, I’d say parenting counts as a good test of character, too.

    Now, who wants to compare arrest records between Chelsea and the Bush Twins? Anyone? How about some of the other members of Bush: The Next Generation. No?

  13. 13.

    John Cole

    May 29, 2003 at 7:47 am

    Or Al Gore’s son, for that matter. Or here are two words on character:

    Kennedy family.

    This is silly.

  14. 14.

    HH

    May 29, 2003 at 9:29 am

    Yes yes and Clinton said we shouldn’t be “fixated” on the Constitutional rights of ordinary Americans that he doesn’t agree with. This is indeed silly.

  15. 15.

    HH

    May 29, 2003 at 9:35 am

    “It sounded just a little nasty, even alarming. Here was the President’s Press Secretary Ari Fleischer being asked at a White House briefing about Bill Maher’s comment, especially the part about the U.S. having been the cowards for lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. The part of Fleischer’s response that got most of the attention was this: quote, ‘The reminder is to all Americans that they need to watch what they say,’ end quote. Well, here’s the Fact Check.

    “Earlier in that same briefing, Fleischer had been asked about the comment of Republican Congressman John Cooksey of Louisiana ….What did the President think about that, Fleischer had been asked. And it was in the context of both those comments, Cooksey’s and Bill Maher’s, that Ari Fleischer gave this response: quote, ‘I’m aware of the press reports about what he [Maher] said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself, but assuming the press reports are right, it’s a terrible thing to say and it’s unfortunate. And that’s why there was an earlier question about ‘has the President said anything to people in his own party?'”

    “That would be the reference to Cooksey. ‘The reminder is,’ Fleischer went on, ‘to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and that this is not a time for remarks like that. It never is.'”

    “Seen in it’s entirety, in context, it does not sound like a warning from the White House or a threat. Ari Fleischer got a bum rap on that one. And that’s our Fact Check and our report for tonight.” – Ted Koppel, Oct. 3, 2001, Nightline

  16. 16.

    Larry P

    November 9, 2003 at 2:06 am

    Call Sidney what you want, but his reasoning about the health care bill being the cause of the Clinton attacks is still being fought tooth and nail in Congress today. All the other stuff is almost imaterial.

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