Clinton Book Weighs Failures and Successes; Memoir Contradicts Testimony on Lewinsky

Washington Post ^ | June 22, 2004 | By John F. Harris and Linton Weeks

[bannie]

Former president Bill Clinton concluded that President Bush was a "formidable politician" the first time he saw him speak on television, but predicts that the high court ruling that ended the 2000 election deadlock will "go down in history as one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made."

Clinton's memoirs, "My Life," which went on sale at midnight, are filled with rueful commentary on the 2000 election, Bush's success and what Clinton believes was Democrat Al Gore's failure to effectively run on the administration's record or enlist his help. Clinton said he could have helped Gore win Arkansas, which would have been enough to give Gore victory, and compared the high court's decision ending the Florida recount to the Dred Scott slavery case as similarly motivated by a politicized and "reactionary" court.

Clinton's own legal battle with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr accounts for one of the book's more peculiar revelations. In his August 1998 grand jury testimony, Clinton said he began an inappropriate sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky in "early 1996." His testimony, as was widely noted at the time, was in conflict with Lewinsky's story: She testified the relationship began on Nov. 15, 1995, in the midst of a government shutdown.

Starr's prosecutors, in their report to Congress, accused Clinton of lying about the date of their relationship in order to avoid admitting that he had sexual relations with an intern, as Lewinsky still was in the fall of 1995 before being hired for a paying job in the winter.

Without explanation, in his memoir Clinton departs from his grand jury testimony and corroborates her version: "During the government shutdown in late 1995, when very few people were allowed to come to work in the White House, and those who were there were working late, I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April, when she left the White House for the Pentagon."

Clinton aides yesterday said they could not explain the discrepancy, and his attorney, David Kendall, was traveling and did not return a call.

[bannie]

I hope this isn't a re-post...

[Paleo Conservative]

Memoir Contradicts Testimony on Lewinsky

That's ok. It was only about sex.

[lilylangtree]

"I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April, when she left the White House for the Pentagon."

How well we all remember his ugly face direcly in the camera saying the words "I never had sex with that woman!" H'weirdos and the demoncRATS always make fun of Richard Nixon by quoting "I'm not a crook!" in various siutations. However, Clintoon far surpasses Nixon. Clintoon's quote will be: "I'm not a liar or sexual predator!"

[scott7278]

"Blythe was dating a woman who had a medical emergency. Virginia caught his eye, and he dropped the other woman."

Nice guy.

[GretchenM]

I have this really hollow hope that this is his last book.

[PistolPaknMama]

....predicts that the high court ruling that ended the 2000 election deadlock will "go down in history as one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made."

Words from an unindicted rapist/murderer/adulterer/liar. Like someone gives weight to anything he thinks.

[bannie]

...what Clinton believes was Democrat Al Gore's failure to effectively run on the administration's record or enlist his help. Clinton said he could have helped Gore win Arkansas, which would have been enough to give Gore victory

OH----MY---GOSH!!!!! VANITY, THY NAME IS SURELY CLINTON!!!

... Clinton said he began an inappropriate sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky in "early 1996." His testimony, as was widely noted at the time, was in conflict with Lewinsky's story...in his memoir Clinton departs from his grand jury testimony and corroborates her version

So...the liar UN-lies?

One of the book's recurrent themes is what he calls an orchestrated right-wing campaign to destroy him personally as punishment for his success politically.

WHAT??

Clinton is as popular with Americans today as he was when he left office three years ago, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll...Nearly nine in 10 Democrats -- 85 percent -- approved, but barely a third of Republicans were similarly positive.

LLPOF! (Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire!)

The story of Bill Clinton's winding [long-winded!] life -- full of successes and surprises -- begins in Chapter One with a winding sentence: "Early on the morning of August 19, 1946, I was born under a clear sky after a violent summer storm to a widowed mother..."

WIDOWED MOTHER???? According to his mother's best claim, billyblythe was the son of William Blythe who was married to another woman. He died before billy was born. [Blythe] was married to another woman.

Blythe was dating a woman who had a medical emergency. Virginia caught his eye, and he dropped the other woman. Blythe married Virginia...

WHAT??? Blythe married Virginia? Wasn't he married to another woman???

Am I correct in calling this behavior sociopathic? This boy a sociopath?

[bannie]

Blythe was married to someone ELSE! Of course, with all of this spinning, I guess the facts are slip-slidin' away.

He's simply a lying pig.

[Voltage]

I have this really hollow hope that this is his last book.

After he blows all his cash, look for another book titled "Monica and Me"

[Southack]

"According to Clinton, Bush domestic policy adviser Roger Porter -- with whom he has worked on education issues -- told him that Clinton was the most threatening potential candidate to Republicans, and that Bush operatives had assigned Porter to send a message: "Here's how Washington works. The press has to have somebody in every election, and we're going to give them you. . . . We'll spend whatever we have to spend to get whoever we have to get to say whatever they have to say to take you out. And we'll do it early." Porter, now on the faculty at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, did not return telephone message and e-mail messages yesterday seeking comment."

Why the gratuitous smear against Porter? That's curious. No way Porter said the claimed quote above.

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[GretchenM]

my first toys, including a simple length of chain I prized above them all

How prophetic.

The rest of his commentary shouldn't have been exhumed from its appropriate supporting placement, mouldering under the compost pile of ruined presidencies.

[Howlin]

Because he has to name somebody else to try to imply that the Bush administration is so scared of him, being as important as he is and all, that he just picked the name of a Republican.

If Bush wanted to send a message to Clinton, I doubt he's use Porter; that's what Karl Rove is for.

[Howlin]

my first toys, including a simple length of chain I prized above them all

The stunning thing is he actually thinks every single thing about himself, including his TOYS, is interesting to the rest of us.

[bornintexas]

It doesn't matter how many books this pond scum writes.....his legacy will always be........monica.

live with it slick.

[VRW Conspirator]

It's just about sex; let's move on.

[Dilbert56]

Bush v. Gore should never have gotten to the Supreme Court. It took complete malfeasance by the Supreme Court of Florida (SCOFLA) to get it there. SCOTUS had to decide in just a couple of days, well outside their normal operating windows. They had to make findings on the facts because they were dealing with such juveniles. The SCOFLA recount ruling said:

• Undervotes would be recounted but not overvotes. So if someone using an optical scanner filled in the circle next to a candidate's name and then wrote his name in on the line as well, that vote was thrown out even though the voter's intention was crystal clear.
• Miami-Dade had hand recounted its first 109 precincts which tended heavily Democrat. At that point, they knew they didn't have enough "found" votes to change the election and stopped. So if your vote was not picked up by the machines, and you lived in those precincts, your vote got counted. If you lived in the other precincts (which tended to vote Republican), it wasn't.
• Other recounts were permitted to stand even though their criteria for evaluating votes had changed in the middle of counting.

Anyone who cast an overvote or was in some other way excluded by the torturous mechanics of SCOFLA's decision was having their right to vote compromised. Seven (7) of the SCOTUS justices, as well as three of SCOFLA's thought this was a travesty and ended it.

Later recounts performed at the behest of the media showed that GWB would have won the recount advocated by SCOFLA. In most scenarios you could envision, GWB would win. The only cases Al Bore would have won were a complete recount using the strictest interpretations (no hanging or dimpled chads counted). That was not what he asked for in his lawsuits.

An observation: The press-sponsored recounts proved the GWB contention that if you changed the standards of the recount, you would get different results. The standards, therefore needed to be fair and consistent. This was ignored.

Another observation: Depending on what standards were used for the hand recount, GWB's lead increased, decreased, or disappeared. There's not way all of them could be more accurate than the machine count since they went in opposite directions. Nobody ever showed any one of them was more accurate than the machine count.

Last observation: The press-sponsored recounts were done by auditors with plenty of time on their hands. They still disagreed about a number (40%?) of the ballots. If the recounts were done by Democrat-dominated eleciton boards, rather than independent auditors, Al Gore could easily have become President.

[Gritty]

What makes anybody think he is telling the truth about this little incident.

His book is full of lies about everything else!

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

That's ok. It was only about sex.

Yeah, and he lies about everything except Hussein and WMDs. </sarcasm>

[GretchenM]

The stunning thing is he actually thinks every single thing about himself, including his TOYS, is interesting to the rest of us.

Gross comment alert for what follows. Y'all have been warned.

During the Reign of Terror, I posted a comment that shocked another FReeper (a news person) who chided me gently in his shock and then said, "You're probably right!" I noted that the press is so adulatory toward blubba that he could drop trou on Pennsylvania Avenue, squat, defecate, pull up his britches, walk off, and the press would be there photographing the essential Clinton, observing it from all angles, awash in amazement that he actually was letting them in on such a moment, giving up this offering to posterity ... blah blah blah. I know it's gross but it hits pretty close to truth re the press and clinton's "base[ness]".

I have to wonder why x42 was so fascinated by a "simple length of chain" that he prized it above every other toy. What did it mean to him? What did he think he could do with it? Sneak up behind and strangle thugs who, like his stepfather, beat up his mom and himself? Or is he just trying to make us feel sorry for him that he was so poor? It's not a mystery I want to solve but I think it gives a little glimpse into how impoverished blubba's soul is.