Thinking Like an Apparatchik

Atlantic Monthly ^ | July, 2003 | Christopher Hitchens

[MHGinTN]

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

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

.....

The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal Farrar, Straus & Giroux ow is it that domestic politics in this country is at once so rancid and so banal, so embittered and yet so uninspiring? Why should it be that two parties with few if any essential differences are ready to speak of each other as if a cultural or even a civil war were only a few speeches away? Obviously, much of this fatuous rhetoric arises from the need to disagree more and more about less and less, to maintain the mills of fundraising in a churning condition, and to keep the dwindling groups of genuine loyalists and activists in a state of excited pseudo-commitment. But much of the dankness and dinginess is owed to the influence exerted by professional political operators, those who have a careerist interest in "the process" as it is—which is to say partisan in theory and bipartisan in practice.

Those in the unelected election business who become celebrities are sometimes quite willing to work for either party. Dick Morris, to take a notorious example, toiled energetically for Jesse Helms before being hired by the Clintons. David Gergen's mysterious usefulness to a succession of Republican and Democratic Presidents will almost stand comparison with the mystical utility of the Reverend Billy Graham to Eisenhower and Nixon, Carter and Clinton. The self-satirizing summa of all this is the bizarre marriage of Mary Matalin and James Carville, who actually contrived to run opposing presidential campaigns in 1992 while still, at the end of the day, proving that the two parties were essentially in bed together.

[MHGinTN]

The rest.

[MHGinTN]

Ping-a-ling-a-ling

[Howlin]

Had the proposals Clinton made for new legislation been enacted, the United States would now have universal health insurance, affordable prescription drugs for senior citizens, universal day care, more schools, higher teacher salaries and higher educational standards, more gun safety, greater voting rights, new civil rights laws against discrimination, and an even higher minimum wage. Had his foreign policy been fully enacted, the United States would have affirmed the Kyoto treaty to address the dangers of global warming; more programs for education, disease control, and economic development for Africa; and more trade with Latin America. Had his administration had another year, he would have reached a final agreement with North Korea preventing it from developing nuclear weapons, and perhaps even an altered outcome to the final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Certainly he would not have abandoned either of those negotiations, as his successor did.

OR

Clinton brought in with him a stream of cool, brisk air from outside. At six feet, two inches, with a jutting jaw, gray-green eyes, a ruddy complexion, and loose long limbs, Clinton was the most physically imposing person in the room, as he almost always was.

OMG.......just OMG.

[Howlin]

Thank you for posting this!

[hobbes1]

Clinton brought in with him a stream of cool, brisk air from outside. At six feet, two inches, with a jutting jaw, gray-green eyes, a ruddy complexion, and loose long limbs, Clinton was the most physically imposing person in the room, as he almost always was.

Hitch left out the next line...."And I wanted him as I had no other man before...

[Molly Pitcher]

Yes, thanks! I think.......

[maica]

Bizarro universe!

[justshe]

Thanks for the ping!

OMB...just OMB! (Oh More Barf)

Blumenthal is completely delusional.....and possible in love (in the literal sense) with Bill.

[MJY1288]

By the time lots of people read this book, I predict we will see Bill Clinton in front of the camera's saying

"Listen, I'm only going to say this once.... I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT MAN, Sidney Blumenthal"

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[NeoCaveman]

Hitch left out the next line...."And I wanted him as I had no other man before...

From Sid's diary....

Dear diary,
It's all Monica all the time,
What about me
I'll never get to use my new kneepads
Oh well, I guess I still get to clean the sink....
Brokenhearted Sid.

[hobbes1]

..And toss the salad....

[annyokie]

Thanks for the ping!

[Inspectorette]

gray-green rheumy little pig eyes, a ruddy pock-marked complexion, bulbous, runny nose...

[cyncooper]

Clinton brought in with him a stream of cool, brisk air from outside. At six feet, two inches, with a jutting jaw, gray-green eyes, a ruddy complexion, and loose long limbs, Clinton was the most physically imposing person in the room, as he almost always was.

Oh! But Tina Brown said his eyes are blue in the same, um, breathless, tone.

a man in a dinner jacket with more heat than any star in the room (or, for that matter, at the multiplex). ... His newly cropped, iron-filing hair and the intensity of his blue eyes project a kind of avid inclusiveness that encircles every jaded celebrity he passes. He is vividly in the present tense and dares you to join him there."

Gads, what pathetic delusional jerks these clintonphiles are.

[OldFriend]

MAGIC MUSHROOMS RULE

[dead]

This style, which I would describe as "Theodore off-White," absolutely pervades The Clinton Wars. Sometimes it is unintentionally hilarious ("Clinton never left a roomful of people until he had spoken to and physically touched as many as he could"), and sometimes it is astonishingly grandiose.

Theodore off-white. Man that had to piss off Sydney when he read it!

Another term and there would have been a cure for cancer, an extra harvest, and a Five Year Plan for the eradication of poverty and illiteracy, fulfilled to stormy applause in just four years. The world's terrorists and tyrants, needless to add, would have been quaking and abdicating, as one remembers their so conspicuously doing during the mere eight years of the Clinton colossus that we actually were lucky enough to be granted, and which were probably all that we deserved.

Hilarious!

It turned out, though, that Clinton didn't want him for these nobler purposes. He wanted him as a damage controller with a certain sneaky side, and he wanted him as an inventive loyalist. He threw away the plum and kept the pit, of which this book is the ground-up residue.

Ouch. Thanks for posting. That was a terrific read.

[M Kehoe]

#3

If I did psychotropic drugs, I would want what ever Sid Vicious is embibing. Amazing, to say the least.

5.56mm

[Bigg Red]

...a President who was certifiably filthy in small things might deserve to be arraigned on larger matters also.

Gotta love that one!

Hitchens is such a brilliant writer! I must confess that I did not read the last four paragraphs, though. My computer connection timed out!

It's a shame Hitchens is a commie because if he ever sees the light, his intellect would be a great one to have on our side. Well, at least he and I are equal in our hatred of i-X42.

[Not A Snowbird]

I think... I'm going.... to hurl. Honestly, this almost made me physically sick.