Monica Lewinsky was so desperate to contact Bill Clinton during the early days of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation that she enlisted a Hollywood actress to pass messages to him, according to former White House senior aide Sidney Blumenthal. The top Clinton adviser relives old battles - and settles some scores - in his 800-page memoir, "The Clinton Wars," due out May 19.
Among his stories:
Even as Lewinsky's lawyers negotiated with Starr to gain immunity from prosecution, "Lewinsky began to send secret messages to the White House, intended for the President," Blumenthal writes. "The route she used was through [her PR rep Judy] Smith, who was black, to a black actress in Hollywood, to a black member of the White House staff, who contacted me - an underground railroad eluding Lewinsky's attorneys. I gave her message to [Clinton lawyer David] Kendall. Clinton never knew about them. They were all the same: She hated Starr, she was holding out against him. We sent no message back. Then came a final message: I can't hold out any longer."
Lewinsky didn't return a call. Smith would only say the story was "inaccurate." Blumenthal, who wouldn't give up the name of the actress, stands by his story.
Hillary Clinton suggested that the personal life of one-time opponent Rudy Giuliani was better suited for the stage at Lincoln Center than the floor of the Senate. Blumenthal writes that when Giuliani withdrew from the Senate race in 2000, after the public airing of his split with his wife, Donna Hanover, his romance with Judith Nathan, and his battle with cancer, Hillary quipped: "Now I know why he likes opera."
Journalist Michael Kelly, who was killed in the war in Iraq, was convinced Blumenthal was "spying" on him for Hillary Clinton when they were both writing for The New Yorker. Blumenthal claims Kelly nicknamed him "Sid the human ferret" and blamed him for spreading falsehoods about Starr and his prosecutors - for example, that members of Starr's team were secretly gay.
Asked whether he regretted his unflattering portrait of his fallen colleague, Blumenthal told us: "I'm sympathetic to his family. I wish he were around to respond and debate my book. But I believe what I've written is accurate."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/83420p-76309c.htmlThe route she used was through [her PR rep Judy] Smith, who was black, to a black actress in Hollywood, to a black member of the White House staff, who contacted me - an underground railroad eluding Lewinsky's attorneys. Geez, isn't that politically incorrect? Doesn't this deprecate the memory of all the freedom fighters who supported the REAL underground railroad? Where's the outrage?????
Oh, this is a Clintonoid. I forgot...they get a pass.