Posted on 04/28/2007 4:06:03 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of “discrepancies” in her official story.
Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19.
With the thoroughness for which he is famous, Bernstein spoke to more than 200 of Clinton’s friends, colleagues and adversaries. He stops short of accusing the New York senator of blatantly lying about her past, but has unearthed examples of where she has played fast and loose with the facts about her “personal and political life”, according to Knopf.
The book could revive the explosive charge, made earlier this year by David Geffen, a former Clinton donor and Hollywood mogul, that “the Clintons lie with such ease, it’s troubling”.
Clinton remains the frontrun-ner for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Barack Obama, who is keeping pace with her fundraising juggernaut, is closing the gap in the polls.
The Sunday Times has learnt that Bernstein has been given unprecedented access to the private papers of Diane Blair, Clinton’s closest friend and confidante, who died of lung cancer aged 61 in 2000. The collection is still being sorted at the University of Arkansas library and is not yet available to the public.
Bernstein has been delving through Blair’s copious records of the 1992 presidential election campaign, which could offer tantalising insight into Bill Clinton’s war machine and Hillary’s reaction to news of her husband’s dalliance with the nightclub singer Gennifer Flowers in Arkansas.
Hillary denied all knowledge of the affair, but one writer who has followed her career closely said: “She always knew about her.” He added: “Anyone who has approached the subject of Hillary Clinton with a clear eye will run across many examples of stories that are not true.”
Blair, a professor of political science, crisscrossed the country with the Clintons in 1992, serving as a senior adviser and semiofficial historian of the campaign. She became friends with Hillary in the political backwater of Little Rock, Arkansas, in the 1970s, when the two East Coast-educated power women sought each other out as soulmates.
Hillary went on to serve as “best person” at her friend’s marriage to Jim Blair, who had a walk-on part in the scandals of the Clinton White House when it emerged he had helped the former first lady make $100,000 in cattle futures.
Joe Klein, the bestselling author of Primary Colors, recounted how Blair once witnessed a blazing row between Bill and Hillary Clinton. “They were really, really angry with each other,” she told him. “And then suddenly, the president took her in his arms and began kissing her all over her face and he said, ‘God, what would I do without you?’ I felt kind of embarrassed being there.”
When Blair was diagnosed with lung cancer, Clinton was running for the Senate in New York. In her memoir, Living History, she writes about seeing her friend for the last time in an Arkansas hospice. “She pressed my hand tightly and whispered to me, ‘Don’t ever give up on yourself and what you believe in. Take care of Bill and Chelsea. They need you. And win this election for me’.”
Bernstein is known as a liberal Democrat who fiercely opposes the war in Iraq and is likely to be critical of Clinton’s Senate vote to authorise the war. His marriage to Nora Ephron, the screen-writer, broke up when he had an affair with Baroness Jay, the daughter of former prime minister James Callaghan.
For years Bernstein suffered from writer’s block, but Knopf is promoting his biography as a triumphant return to form. Publisher Sonny Mehta said his portrait would “show us, for the first time, the true trajectory of Hillary Clinton’s life and career”. It will be published simultaneously in Britain by Hutchinson.
According to the publishers, it will cover everything from Clinton’s “complex relationship with her disciplinarian father” to “her courtship with Bill Clinton and the amazing dynamic of their marriage, during the most trying of circumstances”.
Clinton’s relationship with the truth has frequently come under scrutiny. William Safire, a conservative columnist in The New York Times, provoked a storm in the 1990s when he accused the first lady of being a “congenital liar”. Bill Clinton let it be known that if he were not president, he would punch Safire on the nose.
While the senator continues to lead Barack Obama, her nearest rival, in the polls - most recently by 36% to 31% in an NBC/Wall St Journal survey - she continues to be dogged by high ratings for “unfavourability”.
She is the most assured Democratic candidate on the campaign trail, as she proved in a televised debate with her rivals for president in South Carolina last week. But while Washington commentators declared her the obvious victor, television viewers in the state put Obama on top, suggesting there remains considerable voter-resistance to her charms.
In an effort to boost her campaign, Clinton said last week that she would appoint her husband ambassador to the world if elected to the White House. “I can’t think of a better cheer-leader for America than Bill Clinton, can you?” she said.
Bernstein’s biography is likely to touch some raw nerves. One writer who has crossed swords with Clinton advises Bernstein to watch his back. “She has the most powerful war machine that has ever been developed and it is led by people who have been to hell and back.”
I agree he’s a loser, but are you sure he was going to be fired? I never heard anything about that . . .
H. Clinton and the rest of the Congressional Democrats are traitors. They are giving aid and comfort to the enemy by announcing that the United States has lost the war on terror and will stop fighting. The Congressional Democrats are now directly responsible for more of our troops being killed or wounded in action.
“She has the most powerful war machine that has ever been developed and it is led by people who have been to hell and back.”
Some of her people CAME from HELL.
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Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men,
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An example of what I call “co-credentialing”, where one liberal of note gives an award to another liberal, who in turn passes praise on a third. The award itself is molded for the particular occasion, and is mostly just nonsense. What counts is that all are mutually boosted by the shared glory.
I realize there is no direct award here, except for the attention the MSM is giving the book. In this case the importance of Berstein is elevated because a well known actor once played a part loosely patterned after him. (An actor is a person who is skilled at portraying other people, and may not otherwise have any intellectual abilities.)
Berstein is, in a perverse sort of way, also able to bask in the glow of Hillary’s fame and Importance even though he has uncovered some Inconvenient Truths about her background.
“Red faced, irate Clinton” alert.
They are just hyping her book. He will not hit her with any punches. Pre-launch expectation control.
Was Carl Bernstein going to be fired?
I am not familiar with this website though.
“This is definitely Clintonian.”
It does have that feeling about it.
Why does this description remind me of John Belushi and Carrie Fisher in Blues Brothers?.
Hitlery lied. Who’da thunk it?
I probably won’t be rushing to buy it either.
Well, it was rumored that he threw a temper tantrum. His eyes supposedly bulged and veins stood out on his neck. He cursed and spewed uncontrollably. Then when we saw the real thing, he was as meek as a kitten. That's when I knew the jig was up. The total spin machine was gyrating. And that's exactly the scenario I thought of when I read this article. Just like you. You are a pretty smart cookie!
Darn, I guess I got caught up in the hype when reading:
"Bernstein has been delving through Blair’s copious records of the 1992 presidential election campaign, which could offer tantalising insight into Bill Clinton’s war machine and Hillary’s reaction to news of her husband’s dalliance with the nightclub singer Gennifer Flowers in Arkansas.
Hillary denied all knowledge of the affair, but one writer who has followed her career closely said: “She always knew about her.” He added: “Anyone who has approached the subject of Hillary Clinton with a clear eye will run across many examples of stories that are not true.”
the more the lies, the more time is needed to create scandal exhaustion in the public mind.
i do not trust bernstein.
I grew up in a small town. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. There are no secrets. Arkansas is just a "geographically enhanced" small town. Hillary knew.
It's like what Rhett said to Scarlet, "Never drink alone, my dear. People always find out about it and it ruins your reputation."
I heard from someone who was there that he did scream and have temper tantrums, but it was during the frequent breaks. Not while on the record. He was especially short tempered and vicious to his staff .. but none dare go public.
So, if Bernstein has top flight cameramen filming HARXIST’s efforts to Fosterize him from 3 different angles . . .
do you think CNN would play the videos?
She’d probably get off claming entrapment.
or maybe because the camera angles made her thighs look like an elephant’s.
or maybe because FREEDOM OF THE PRESS doesn’t include about HER!
It's worse. Its Bernstein AND Knopf. The two together? I mean, really, how obvious can it get?
Just off the top of my head...Knopf's the publisher that gave Clinton a $10 million advance for his memoirs and lord knows how much to a no-talent hack for her piece of trash fiction, Checkpoint that obsesses over the assassination of George Bush.
I'm not even buying that Bernstein peddled this to Knopf. More like the hillary machine hatched the plan, took it to Knopf and together they decided on the perfect deceased author. Dusted him up, propped him up in a corner with a little pancake makeup and a Selectric. Voila. Weekend at Bernstein's.
Look for Bernstein to be vilified in the mainstream media soon.
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