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Book paints Hillary Clinton as savvy manipulator
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | May 25, 2007 | Glenn Thrush

Posted on 05/25/2007 11:56:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A new biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton alleges she masterminded efforts to cover up Bill Clinton's draft record during the 1992 campaign - and coolly executed a "20-year project" to place both spouses into the Oval Office regardless of their marital woes.

"Her Way," a decidedly unauthorized biography written by longtime New York Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., also reveals that Clinton chose not to read a critical National Intelligence Estimate on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs days before casting her controversial 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war.

The book portrays Clinton as a politically savvy manipulator who is, in turn, manipulated by an even savvier manipulator named Bill Clinton.

"The news here is there is no news," said Hillary Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, who claimed much of the account was "warmed-over" versions of previously released material.

Gerth and Van Natta's 400-page biography is timed to arrive in bookstores June 5 - the same day as Carl Bernstein's 650-page "A Woman in Charge."

Clinton's rapid-response media operation began issuing talking points questioning the veracity and newsworthiness of both books.

Internally, staffers have jokingly dubbed their blowback operation the "Van Gerthstein" team, a conflation of the three authors' names.

But the elan hides real concern among her supporters that the books might revive long-held views that she accepted her husband's infidelities as a trade-off for her own presidential ambitions. Bernstein's book, which he began in 1999, before Clinton won election to the Senate, is more of a soup-to-nuts biography, with new information about Hillary Clinton's 30-year struggle to cope with her husband's infidelities.

The Gerth-Van Natta biography is more sharply focused on her longtime role as her husband's political consigliere in the 1990s and her seven years in the Senate - particularly her controversial decision to vote for the Oct. 11, 2002, resolution approving the use of force in Iraq.

"Her insecurity about her public image, her knowledge that her nascent national security credentials might be perceived as insufficient by voters ... made it difficult to vote no," the authors wrote in a proof copy of the book obtained by Newsday.

Only six senators checked into a guarded conference room to read the top-secret 90-plus-page intelligence estimate.

In addition to Clinton, the five other current and former senators running for president also opted not to scrutinize the document.

But the other senators were able to dispatch staffers with top security clearances to read the report for them; at the time, no one in Clinton's office besides the senator herself had such clearances, the authors claim.

"Senator Clinton was briefed multiple times by several members of the administration on their intelligence regarding Iraq, which included the classified aspects of the NIE," responded her spokesman, Philippe Reines.

In one of the more controversial allegations, Gerth and Van Natta allege that Hillary Clinton told then White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta of a Clinton family plan to serve successive eight-year terms in the White House.

During a 1996 ride on Air Force One, Panetta said Clinton revealed the project "had begun in Arkansas with the goal of establishing a long-term change in where the Democratic Party was heading."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas; US: Illinois; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2008willbetoolate; billclinton; bimboeruption; democrats; election; election2008; electionpresident; elections; findhillarysthesis; friendsofbill; hillaryclinton; leonpanetta; ratcrime; stillhitlery; stophillary; whitehouse; whitewater
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Hope this book gets wide distribution.
1 posted on 05/25/2007 11:56:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
An obviously biased article IMO.
2 posted on 05/26/2007 12:07:30 AM PDT by endthematrix (a globalized and integrated world - which is coming, one way or the other. - Hillary)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"The book portrays Clinton as a politically savvy manipulator ..."

Manipulative behavior is a tool that is used by those who can't achieve on their own.

3 posted on 05/26/2007 1:52:23 AM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (I Relieve Myself In Islam's General Direction While I Deny Global Warming.)
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To: WorkerbeeCitizen

Manipulative behavior is a tool that is used by those who can’t achieve on their own...........................

The hallmark of her so-called “career”.

“Brilliance” comes cheap these days.


4 posted on 05/26/2007 4:07:44 AM PDT by Grateful One
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To: Grateful One

Exactly.


5 posted on 05/26/2007 4:09:11 AM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (I Relieve Myself In Islam's General Direction While I Deny Global Warming.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Hil is an extreme leftist. An extreme leftist can and will do anything to achieve her goal. The end justifies the means with leftists. The Hil’s ultimate goal is to have the most powerful office in the world and to turn this country into a leftist paradise.
And the Republican party has no one who can beat her.


6 posted on 05/26/2007 4:18:50 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: endthematrix
and coolly executed a "20-year project" to place both spouses into the Oval Office regardless of their marital woes.

The only twenty year project that Hitlery ever performed was to babysit bill and his bimbos. Hitlery is damaged goods. She is psychologically unsuited for any position of lealdership since she has perverted her self-esteem by remaining in a marriage with the psychopath Bill.

7 posted on 05/26/2007 4:21:15 AM PDT by x_plus_one (As long as we pretend to not be fighting Iran in Iraq, we can't pretend to win the war.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How are the Clinton’s still politically viable?

It’s a nightmare.


8 posted on 05/26/2007 4:30:20 AM PDT by Right_in_Virginia
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Hillary Clinton as savvy manipulator

Ya think....??
Are these guys onto something??

[/sarc]

9 posted on 05/26/2007 5:23:21 AM PDT by Wings-n-Wind (Are t)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Book paints Hillary Clinton as savvy manipulator

Don't know about the "savvy" part but I'll give her a "10" on the manipulator call.

10 posted on 05/26/2007 9:42:40 AM PDT by Don Corleone (Leave the gun..take the cannoli)
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

you ain’t runnin against Hillary,thru her you are runnin against Satan.............providence will save us.


11 posted on 05/26/2007 9:45:48 AM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hmm. You reckon these authors will be invited onto the “Today” show?


12 posted on 05/26/2007 10:21:24 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: x_plus_one
" The only twenty year project that Hitlery ever performed was to babysit bill and his bimbos. Hitlery is damaged goods. She is psychologically unsuited for any position of lealdership since she has perverted her self-esteem by remaining in a marriage with the psychopath Bill. "

True enough, but I still say she has better than excellent odds to become the next POTUS, short of a nuke attack on this nation.

13 posted on 05/26/2007 10:41:49 AM PDT by investigateworld (These Border Patrol guys will do more time than a Jap POW Camp commander,thanks BUSH)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Internally, staffers have jokingly dubbed their blowback operation the “Van Gerthstein” team, a conflation of the three authors’ names.


Maybe they should just call it the “FJB team”.


14 posted on 05/26/2007 10:44:53 AM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The book portrays Clinton as a politically savvy manipulator who is, in turn, manipulated by an even savvier manipulator named Bill Clinton.

"The news here is there is no news," said Hillary Clinton's spokesman, Howard Wolfson,

For once the slimy Wolfson speaks the truth.

15 posted on 05/26/2007 3:34:24 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008


16 posted on 05/26/2007 6:49:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Fred Thompson/John Bolton 2008

That might shake some things up in DC.

17 posted on 05/26/2007 6:52:36 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think we should be very careful, especially when these books seem to be going over the same old allegations that the American people were already tired of hearing 10 years ago. The Clintons thrive when they’re perceived as being attacked, and I hope we won’t play into their hands again. The last thing we want is to get Hillary a sympathy jump like her husband got during the impeachment proceedings.


18 posted on 05/27/2007 12:28:42 AM PDT by COgamer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
she accepted her husband's infidelities as a trade-off for her own presidential ambitions

That's not news.

19 posted on 05/27/2007 12:33:49 AM PDT by kcvl
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To: hinckley buzzard
For once the slimy Wolfson speaks the truth.

Exactly. What took them so long to figure it out. We all knew most of this during the Monica fiasco.

20 posted on 05/27/2007 12:34:47 AM PDT by kcvl
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