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QUESTION OF BILL CLINTON'S RELEVANCE RESURFACE WITH NEW BOOKS
Gannett wire via bloomberg no url | 5/29/3 | CHUCK RAASCH

Posted on 05/29/2003 9:19:03 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker

WASHINGTON - Signs of normalcy have returned. The federal

government is again awash in red ink, Republicans and Democrats are

fighting like old enemies and fresh arguments about the Clintons are

breaking out. 

   If you could set aside the orange alerts and messy news out of

postwar Iraq, it could be 1995 again. Back then, Bill Clinton, who was

president of the United States, had to assert he was relevant after

the Republicans had taken control of Congress. 

   Thanks to two new books, the question again begs: What relevance is

Bill Clinton? 

   Sidney Blumenthal's ''The Clinton Wars'' purports to be an

insider's view of Fortress Clinton under siege from the ''right-wing

conspiracy'' that Hillary Rodham Clinton blamed for many of her

husband's problems. While Blumenthal's book is being kicked around by

critics and by those named in it, Hillary's book, ''Living History,''

is not due out until June 9. But the prerelease hoopla already has

begun. As part of a carefully orchestrated rollout, excerpts and an

interview with Barbara Walters on ABC will precede the release. 

   In his book, Blumenthal, a former reporter turned Clinton insider,

defends his former boss and attempts to settle scores with old

nemeses. But the timing seems curious. Why rehash Clinton-era cultural

and political wars when there are real wars in the headlines? Who

among the Clinton lovers and haters will be persuaded to think

differently by an insider's postmortem? Who will care among those who

could have cared less before? 

   Hillary Clinton's book could be a different story, however. Now a

senator from New York, her voice is getting louder among Democrats.

She is a bona fide presidential contender whenever she decides to run. 

   She has said the book will be her story, and how it is received

could say a lot about her presidential ambitions. Hillary Clinton has

been on her own political orbit since her husband left office in 2001.

Yet in unprecedented ways, Bill Clinton's legacy is tied to his wife's

political future. 

   That's why this book, even though it's by the senator, could

inevitably be a lot about the former president. Why? Because many of

the questions readers want her to answer are about her husband. 

   What will she say of the political and personal calculations she

made to endure impeachment and the humiliation when the lie of Bill

Clinton's denial of an affair with Monica Lewinsky was exposed? What

will she say about the special prosecutor investigations, about the

long legislative sieges - both of which she has long dismissed as part

of the right-wing conspiracy to derail her husband's presidency? Will

she defend and forgive her husband, or will she feel no need to do

either? Will she vent the anger she was said to have kept so much in

private through the political wars sparked by the Lewinsky affair? 

   In other words, will the former first lady come across as a

political figure calculating her next move or a more human witness to

a hopeful, ambitious, troubled and ultimately wounded Clinton

presidency? 

   Americans can be easily forgiven for not wanting to relive the

Clinton wars. It was Dickens' America, truly the best and worst of our

recent history. Economic boom times lifted many boats but in the end

were squandered, drowned in the political fights that always seemed to

swirl, fairly or unfairly, around the Clintons. They ultimately

consumed so much oxygen they left the country exhausted to address

larger problems. 

   In the roaring '90s, the government ran its first surplus in two

generations. Yet a few short years later, the country again confronts

heavy deficits, a troubled education system, continuing cultural

violence and a ticking time bomb of retirement entitlements for the

aging baby boomers. A cauldron of anti-Americanism in the Islamic

world that had been simmering largely unnoticed has spilled over into

a new terrorism war. 

   What relevance is Bill Clinton? Ready or not, we confront the

question again. 

   




TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: clinton

1 posted on 05/29/2003 9:19:03 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: NativeNewYorker

3 posted on 05/29/2003 9:23:53 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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To: NativeNewYorker
What relevance is Bill Clinton?

48% of the people can be fooled all the time.

4 posted on 05/29/2003 9:24:58 AM PDT by dts32041 ("Liberty is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity" George W Bush 28 Jan 2003)
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To: NativeNewYorker
The Clintons legacy is they tried to bring America down.
5 posted on 05/29/2003 9:27:26 AM PDT by freekitty (W)
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To: NativeNewYorker

6 posted on 05/29/2003 9:29:56 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Weaselle
According to Judith Regan of Regan Publishing, Hillary Rotten will have to sell two million copies of her book before the her publisher starts making any of its $8,000,000 advance back that it handed over to the witch.

Regan says, Hillary won't sell two million copies.

7 posted on 05/29/2003 9:33:53 AM PDT by Reagan Man
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To: NativeNewYorker
What relevence?
8 posted on 05/29/2003 9:34:30 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (When you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.)
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To: NativeNewYorker
"senator from New York, her voice is getting louder among Democrats."

If you haven't heard her banshee shrieks - take a listen to the Laura Ingraham radio show. She plays a clip every night. Or maybe someone on FR has it.

9 posted on 05/29/2003 9:36:57 AM PDT by LADY J
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To: NativeNewYorker
I enver understood the timing of Hilalry putting a book out now. I mean what has she accomplished in life worthy to write a book?
10 posted on 05/29/2003 9:38:03 AM PDT by finnman69 (!)
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To: NativeNewYorker
What is it with these Clinton articles lately? They all seem to reference the Clinton's excessive use of oxygen.
11 posted on 05/29/2003 9:48:29 AM PDT by Think free or die
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Oh Lordy, Lordy.

Who is being seduced by whom?

And what relevance does either of these has-beens have?
12 posted on 05/29/2003 9:57:29 AM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: finnman69
Pol book projects always come out at the very start of election cycles. She had to start the process for this book while her White House years still had news value, and also timed the publishing in case 2004 looked doable.

Had the b@stards succeeded in killing Bush as they may have planned on 9/11, this publication date would fit perfectly with a 2004 donnybrook.

You can be certain that a Hillary paperback - with new updated bu!!sh*t -- will come out in summer 2007.

13 posted on 05/29/2003 10:06:56 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: NativeNewYorker
Thanks to two new books, the question again begs: What relevance is Bill Clinton?

Most people have no idea what "begging the question" means. It does not mean "suggests the question." And questions most emphatically are not the ones doing the "begging," as this reporter seems to imagine.

14 posted on 05/29/2003 11:14:17 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Did you have to post that pic? I just lost my lunch.


15 posted on 05/29/2003 11:19:14 AM PDT by AxelPaulsenJr (Shriner's Childrens Hospitals Provide Free Medical Care to Those In Need.)
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To: NativeNewYorker; All
Here's a book on the relevance of the Clintton Administration:

(reading it now)

16 posted on 05/29/2003 11:32:31 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
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