Posted on 01/27/2003 4:45:49 AM PST by Liz
Martha Stewart, the Queen of Nice?
Martha Stewart insists she has "never not been nice to anybody" - and she doesn't understand why people take such delight in her insider trading troubles. Speaking out for the first time since the scandal broke in June, Stewart sounded bitter and frustrated about the dramatic reversal in her public image.
"That I have been turned into or vilified openly as something other than what I really am has been confusing," Stewart, 61, told the New Yorker for an article in its issue out today. "I mean, we've produced a lot of good stuff for a lot of good people. And to be maligned for that is kind of weird."
The embattled entrepreneur also revealed that one person who had come to her support was Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"Look at her ups and downs," Stewart said. "And she was one of the first people to call me ... and very nicely say, 'You know, you just have to hang in there. It's the process.'"
Stewart - who sources say sent her lawyers to plead with federal prosecutors last week not to file criminal charges against her - attributed her problems with the public to jealousy she thinks some Americans feel at her success.
"I've had a real long way up - along the way my heels being bitten at for various reasons, maybe perfectionism or exactitude or something," she told Jeffrey Toobin, the magazine's legal correspondent. "And now I've had a long way down."
She said she was appalled by the idea, suggested by some, that she should have been nicer to people on the way to the top. "I've never not been nice to anybody," Stewart insisted.
Thin is in
Perhaps the strangest moment in the interview came when Toobin admired the fancy silver chopsticks he and Stewart used to eat homemade Szechuan chicken at her Connecticut mansion.
"You know, in China they say, 'The thinner the chopsticks, the higher the social status.' Of course, I got the thinnest I could find," said Stewart, who was born Martha Kostyra and grew up in working-class Nutley, N.J. "That's why people hate me."
She also vented about the unflattering photographs that have become a staple of newspaper coverage of her story. "I'm a pretty photogenic person, I mean, and they manage to find the doozies," she said.
But she claimed the near-nightly razzing she gets from late-night TV hosts doesn't bother her. "My buddies: Dave [Letterman], Jay [Leno], Conan [O'Brien]. I miss the fun. They have a job to do, they can comment on anybody in a playful way," she said.
Stewart has been under the gun since it was learned that on Dec. 27, 2001, she sold $228,000 worth of ImClone Systems stock and avoided a loss of $45,000 when the stock later plunged.
The Daily News reported exclusively on Saturday that Stewart sent her lawyers to plead with prosecutors to spare her from criminal charges.
Prosecutors are close to deciding whether to file insider trading charges against her for allegedly selling the stock on a tip from a pal, ImClone founder Sam Waksal.
Waksal pleaded guilty to telling his daughter Aliza and father, Jack, about the impending freefall of the stock, which came after news broke that the government was about to shoot down the company's anti-cancer drug.
Stewart and Waksal have both been major donors to the Democratic Party and the political campaigns of both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton strongly backed Waksal's other daughter, Elana Posner, in her failed 2001 run for New York City Council.
In thanking Hillary Clinton during the interview, Stewart talked about her admiration for how the ex-First Lady and her husband handled themselves during their own scandals.
In fact, Stewart called Hillary Clinton a role model for her own planned comeback.
"First Lady, knocked to death and now senator," she said. "She's smart, she's worthy, she's great. You know, that's what I hope I'll be thought of as."
Stewart declined to discuss specifics of her case but did say she has lost an estimated $400 million since the scandal broke, mostly through declining value of her Martha Stewart Omnimedia stock.
I haven't seen any change in her public image.
This is the key phrase that aligns Martha Stewart with Hillary, Bill, and every other liberal who gets caught.
"I've/we've done so much good for you, how can you hold this little indiscretion against me/us, you ungrateful slobs?"
The scary part is that I think this is the way liberals truly feel.
Toobin is a Clintonista butt-boy extraordinaire, who wrote a fawning apologia about Bubba's impeachment and hate-tract against Bush after the 2000 election. So Martha's rehabilitation begins, paid for and brought to you by the DNC and the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
And I have it on pretty good authority that she had a judgement against her, about 3 years ago, for not paying her "floral arranger" what amounted to around 10,000 zops. The florist was told that she should "consider herself privileged to be working for Martha Stewart".
(1) establish your bona fides by announcing you (not those horrible Republicans) are "for" your fellow-man,
(2) constantly flaunt your "tolerance and compassion,"
(3) try like the blazes to make a buck on it.
10/92 Presidential Debate...
LEHRER: "President Bush, your closing statement, sir."
PRESIDENT BUSH: "Three weeks from now--two weeks from tomorrow, America goes to the polls and you're going to have to decide who you want to lead this country ...On foreign affairs, some think it's irrelevant. I believe it's not. We're living in an interconnected world...And if a crisis comes up, ask who has the judgment and the experience and, yes, the character to make the right decision? And, lastly, the other night on character Governor Clinton said it's not the character of the president but the character of the presidency. I couldn't disagree more. Horace Greeley said the only thing that endures is character. And I think it was Justice Black who talked about great nations, like great men, must keep their word. And so the question is, who will safeguard this nation, who will safeguard our people and our children? I need your support, I ask for your support. And may God Bless the United States of America."
Great find, Mia T...MUD
It takes one to know one.
Of course the HildaBeast has the HOTS fer Martha Stewart, they'r BOTH WhiteCollarCriminals and need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the LAW!!
Perhaps they can bunk together in PRISON!!! They oughtta BOTH enjoy that...LOL!!
RATS are Ignorant DOLTS!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA...MUD
BTW...anybody else hear the rumor that Martha Stewart and the HildaBeast are LOVERS?! Spread the word...
Yep...Lib'rals LOATHE America...OTOH, I LOVE America...ERGO, I LOATHE Lib'rals...MUD
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.