Posted on: Sunday, June 26, 2005
COMMENTARY
Unflattering Clinton book raises questions
By Sheryl McCarthy
The photograph on Edward Klein's new book about Hillary Rodham Clinton shows her with pursed lips and a beady-eyed stare that suggests anything from surprise to demonic possession. But since the book's message is that Sen. Clinton is a monster and we should all "be afraid, be very afraid," I'm surprised they didn't depict her as half woman and half insect.
There's probably a lot to be said about Hillary Clinton's political beliefs and motivations and what they might mean for the country. So I wonder why Klein didn't produce a serious book instead of this hatchet job.
In "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President," no gossip is too speculative or trivial to toss in: from whether the White House Clintons slept in separate beds, to whether Sen. Clinton is Botoxed, to whether she suffers from a disease that causes swelling in the lower extremities, thus explaining her dumpy lower body.
No shot is too cheap to take — whether it's about Clinton's alleged poor hygiene as a young woman, or describing her White House mentor Harold Ickes as her "consigliore," the mob term for counselor.
Clinton is admired by millions, weathered a huge political crisis when her husband was president, got herself elected to the Senate, and has become a megastar among Democrats, but according to Klein she has no redeeming personal qualities.
And then there are her big crimes: 1) lying to the nation when she claimed to be ignorant of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky — so she could gain our sympathy and stay in power; 2) striking a "Faustian bargain" with her husband to accept his sexual escapades in exchange for riding his coattails into the White House; and 3) harboring a pathological craving for power, including the desire to be president, that goes back to her childhood.
I believe Clinton was broadsided by the Lewinsky scandal, but even if she wasn't and only pretended to be, so what? If she decided that access to power, or the love she felt for her husband, was worth putting up with his other women, that puts her in the company of millions of other women who have made similar trade-offs for the sake of their children or their husband's money or power.
And isn't wishing to become president one day part of the American dream that we encourage all children to aspire to?
While conceding that Clinton worked her tail off to win her Senate seat from New York and that she has been a modest, hardworking, exemplary senator — one who has worked well with Republicans and raised massive amounts of money for Democratic candidates — Klein still faults her for feeling "entitled" to power and for being a self-pitying narcissist.
And he warns that her next goal is to be president, and that while she may appear to be sincere, open-minded and politically tolerant, she's still the same controlling, combative little girl who once punched a boy in the nose when he made her mad.
When I read stuff like this from someone with Klein's solid journalistic credentials, I wonder why he didn't write a serious book explaining why Clinton would be so bad for the country.
It's enough to make one wonder if there's a vast, right-wing conspiracy out there, and if they're buying off journalists, that makes me very afraid.
Sheryl McCarthy is a Newsday columnist.
