The Clinton Wars: How Dare He?

By: Tucker Lelykoff

While a reader interested in a historical accounting of the various legal and political battles that plagued the Clinton administration in the 90's might deem Sidney Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars a good place to begin his search for insight and information about the geneses and progression of the seemingly endless scandals and pseudo-scandals of that tumultuous era - he will soon discover that the 800-page tome is nothing more than a collection of facts, names, background, and anecdotes that paint a grim picture of the culprits and actions behind a series of what are, admittedly but not so importantly, extreme abuses of power and violations of privacy committed by President Clinton's political enemies.

In truth, anyone who picks up Mr. Blumenthal's 800-page book expecting to read an insider's historical account of how a President and his supporters defeated his determined and powerful political opponents will be in for a grave disappointment. Instead, that unsuspecting reader will find 800 long pages of a White House advisor's impressions and narration of events he witnessed as a member of the Clintons' inner circle during the old, tired political battles of the 1990's.

As one makes his way through not 600, not 700, but 8...0...0 pages of The Clinton Wars, it becomes ever increasingly clear that the historical record would have been far better served if Mr. Blumenthal had put off releasing his memoir until interest faded substantially and those journalists whose names are named in the book had long retired. In doing so, Mr. Blumenthal might well have avoided criticism that focuses on the too-close proximity in time of The Clinton Wars to events that, recounted too soon, expose those journalists to ridicule and foment public distrust of their work. As a result of such a wiser approach, the nearly-universally disliked Blumenthal might well have created for himself a second chance at being liked a lot.

Further, the book is replete with glaring omissions. Among the more obvious are those previously pointed out by former NY Times executive editor Joseph Lelyveld: Mr. Blumenthal completely omits any mention whatsoever of Joe Lieberman's scathing speech regarding President Clinton's misbehavior in the Lewinsky affair, aside from mentioning it only once. And Mr. Blumenthal criticizes the coverage of the Whitewater issue, claiming that a scandal involving the Clintons was a media invention, despite that the Clintons had been partners with the head of Madison Guaranty, which would have been the biggest S&L of its kind if no other bigger ones had existed, and the failure of which would have clearly implicated the Clintons if the Clintons had been shown to have done anything illegal or improper, and were not ultimately fully exonerated.

But none of those jaw-dropping omissions compares to the tragic fact that Sidney Blumenthal never recounts receiving an "apology" from President Clinton that truly satisfies. Us.

Despite that most should deeply dislike Mr. Blumenthal and do, no one should not feel egregiously violated to his very marrow by being deprived of a detailed description of a groveling and embarrassed Clinton begging the forgiveness of his valued advisor. After all, we all remember how it felt to be perpetually and cruelly denied that one, pluperfectly pathetic and humiliating apology to end all apologies from Bill Clinton that would have allowed us to bestow our forgiveness from our positions of righteousness - provided, of course, we deemed him so worthy. (Not to mention the apology owed us all from Mrs. Clinton, who, after months of stubbornly withholding sufficient and proper public displays of deep shame over her husband's actions, added insult to injury with her subsequent, arrogant, in-your-face run for the U.S. Senate.)

The best that can be said about The Clinton Wars is that it is factually accurate, compellingly written, and inescapably persuasive. But, disappointingly, one will also find it impossible to escape the self-serving theme that pervades the work. Namely that Mr. Blumenthal and others who served in the Clinton White House regard the relentless slanders against their character and invasions of their personal lives, as well as the unprecedented abuses of the legal system by government partisans, with profound and enduring resentment - and that this pack of ruthless loyalists and grudge-holders remain determined to this day to aggressively defend themselves and expose their attackers within the government and media establishment.

Anyone who believes we should follow George W. Bush's heartfelt and urgent pleas that we should change the tone of politics, now that we have seen the damage they can do to our government institutions and the personal lives of decent public servants and innocent bystanders, should avoid purchasing and reading this politically divisive book. Is it so much to ask that we all agree to stop this runaway train of personal destruction politics immediately, and not resume them until absolutely necessary?

Those who believe there is anything at all to be gained by purchasing books like these, the successful sales of which only encourage others to write and publish them, may [shop for] Sidney Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars here.