The Truth About Hillary

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The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President is a political biography about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic senator from New York, written by Edward Klein, the former editor of The New York Times Magazine.

The 336-page book (ISBN 1-59523-006-8) was released by Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), on June 21, 2005.

Contents

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Before release

The book was considered controversial due to the way it discusses various issues concerning Hillary Clinton's behavior, personality, sexuality, the nature of her marriage to Bill Clinton, and her intentions for the future.

In writing the book, Klein is said to have extensively researched Hillary Clinton's past and interviewed many people close to Clinton and her husband. Some of these people are mentioned by name while others are cited anonymously. However, allegations made by anonymous sources are notoriously hard to prove or disprove. Names of various people mentioned in the book have been exposed being incorrect. Klein was made to admit that the various quotes he used in the book were not from people he actually met but read in past. Critics have pointed out pages of mistakes and poorly researched information, including manipulations to smear Clinton inluding times, dates, speeches, and people.

The author's sources were questioned by the media immediately after the release of the book. According to the Associated Press, an examination of the book conducted by Media Matters for America concluded that "Klein's Attack Book is Poorly Researched, Poorly Written, Poorly-Sourced" [1] (see Inaccuracies). The progressive media watchdog organization goes on to state that the author "recycles long-debunked claims about the Clintons" and "relies on anonymous sources for much that isn't recycled—more than 70 footnotes refer to unnamed sources", and that the book has a "reliance on 'convenient rather than complete evidence.'"

Prior to the release of the book, internet personality Matt Drudge claimed that "the revelations in [the book] should sink Hillary's candidacy for 2008". However another commentator, Joe Conason, wrote that "citizens hoping to discover anything new about the famous junior Senator from New York shouldn’t waste their time or money on his unoriginal and unreliable rant" [2].

Hillary Clinton's press secretary stated that "This is a book full of blatant and vicious fabrications contrived by someone who writes trash for cash".

[edit] Criticism from conservatives

As would be expected, people sympathetic to Hillary Clinton condemned the claims contained in the book, as did various liberal commentators and journalists. More surprising, however, were the large number of conservative publications and journalists who also criticized the book.

To that end, Kathryn Jean Lopez of the proudly conservative political journal National Review asked Klein, "Why on earth would you put such a terrible story in your book...that looks to be flimsily sourced at that?" regarding his suggestion that Chelsea Clinton was conceived in an act of marital rape. Columnist John Podhoretz of The New York Post stated that the book is "one of the most sordid volumes I've ever waded through"[3]. According to Alicia Colon of the New York Sun, "Mr. Klein’s title led me to believe that his book would be pointing out these little hypocrisies, but instead he grovels below the belt — delving into the Clintons’ sex life, which is none of our business. "[4].

With the critical response to the book being so overwhelmingly negative, some commentators on the right have speculated that the book was intentionally written as a political device to indirectly boost support for a possible 2008 presidential run by Hillary Clinton. Proponents of this theory include former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Noonan, who also wrote a book critical of Hillary Clinton, states on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal that Klein "assumes the market is conservative and conservatives are stupid. They're not, actually. They want solid sourcing and new information that is true", concluding that this book only serves to "inoculate [Hillary Clinton] against future and legitimate criticism and revelations".[5]

Some commentators on the left feel that the nearly unanimous condemnation of The Truth About Hillary by the right may also be a well-coordinated political maneuver. Indeed, Keelin McDonel states in the left-leaning political journal The New Republic that "conservatives are launching a preemptive strike on what Klein identifies as one of Clinton's central mantras: 'victimhood can be a political plus.'"[6]

[edit] New allegations made in the book

[edit] Summary

The stated purpose of the author in writing the book was to expose what he believes to be the "true nature" of Hillary Clinton. Klein suggests that the pattern of deceit and manipulation uncovered by his research supports his theory of the contrast between Clinton's public and private life. The overall thrust of the book is that Clinton is and has been interested solely in her political success ever since she was a college student; Klein suggests that Clinton lacked marital affection for Bill beyond using her marriage to him as a means of rising through American politics.

Although most of the allegations published in the book have been made before, the book also includes claims about Clinton from identified and anonymous sources that had not been made prior to the publication. Some of these claims deal with her husband's relationships with other women, and her own relationship with her husband, and also her own personality, integrity, sexuality, infidelity, self-image, and personal hygiene.

[edit] Personality/integrity

[edit] Self-image and Botox

  • An anonymous doctor with no relationship to Hillary, and whose specialty isn't mentioned but allegedly "who had knowledge of such matters" believes that Hillary has been "Botoxed to the hilt."(Klein, 220)[7]
  • Alleged and unnamed friends of Hillary during her early adulthood state "Hillary had felt so hopelessly unattractive that she did not bother to shave her legs and underarms, and deliberately dressed badly" to avoid competing with more attractive women. (Klein, 24-25)[8]

[edit] Ambition and attitude

  • Jim Yrigoyen, allegedly Hillary's first boyfriend, claimed Hillary gave him a bloody nose after he upset her. (Klein, 49)[9]
  • An unnamed source alleges that Liz Moynihan said Hillary "would say or do anything that would forward her ambitions. She can look you straight in the eye and lie, and sort of not know she's lying" (Klein, 169)[10]

[edit] Sexuality

  • There is no outright accusation that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian, but the author states that an alleged classmate of Hillary's, whose name is not mentioned, said that lesbianism "was fascinating to Hillary", and looked at it more "as a political statement than a sexual practice". She is said to have "read lesbian literature, and embraced it as a revolutionary concept". (Klein, 62-63)[11]

[edit] Alleged affair

  • Repeating an allegation from Christopher Andersen's Bill and Hillary: The Marriage, Klein says Michael Galaster alleges "it was accepted as a fact that Hillary and Vince Foster were sleeping with each other." (Klein, 211)[12]

[edit] Personal hygiene

  • Dolly Kyle Browning, an alleged mistress of Bill Clinton, claims that at an event in the 1974 congressional race, "You should have seen her! No, you should have smelled her."(Klein, 84)[13]

[edit] Bill Clinton's other affairs

  • A private investigator, Ivan Duda, alleges that Hillary solicited his help saying, "I want you to get rid of all these bitches he's seeing" shortly after Bill Clinton lost a gubernatorial race. (Klein, 98-99)[14]
  • A source, whose name was not given but was alleged to be a "high-level White House staffer" stated that Hillary's Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman allowed Bill Clinton a number of mistresses on the White House staff. (Klein, 110)[15]
  • A source, whose name was not given, alleges Bill Clinton recently had an affair with an early 40s divorcee in Chappaqua, N.Y., spending the night at her house while the Secret Service sat parked in the driveway. (Klein, 213)[16]

[edit] Relationship with Bill Clinton

  • A woman claiming to be one of Bill Clinton's former mistress named Dolly Kyle Browning claims that Bill Clinton and "Hillary never had much of a sexual relationship", adding that he "had a low sperm count, and he and Hillary were going to a fertility specialist" (Klein, 91-92)[17]
  • An unnamed source alleges that, at a Bermuda resort, an intoxicated Bill Clinton told him "I'm going back to my cottage to rape my wife." Upon the source's alleged next-morning visit to the Clintons' unit, he claimed "the place looks like World War III. There are pillows and busted-up furniture all over the place." (Klein, 90-91)[18]
  • An unnamed source alleges that Clinton found about his wife's being pregnant from the aforementioned incident from a press conference. (Klein, 91)[19]

[edit] Inaccuracies

Media Matters for America compiled an extensive list of the fabrications, manipulations, and incorrect information compiled in Klein's book:

   
“
 The text of the book itself tends toward sweeping conclusions with little evidence; Klein favors quick, negative descriptions of people, without evidence or examples to back them up, such as his early reference to Bill Clinton as "careless and corrupt." And he makes ridiculous attempts at folksiness throughout the book. Once he mentions a person's nickname, he often refers to that person by the nickname -- so Nancy Pietrafesa (whose name is misspelled in the book) is quoted as "Peach"; Dolly Kyle Browning as "Dolly." The reader is treated to more than 15 references to Hillary Clinton as "the Big Girl," as in, "Some of the staff felt that the Big Girl's extreme suspicion of people and their motives bordered on paranoia" and "The Big Girl and the President took breakfast in the kitchen" and, best of all, "The Big Girl blew her nose."

Klein's references to Peach and Dolly and the Big Girl are so distracting that one begins to suspect misdirection -- an attempt to dull the mind to the many factual errors, distortions, and misleading claims sprinkled throughout the book. But they are there, and they are unmistakable:

  • Klein repeats long-debunked claims about Los Angeles air traffic being delayed while President Clinton got a haircut.
  • He falsely claims that Hillary Clinton spoke of her Jewish relatives only after controversy arose over her hug of Suha Arafat (Klein reversed the true order of the events).
  • He falsely claims the $25 million Clinton planned in 1999 to raise for her Senate campaign would be an "unprecedented" amount, ignoring the fact that another candidate had raised more than that for a Senate election held the previous year in the very same state.
  • Klein falsely claims that Rick Lazio, Clinton's Republican opponent in 2000 for a New York Senate seat, sent out no direct campaign mail.
  • He falsely claims that Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) couldn't bring himself to say Hillary's name in introducing her at her campaign announcement.
  • He falsely accuses Moynihan of giving a long and rambling description of hay-cutting that, in fact, lasted all of 29 words.
  • Klein falsely accuses Clinton of ignoring Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) during a speech to teachers in support of his presidential campaign.
  • He falsely accuses her of not wanting Kerry to win and of spending her time in states such as South Dakota, in which Kerry had very little chance (she hasn't been to South Dakota in years) ... and on, and on, and on.
   
”

Media Matters documents page-for-page inaccuracies and fabrications written in the book, here.


[edit] References

  1. ↑  Foser, Jamison. "The truth about The Truth About Hillary: Edward Klein's attack book is poorly researched, poorly written, poorly sourced", Media Matters for America, June 23, 2005, http://mediamatters.org/items/200506230001,
  2. ↑  Conason, Joe, The New York Observer, June 20, 2005, p. 5, http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/conason.asp.
  3. ↑  Podhoretz, John, "Smear For Profit—New Hillary 'Bio' is Just Trash", New York Post, June 22, 2005. pg. 31
  4. ↑  Colon, Alicia, "Clinton Book May Help, Not Harm, Her" The New York Sun, June 24, 2005
  5. ↑  Noonan, Peggy. "Eine Kleine Biographie." The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2005
  6. ↑  McDonell, Keelin, "Defense Mechanism", The New Republic, July 4 2005, Issue 4,720 vol. 233,
  7. ↑  Klein, Edward. The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President. New York: Sentinel, 2005.
  8. ↑  Ibid.
  9. ↑  Ibid.
  10. ↑  Ibid.
  11. ↑  Ibid.
  12. ↑  Ibid.
  13. ↑  Ibid.
  14. ↑  Ibid.
  15. ↑  Ibid.
  16. ↑  Ibid.
  17. ↑  Ibid.
  18. ↑  Ibid.
  19. ↑  Ibid.
  20. ↑  Ibid.

[edit] External links

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