Self-styled 'New Democrat' to separate himself from liberals
Bill shrewdly styled himself as a 'New Democrat' who could broaden his appeal to include independent voters and Republican moderates by shifting away from the Democratic liberal orthodoxy that has consistently lost elections.
He advocated ideological flexibility and a smaller but more open government that would provide opportunity for those who assumed responsibility.
Source: For Love of Politics, by Sally Bedell Smith, p. 5.
Oct 23, 2007
1955: attended church on his own accord at age 9
In the midst of household turmoil, Bill found a place of refuge amid the rottenness of Hot Springs: a church.
By the mid-1950s, the only religious education that Bill Clinton had received came from two years in a Catholic grade school, a subject on
which virtually nothing has been written. But starting in 1955, the 9-year-old began to wear a suit on Sunday mornings and walk alone to Park Place Baptist Church. The pastor, Reverend Dexter Blevins, said the boy was there "every time the door opened."
The boy sensed, maybe from observing the behavior of the two immature adults in his small universe, that it was important that he go to church in order to "to try to be a good person."
His mother agreed with her young son's decision to find
God, encouraging him to go every week, even though she and her husband made it only on Christmas and Easter.
The claim will shock his detractors today, but there were some who thought that the young Clinton would grow up to be a minister.
Part of his "New Democrat" included religious Democrat
The Clinton strategy for 1992 was to run Bill as a "New Democrat," a moderate Democrat. This was well planned: From 1990 to 1991, Bill chaired an important group called the Democratic Leadership Council, a collection of Democrats who understood that if
their party was ever again to win the White House, they would need to stop running ultraliberals at the time of the ticket. There, he was joined by a onetime moderate, the pro-life senator from Tennessee, Al Gore.
A moderate
Democrat must, of course, be a religious Democrat. Bill Clinton noted during the campaign that he was such a Democrat. "I pray virtually every day, usually at night, and I read the Bible every week," he said. He added that he believed strongly in "old-
fashioned things" like the "constancy of sin, the possibility of forgiveness, the reality of redemption." While these words might sound hollow from some candidates, from Clinton they were in line with his long-established beliefs and life experiences.
The bombshell hit the public on August 17, 1998, with Bill giving public admission in a prime-time speech on national television. Bill Clinton was master of the parsed word. The way he phrased his admission, conceding a "lapse in judgment," would have
allowed for merely a single sexual act. That was all he needed to admit, since there was only one verifiable stain. Moreover, he used the speech to take the offensive against Kenneth Starr, the official independent counsel.
President Clinton did say he was "solely and completely responsible," though that stand-up statement seemed to fall by the wayside as he tore into Starr.
Yes, Starr had reported some tawdry personal material.
Yet, Bill Clinton, publicly and under oath, had denied the relationship with Lewinsky. Starr had a legal and ethical duty to find and report the details. To this day, Bill Clinton remains angry at Starr.
1996: faith community most scandalized by Easter liaison
The 1998 Starr Report had one item focusing on Bill Clinton's faith and the public's perception of him as a religious or nonreligious man--the tale of Clinton's sexual exploits with Monica on Easter Sunday, 1996, when
Bill, who had spent the morning at church, had an afternoon liaison with Monica in the Oval Office. This liaison was perhaps the most scandalous of them all, having commenced in the hallway before moving to
Bill's private study, whereupon the president received oral sex from the intern as he simultaneously conducted business over the phone.
The incident has hardly been forgotten, especially among observant Christians. Detractors and skeptics of Bill's faith never cease to bring it up, always eager to denounce Bill as a hypocrite.
Familiar with Bible & has genuine faith, say his pastors
Philip Wogaman became part of what became known as the "God Squad"--the trio of ministers that began counseling Bill during the intern scandal. He was joined by Tony Campolo and Gordon MacDonald.
In an interview for this book, Wogaman confirmed that
Bill, not Hillary, was the impetus. Wogaman confirms that Bill, in addition to his regular church attendance, was meeting once a week with personal spiritual counselors.
Even before the Lewinsky scandal, Campolo says he and Clinton "would get together
about once every five or six weeks for a couple of hours."
Wogaman said they discussed how important faith is in forming our lives. The minister said that through these experiences, he learned that Clinton's faith was genuine, though Wogaman did
carefully concede that "you can never entirely read into the heart of a person."
In his first session with the God Squad, Bill opened his Bible and read his favorite passage from Isaiah. Wogaman perceived that Clinton was "very familiar with the Bible.
1974:Turned down dairy money because it had strings attached
In the final weeks of Bill's campaign for Congress, an operative was contacted by a lawyer connected to the dairy industry. He was willing to give $15,000 to be used in
Sebastian County, which would "ensure that you are able to win the election." The unspoken message was that such funds could be used to buy votes. And if Bill won, the dairy interests would expect political payback.
At a meeting, the operative explained the deal. Hillary listened to his pitch in silence, then shouted, "No. You don't want to be a party to this."
The operative asked Bill, "Do you want to win or do you want to lose?"
Hillary said, "If we can't earn it, we can't go." And that was that. On election night, Bill's opponent won by 6,000 votes.
Despite critics, fervent believer in policy solutions
The notion of Hillary and Bill Clinton as power-hungry acquisitors with little interest in the public weal save some sort of left-leaning ideology has always been at odds with the facts. In his inaugural address, he proclaimed floridly: "For as long as
I can remember, I have believed passionately in the cause of equal opportunity, and I will do what I can to advance it. For as long as I can remember, I have loved the land, air, and water of Arkansas, and I will do what I can to protect them.
For as long as I can remember, I have wished to ease the burdens of life for those who, through no fault of their own, are weak or needy, and I will try to help them."
Over the next two years,
Clinton would find himself walking a thin line between implementing policies that could dramatically contribute to the lives of his fellow Arkansans, and attempting not to rattle of the establishment and the good ol' boys who ran the legislature.
Founded "New Democrat" message in 1980 Convention speech
At the 1980 Democratic convention in New York, Bill was chosen by the Democratic governors to deliver a prime-time speech as their representative. [Bill said in his speech that] the time had come to find "more creative and realistic" solutions than the
old Democratic coalition had been recycling for two generations.
"We were brought up to believe, uncritically, without thinking about it, that our system broke down in the Great Depression, and was reconstructed in the New Deal and
WWII, and would never break down again. But the hard truth is that for ten long years through Democratic and Republican administrations alike, this economic system has been breaking down. We have seen high inflation, high unemployment, large government
deficits, the loss of our competitive edge."
That synthesis would be the foundation of the "New Democrat" movement in politics that Bill Clinton would come to symbolize over the next ten years.
[After Bill's gubernatorial loss in 1980, polls suggested] an ad in which Clinton apologized for his mistakes, most notably the car tag increase. This led to an ad campaign with the theme, "My Daddy Never Had to Whip Me Twice" Given another opportunity
by Arkansas citizens, said Bill, he would pay them heed and not make the same mistakes again. The ads aired in early Feb. 1982, but Bill would not announce his candidacy until Chelsea's 2nd birthday on Feb. 27. At that press conference, Hillary gave
Bill a framed picture of the three of them, with the engraving, "Chelsea's second birthday, Bill's second chance."
The 1982 campaign became the model for their political future, with Hillary assuming a far more direct, hands-on role in terms of
policy, strategy, and staff. Hillary was never bashful about telling you when she thought you made a mistake. Bill Clinton would never tell you that, though he might think it. He was the good guy. Hillary was the one that laid the law down.
Monica affair was "inappropriate" but not sex in legal terms
In the Paula Jones deposition, Clinton's lawyer represented to the judge that "there is no sex of any kind in any manner, shape, or form" between the president and Monica Lewinsky. [In the Starr inquiry], Clinton was asked by a prosecutor "Wouldn't you
agree, this was an utterly false statement?" Clinton smiled. "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.... If 'is' means is and never has been, that's one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement." A few minutes later, "I
was not trying to give you a cute answer to that."
Clinton read from a prepared statement in which he admitted "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, which "did not consist of sexual intercourse," and did not "constitute sexual
relations" as defined in a long list of terms he had read at his deposition. He said, "I'll bet the jurors, if they were talking about a sexual relationship, they meant they were sleeping together; they meant they were having intercourse"--not oral sex.
$52M Whitewater investigation began on real estate; not sex
Upon the Clinton's arrival at the White House, the notion that their failed $100,000 investment in an old real estate deal would lead to the president's impeachment for lying about his sexual conduct was inconceivable. The "Whitewater story" became
overblown almost from the moment the NY Times first wrote about it, during the 1992 campaign. The Clintons' response was not straightforward, & served only to create more suspicion.
It was a reasonable issue to explore in a presidential campaign: the
governor of a state who had regulatory authority over a savings-and-loan was in business with the owner of an S&L, jointly owning a piece of land. But in retrospect, it's shocking how much was made out of that mistake.
After 6 years of investigation,
$52 million, and a Senate trial, the special prosecutor was forced to acknowledge that there had been no violation of law by either Hillary or Bill surrounding the land transaction. The allegation that stuck was that Bill Clinton lied about sex.
Promise of ethical reform invited harsh unceasing scrutiny
The Clintons complained bitterly that from their first days in office they had been singled out and judged by harsher standards than any of their predecessors, and victimized by a consortium of enemies and overzealous press. There is little question that
they were treated more harshly, and often pursued with different standards & more relentlessly than any president & his wife of the 20th century.
Moreover, the underlying assumptions of some of the basic charges & assertions that fueled the unceasing
investigation--most notably those related to the so-called Whitewater matter--were often contextually misleading, exaggerated in significance, and sometimes factually off-base.
Yet there can be no question that the Clintons had invited unusual scrutiny
by their impassioned promises of probity to voters in the campaign of 1992, and an unwavering inaugural theme that stressed the ethical reform they said they were bringing to Washington. There was something of an implicit challenge in their manner.
1987: Declined chance to run; some say due to affairs
[In the wake of Gary Hart's withdrawal from the 1988 presidential race, due to an affair, Bill Clinton became the subject of presidential speculation.] An advisor reviewed names to evaluate which women were most likely to seek out the press,
and the advisor said that it would be disastrous to declare his candidacy. Hillary wrote many years afterward that Bill was still undecided the day before his announcement. The next day,
Bill announced he would not be a candidate in 1988.
Bill would later say of the decision, "Finally I felt as though the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders.
I was free to be a father, husband, and governor and to work and speak on national issues unencumbered by immediate ambitions."
When he set the agenda, he won; but scandals interfered
The greatest power of the presidency and the essential tool put to use by modern American presidents, was the ability to set the national agenda.
The joint Clinton presidency lost the ability to set the national agenda as no other modern presidency had
Whenever Clinton was able to regain control of the agenda, he was almost always successful: the economic plan, NAFTA, welfare reform, and a series of orders & actions toward the end of his administration that made higher education available to almost any
American. His perseverance in winning the major achievements of his presidency were extraordinary.
From its outset until Clinton's acquittal in the Senate trial, the terms of the national debate were more often set by the press, the
Clintons' enemies, the Republican opposition, and the special prosecutor. The best efforts of the Clintons, their aides and lawyers were spent in response to investigations. The Clinton presidency was sapped of its almost limitless potential.
From mother Virginia came stamina & gregariousness
Hillary and Bill were asleep when the phone rang in the early morning hours of January 6. Dick Kelley, Virginia's husband, was on the line to tell the president that his mother had died in her sleep. She had been fighting breast cancer since 1990.
Virginia had been the big influence on Bill's life. She had persevered through hard knocks, inculcated in him her optimism and drive. She had buried three husbands, two of whom had abused her. She had worked long hours and paid most of Bill's tuition to
Georgetown. "I got my stamina from my mother," Bill said.
Clinton's gregariousness, his fun-loving nature, his glad-handing, his hugging, his empathy, his ability to focus on whomever he was talking to, all those were traits he shared with his mother.
Hillary believed that Bill and Virginia shared great optimism, along with a tendency to repress unpleasant thoughts. He had nearly photographic recall, yet for decades had blocked out painful scenes involving his abusive stepfather.
Republicans have to portray Democrats as unacceptable to win
We Democrats want to build a world and an America of shared responsibilities and shared benefits. We want a world with more global cooperation where we act alone only when we absolutely have to. We think the role of government should be to give people th
tools to create the conditions to make the most of their own lives. And we think everybody should have that chance. The Republicans believe American should be run by the right people-their people-in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can
& cooperates when we have to. They believe the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their economic, political and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on important matters like
health care and retirement security. Now, since most Americans aren't that far to the right, our friends have to portray us Democrats as simply unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America. But we don't.
Strength and wisdom are not opposing values. They go hand in hand, and Kerry has both. His first priority will be to keep America safe. Kerry and Edwards are good people with good ideas, ideas to make the economy work again for middle-class Americans, to
restore fiscal responsibility, to make health care more affordable, college more available, to free us from dependence on foreign oil, and create new jobs with clean energy and a cleaner environment, and to make a world with more friends and less terror.
Source: Speech to the Democratic National Convention
Jul 29, 2004
Born in 1946 in Hope Arkansas to a widowed mother
Early on the morning of August 19, 1946, I was born under a clear sky after a violent summer storm to a widowed mother in the Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, a town of about six thousand in southwest Arkansas, thirty-three miles east of the Texas border
at Texarkana. My mother named me William Jefferson Blythe III after my father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr., one of nine children of a poor farmer in Sherman, Texas.
My father met my mother at Tri- State Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1943, when
she was training to be a nurse. Two months later, they were married and he was off to war. He served in a motor pool in the invasion of Italy, repairing jeeps and tanks. After the war, he returned to Hope for Mother and they moved to Chicago, where he
got back his old job as a salesman for the Manbee Equipment Company.
On May 17, 1946, [my father died in a traffic accident] drowned, only twenty-eight years old, married two years and eight months, only seven months of which he had spent with Mother.
Father's death in traffic accident drove Bill to achieve
On May 17, 1946, my father was driving from Chicago to Hope to fetch his wife. Late at night, he lost control of his car, when the right front tire blew out on a wet road. He was thrown clear of the car but landed in, or crawled into, a drainage ditch.
He drowned, only 28 years old, married 2 years & 8 months, only 7 months of which he had spent with Mother.
When I was about 12, sitting on my uncle's porch in Hope, a man walked up the steps, looked at me, & said, "You're Bill Blythe's son. You look
just like him." I beamed for days.
My father left me with the feeling that I had to live for two people, and that if I did it well enough, somehow I could make up for the life he should have had. And his memory infused me, at a younger age than most,
with a sense of my own mortality. The knowledge that I, too, could die young drove me both to try to drain the most out of every moment of life and to get on with the next big challenge. Even when I wasn't sure where I was going, I was always in a hurry.
In 1993, on Father's Day, my first as President, [several newspapers ran] investigative stories on my father. The stories turned up a lot we didn't know, including the fact that my father had probably been married three times before he met Mother,
and apparently had at least two more children.
My father's other son was identified as Leon Ritzenthaler, a retired owner of a janitorial service, from northern California. He said he had written me during the '92 campaign but had received no reply.
I got in touch with him and later met him & his wife, Judy. We had a happy visit and since then we've corresponded in holiday seasons. He and I look alike, his birth certificate says his father was mine, and I wish I'd known about him a long time ago.
Somewhere around this time, I also received information about a daughter, born Sharon Lee Blythe in Kansas City in 1941, to a woman my father later divorced. I'm sorry to say that, for whatever reason, I've never met her.
Right wing ideology trumps compassionate conservatism
I had watched the Washington Republicans for eight years and imagined that President Bush would, from the outset of his term, be under pressure to abandon compassionate conservatism by the more right-wing leaders and interest groups now in
control of his party. They believed in their ways as deeply as I believed in mine, but I thought the evidence, and the weight of history, favored our side (democratic liberalism).
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.951
Jun 21, 2004
Learn from Creation what one must be
According to Ernest Becker [a philosopher who wrote The Denial of Death], as we grow up, at some point we become aware of death, then the fact that people we know and love die, then the fact that someday we, too, will die. Most of us do what we
can to avoid it. Meanwhile, we embrace identities and the illusion of self-sufficiency. We pursue activities, both positive and negative, that we hope will lift us beyond the chains of ordinary existence and perhaps endure after we are gone.
Whether we succeed or fail ,we are still going to die. The only solace, of course, is to believe that since we are created, there must be a Creator, one to whom we matter and will in some way return. Becker seemed to have met Immanuel Kant's test of life
: 'How to occupy properly that place in creation that is assigned to man, and how to learn from it what one must be in order to be a man.' I've spent a life time trying to do that. Becker's book helped convince me it was an effort worth making.
Bush believes in his way, but history favors Clinton's
I thought about the note to President Bush I would write and leave behind in the Oval Office, just as his father had done for me eight years earlier. I wanted to be gracious and encouraging, as George Bush had been to me. Soon George W. Bush would be
President of all the people, and I wished him well. I had paid close attention to what Bush and Cheney had said in the campaign. I knew they saw the world very differently from the way I did and would want to undo much of what I had done,
especially on economic policy and the environment. But those were not my calls to make anymore. I had watched the Washington Republicans for eight years and imagined that President Bush would, from the outset of his term, be under pressure to abandon
compassionate conservatism by the more right-wing leaders and interest groups now in control of his party. They believed in their way as deeply as I believed in mine, but I thought the evidence, and the weight of history, favored our side.
Nominated Dukakis at 1988 Convention; turned into fiasco
Although Bill decided not to run in 1988, the nominee, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, asked him to give the nominating speech at the Democratic Convention in Atlanta.
It turned into a fiasco. Dukakis and his staff had reviewed and approved every word of Bill's text ahead of time, but the speech was longer than the delegates or the television networks expected.
Some delegates on the floor began yelling at Bill to finish. This was a humiliating introduction to the nation, and many observers assumed Bill's political future was over. Eight days later, though, he was on Johnny Carson's
Tonight Show, making fun of himself and playing his saxophone. Yet another comeback.
In front of the building [in Harlem in which he will set up his post-Presidential office], Mr. Clinton said that “I feel wonderful about it” and “I hope we can work the lease out in the details.” Mr. Clinton said that Harlem had long held a special
attraction for him, first when he was a university student in England and then later when he became president. The building, which may be the best privately owned office building in Harlem, is in an economic empowerment zone that Mr. Clinton helped
create in his first term. Aides have added that Mr. Clinton is also grateful that African-Americans stood by him in the bleakest moments of his presidency.
Should Mr. Clinton eventually settle on office space in Harlem, it would settle the storm of
criticism that has followed him since he first planned to move into the 56th floor of [a midtown office tower]. The lease for that space was estimated from $738,700 to $811,000 a year. The asking annual rent for the 14th floor in Harlem would be $210,000
Source: NY Times, p. A22
Feb 13, 2001
Turns over reins of leadership with America at its strongest
Our economy is breaking records with more than 22 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 30 years, the highest home ownership ever, the longest expansion in history.
Our families and communities are stronger. 35 million Americans have
used the family leave law, 8 million have moved off welfare, crime is at a 25-year low.
More people than ever are going to college. Our schools are better: higher standards, greater accountability and larger investments have brought higher test scores
and higher graduation rates.
More than 3 million children have health insurance now and more than 7 million Americans have been lifted out of poverty.
Our air and water are cleaner, our food and drinking water are safer and more of our precious
land has been preserved.
America has been a force for peace and prosperity in every corner of the globe.
I’m very grateful to be able to turn over the reins of leadership with America in such a strong position to meet the challenges of the future.
Source: President Clinton’s farewell address
Jan 18, 2001
Future: fiscally responsible; lead world; weave diversity
Tonight I want to leave you with three thoughts about our future.
America must maintain our record of fiscal responsibility. If we choose wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal with the retirement of the baby- boomers, invest more in our future
and provide tax relief.
Because the world is more connected every day in every way, America’s security and prosperity require us to continue to lead in the world. At this remarkable moment in history, more people live in freedom than ever before. Our
alliances are stronger than ever. People all around the world look to America to be a force for peace and prosperity, freedom and security.
We must remember that America cannot lead in the world unless here at home we weave the threads of our coat of
many colors into the fabric of one America. As we become ever more diverse, we must work harder to unite around our common values and our common humanity. We must work harder to overcome our differences in our hearts and in our laws.
Source: President Clinton’s farewell address
Jan 18, 2001
What's right with America can fix what's wrong with America
In an earnest if unremarkable speech--edited, like all his other major addresses, by Hillary--the president speaks of the hopes that have put him in office. "The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You have raised your voices in
an unmistakable chorus," he tells the vast throng spread the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue. "There is nothing wrong with America," he assures them, "that cannot be cured by what is right with America."
Source: Partners in Power, by Roger Morris, p. 8
Apr 25, 1999
1992: opponents failed to find disloyalty in Bill in Moscow
Bill Clinton's ties to the intelligence community go back all the way to Oxford and come forward from there, says a former government official who claims to have seen files long since destroyed. The subject of sharply varying accounts, the future
president's final months in England were indeed shrouded in some mystery and in inconsistencies never explained--though the very polarity of the suspicions and allegations seem only to obscure what really happened.
Republican aides rifled passport file
in vain for some evidence of Clinton disloyalty while abroad. Trailing in October, George Bush himself tried almost pathetically to impute something subversively, unpatriotically sinister to Clinton's 1969-70 trip to Moscow or his role in antiwar rallies
demanding that Clinton tell voters "how many demonstrations he led against his own country from a foreign soil." [Others claimed that Bill Clinton] was a full-fledged CIA "asset," who informed on his American friends in the peace movement in Britain.
The Governor of Arkansas is on his way to Washington to become the 42nd president of the United States. His own bus bears the license plate HOPE 1, after the small town where he was born in southwestern Arkansas. A reportedly prodigal young governor, wha
he calls a New Democrat from the New South, he is the first of his party to win the White House in a dozen years and, at 46, the 3rd-youngest chief executive in American history. He is not alone, just as he has never been alone in an unswerving
20-year political career since law school. At his side is the woman who has been there from the beginning, 18 years as his wife. A year younger than the new president, Hillary brings her own vivid history to this moment. If the new president carries
hope, so does she, the symbol of a matured liberation and equality of women. For now at least, on the eve of her husband's inauguration, she promises to become the most powerful and significant First Lady in American history.
Half siblings Henry & Sharron, by two different mothers
As in all the bawdy old jokes about traveling salesmen, there were women--especially for Bill Blythe [Bill Clinton's father; known as "W.J."]. He married, somewhat furtively, 18-year-old Adele Gash. They were divorced in 1936. Still, he went back to
Adele often after the divorce and, the following spring, fathered a baby boy by her, Henry Leon, born in January 1938.
In 1940, he met a dark-haired 17-year-old named Wanetta Alexander. By the end of 1940 Wanetta was pregnant, and Bill Blythe had gone
to northern California, supposedly to see Adele and his first child.
But after a few days Bill had suddenly run off with Adele's pretty younger sister, Minnie Faye. Bill and Minnie Faye Gash were married on December 29, 1940, in Durant, Oklahoma.
That too, was soon over.
Under pressure from the Alexander family, his hasty marriage to Minnie Faye was annulled in Little Rock in April 1941. In less than a week, he married Wanetta. His new wife gave birth to a baby girl. They named her Sharron.
His father committed bigamy by marrying his mother
[In 1943 Bill Bythe met] Virginia Dell Cassidy. She was engaged at the time to a high school sweetheart but was immediately taken with Bill Blythe and his striking good looks. [They married in September.]
On April 13, 1944, a
Missouri court granted the divorce [for Bill Blythe and Wanetta Alexander, whom he had married in April 1941. That means that on] September 3, 1943, Bill Blythe had committed bigamy by marrying Virginia Cassidy before a justice of the peace in
Texarkana.
He joined the army and was sent abroad only five weeks after his marriage to Virginia. He was discharged as a technician, third grade, in December 1945 with a commendation for his service.
Virginia became pregnant [with Bill Clinton] almost immediately. Her conception came at the beginning of the great postwar baby boom. [Bill Blythe died in a car accident that May]
Monica & impeachment propelled him to highest approval
During the Monica Lewinsky episode, Hillary appeared on the Today show and said, "I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people, who are involved in this. They have popped up in other settings. The story here for anybody willing to
find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
A week after her appearance on the show, a poll showed that
59% believed that "Clinton's political enemies are conspiring to bring down his presidency." Bill had achieved the highest approval ratings of his presidency--67% of Americans approved of his performance.
The impeachment locomotive was gathering steam. Hyde would have doubts about the wisdom of continuing down the impeachment track, especially because Bill's popularity remained high, but Gingrich had no hesitancy.
Bill's "let me think about it" meant "I'll ask Hillary"
Bill and Hillary's joint decision-making at the beginning of his presidency was as overt as it would ever be in the White House. "He would say, 'Hillary thinks this. What do you think?'" said White House counsel
Bernard Nussbaum. "They really were a partnership. She was the absolutely necessary person he had to have to bounce things up against, and he was that for her. I sensed a tremendous need for each other.
They didn't have to see each other, but they would talk continually every day." In deference to her continuing role as Bill's "closer," staff members called Hillary "the Supreme Court." "We would always say, 'Has the
Supreme Court been consulted?'" recalled Dee Dee Myers, the president's press secretary for two years, now a V.F. contributing editor. Whenever Bill said, "Let me think about it," aides knew he intended to call Hillary.
Role as "First Laddy": advise Hillary & promote her agenda
Q: If Hillary is elected president, what would your role be? What would you be called? You're not First Lady. Would you be First Man? How does that work?
A: I have no idea. You know the Scots say I should be First Laddy. But I don't know.
I'm more interested in what I'd be called upon to do. And it's been illegal for 40 years, since Robert Kennedy served as attorney general, and then the Democratic Congress with President Johnson in office made it illegal for the members of families of
the president to be in the Cabinet. I actually agree with that. I think it would be a mistake for Hillary to give me a line policy-making job. I think I should be available to help her with specific foreign problems, that she said, and maybe to help to
promote the domestic agenda, go around the country and help promote it. But I will do whatever I am asked to do. I don't care what I'm called, I don't care where my office is. I just want to do whatever helps her most.
Don't eliminate Hillary over "dynasty"; vote on her merits
Q: Do you ever think of the historical significance, a husband and a wife both being president?
A: Sometimes. I think you asked her last time about how for 28 years...
Q: From 1980 to 2008 there will be a Bush or a Clinton on the national ticket.
Two families, political dynasty.
A: She responded, "Well, I think Bill was a pretty good president," which is a way of saying, "I'm not responsible for 20 of those 28 years." To be fair, though, when we think of dynasties in historical circumstances,
you get it because of who your family is, not because of what your merits are. I think the real question here is not whether she's establishing a dynasty, but almost whether we should eliminate her because she happens to be my wife if she is otherwise
the person who would be the best president. I think she's the best suited, best qualified nonincumbent I've had a chance to vote for for president for this moment in time. So I don't want to see her eliminated because [of concern over dynasty].
1986: Attacked for Hillary working at Rose while First Lady
In Sept. 1986, Frank White, the Republican candidate for governor, began running ads stating that the Clintons had a conflict of interest because Hillary was a member of the law firm that her husband's administration had hired. Bill and White then argued
about the issue in a televised debate. "The money the state paid to the Rose firm was subtracted from the firm's income before Hillary's partnership profits were calculated," Bill said, "so she made no money from it." Bill also deflected White's attacks
by asking him if he wanted to run for First Lady instead of governor.
These arguments resonated. In the eyes of the voters, the relationship became a non-issue. But previously undisclosed law firm records show that Hillary didn't ask the firm to
segregate her share of the state business until two months after White's unsuccessful attack. Hillary eventually rectified the situation by repaying her share of past state fees "in any year Bill served as Governor," which she calculated at $12,235.83.
Met Hillary in 1970: impressed with strength, not appearance
Bill Clinton remembers the moment he first set eyes on Hillary. It was toward the end of the fall of 1970. Bill was not initially attracted to Hillary's appearance. There was something else Bill saw that he liked. It was an attraction to something less
obvious and more irresistible. Bill later admitted that Hillary "conveyed a sense of strength and self-possession I had rarely seen in anyone."
Bill followed Hillary, fully intending to introduce himself. When he came within two feet of her, a force
larger than himself stopped him. "It was almost a physical reaction. Somehow I knew that this wasn't another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn't stop."
Bill and Hillary met near the end of their first year. They were
inseparable that first week. Over the weekend, Hillary went to see a man she had been dating. Bill spent the weekend fretting. When she returned, he called her but she was sick. Bill brought her soup, and with that, neither was interested in anyone else.
Start of "20-Year Project":Hillary managed Bill's House race
Hillary & Bill had made a secret pact, one whose importance has remained their secret across all these years. They agreed to embark on a partnership with two goals: revolutionize the Democratic Party and capture the presidency for Bill. They called it
their "twenty-year project." They agreed that the only way they would be able to achieve their goals was to do whatever it took to win elections & defeat opponents. Bill would be the public face, and Hillary would serve as the behind-the-scenes manager.
In a letter to Bill, Hillary laid out some of the details. One of Bill's ex-girlfriends accidentally stumbled upon the letter. "The note talked about all their future plans. political plans. the letter had everything to do with their careers, there
was no talk of a home, family, and marriage." Having glimpsed the missive Crider was not surprised to see Hillary running Bill's first campaign for Congress. Hillary did everything. She wrote Bill's speeches. She even sold sandwiches to raise money.
Gave up job with McGovern 1972 campaign to follow Hillary
Bill had signed on to work in Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign and that the campaign manager, Gary Hart, had asked Bill to organize the South for McGovern. The prospect of driving from one Southern state to another
convincing Democrats both to support McGovern and to oppose Nixon's policy in Vietnam excited him.
Although Bill had worked in Arkansas on campaigns for Senator J. William Fulbright and others, and in Connecticut for Joe Duffey and Joe Lieberman,
he'd never had the chance to be in on the ground floor of a presidential campaign.
I tried to let the news sink in. I was thrilled.
"Why," I asked, "do you want to give up the opportunity to do something you love to follow me to California?"
"For someone I love, that's why," he said.
He had decided, he told me, that we were destined for each other, and he didn't want to let me go just after he'd found me.
Loves Hillary but has caused pain in their marriage
We appeared on "60 Minutes" right after the Super Bowl to discuss the Gennifer Flowers issue.
The interviewer started with a series of questions about our relationship, adultery and divorce. We declined to answer such personal questions about our
personal lives. But Bill acknowledged that he had caused pain in our marriage and said he would leave it to voters to decide whether that disqualified him from the Presidency.
Q: You seem to have reached some sort of an understanding or an
arrangement.
Bill: Wait a minute. You're looking at two people who love each other. This is not an arrangement or an understanding. This is a marriage. That's a very different thing.
Hillary: I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by my
man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him. If that's not enough for people, then heck, don't vote for him.
23 days later, Bill became known as the "Comeback Kid" for his strong 2nd-place finish in N.H.
What the meaning of is, is became symbol of hairsplitting
[On 8/17/98, Bill Clinton testified before a grand jury.] When asked directly whether he was "physically intimate with Monica Lewinsky," he read a written statement acknowledging "inappropriate intimate contact," but he repeatedly said that this "did not
consist of sexual intercourse," nor did it "constitute sexual relations" under the 3-pronged definition he had been given during the Jones deposition.
The prosecutor pointed to a passage in the Jones deposition when his lawyer had assured everyone that
there is no sex of any kind in any manner, shape, or form between the president & Lewinsky. The prosecutor asked the president whether he agreed that this "was an utterly false statement."
With a wan smile, the president said, "It depends on
what the meaning of 'is'... is. If 'is' means is, and never has been, that is one thing. If it means, there is none, that was a completely true statement." The quotation came to symbolize Bill's hairsplitting obfuscation, and infuriated the prosecutors.
Expanding Whitewater to Lewinsky was a perjury trap
Linda Tripp had a riveting tale that implicated the president in an affair with a White House intern. In 1998, the president was scheduled to be deposed by Paula Jones's lawyers in a sexual harassment lawsuit. During that session, he would be asked, unde
oath, about the nature of his relationship with Lewinsky.
The deposition amounted to nothing less than an elaborate perjury trap designed to catch the president in an under-oath lie. The trap by Jones's lawyers was intended to harm Bill politically and
possibly drive him from the presidency.
Kenneth Starr sought permission to extend the Whitewater inquiry into Tripp's allegations. The thinking was that the president's alleged attempt to "buy" Lewinsky's silence through a job in NY was tantamount to
the same sort of obstruction of justice. By virtue of the wording of the independent-counsel statute, he was within his rights to follow nearly any lead. It was not surprising that Attorney General Janet Reno granted Starr's request to investigate it.
I said that I was sorry for all who had been hurt--Monica Lewinsky and her family; that I had asked for their forgiveness:-- a willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.810
Jun 21, 2004
Cites John 8:7 as defense against impeachment
I have two stones with the New Testament verse John 8:7 inscribed on them. In what many people believe was Jesus' last encounter with his critics, the Pharisees, they brought to him a woman caught in the act of adultery
and said the law of Moses commanded them to stone her to death. Jesus responded 'He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' My sense of my own mortality and human frailty and the unconditional love
I'd had as a child had spared me the compulsion to judge and condemn others. And I believed my personal flaws, no matter how deep, were far less threatening to our democratic government than the power lust of my accusers.
The Supreme Court said today that a lawyer who was disciplined in his home state of Arkansas cannot practice law before the High Court. The action was totally unremarkable, except that the lawyer in question is former President Bill Clinton.
The justices’ action followed Clinton’s acceptance earlier this year of a five-year suspension of his law license in Arkansas and his payment of a $25,000 fine to the Arkansas Bar Association [stemming from a sexual-harassment suit filed in 1994 by
Paula Corbin Jones].
The high court’s rules call for it to suspend a lawyer who has been disbarred or suspended by a lower court from practicing before the United States Supreme Court. The rules also give the lawyer 40 days to respond to
final disbarment from the high court. No further punishment is involved but, since it is an honor for a lawyer to be admitted to practice before the high court, losing that privilege could be seen as an embarrassment, especially for a former president.
Source: David Stout, New York Times
Oct 1, 2001
Acknowledges wrongdoing; pays fine; seeks closure
Today, I signed a consent order in the lawsuit brought by the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct which brings to an end that proceeding.
I have accepted a five-year suspension of my law license, agreed to pay a $25,000 fine to cover counsel
fees, and acknowledged a violation of one of the Arkansas model rules of professional conduct because of testimony in my Paula Jones case deposition. The disbarment suit will now be dismissed.
In this consent order, I acknowledge having knowingly
violated Judge Wright’s discovery orders in my deposition in that case. I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely, but I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish this goal and that certain of my responses to
questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false.
I have apologized for my conduct and I have done my best to atone for it with my family, my administration and the American people. I hope my actions today will help bring closure and finality to the matters.
Source: Statement on conclusion of Whitewater investigation
Jan 19, 2001
Grounds for impeachment: lying & obstructing justice
The Office of the Independent Counsel hereby submits substantial and credible information that President Clinton committed acts that may constitute grounds for an impeachment. The information reveals that President Clinton:
lied under oath at a
civil deposition while he was a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit, jones v. Clinton;
lied under oath to a grand jury about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky;
attempted to influence the testimony of a potential witness;
lied to potential grand jury witnesses, knowing that they would repeat those lies
before the grand jury; and
engaged in a pattern of conduct regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was inconsistent with his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law.
Source: The Starr Report, p. 21-22
Sep 11, 1998
Bill Clinton on Political Philosophy
Developed the New Democrat Philosophy for 1992 campaign
By the end of 1986, I had formed some basic convictions about the nature of the modern world, which was later developed into the so-called New Democrat philosophy that was the backbone of my 1992 campaign for President. These are the new rules that
I believe should provide the framework within which we make policy today:
Change may be the only constant in today's American economy
[Human capital] is probably more important than physical capital now.
A more constructive partnership
between business and government is far more important than the dominance of either.
As we try to solve problems which arise out of the internationalization of American life and the changes in our own population, cooperation in every area is far more
important than conflict. We have to share responsibilities and opportunities--we're going up or down together.
Waste is going to be punished [especially corporate debt].
A strong America requires a resurgent sense of community.
When I visited Ireland last year, I met with Seamus Heaney, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, a man who has chronicled Ireland’s long struggle and his own fight against cynicism and defeat. I was particularly moved by some words he had written,
which I quoted in my speeches to the Irish people. Later, he was kind enough to write them out for me. That piece of paper now hangs in my study at the White House, and I look at it often. One line always leaps out at me-the moment when “hope and history
rhyme.“
I believe that America today stands between hope and history-at the edge of a moment when these two powerful forces are as one, when we can embrace the dawn of the new
century, drawing strength and guidance from our past, filled with confidence that in this new age of possibility, our best is yet to come.
New Covenant: responsibility, citizenship, opportunity
We all gain when we give. We reap whatever we sow. That’s at the heart of the New Covenant: Responsibility. Citizenship. Opportunity. They are the virtues by which we can fulfill ourselves and our God-given potential-the virtues by which we can live out
the eternal promise of America, the enduring dream of that first and most sacred covenant: ‘that all men are created equal.’
We need to forge a New Covenant that will repair the damaged bond between the people and the government and restore our basic
values-the notion that our country has a responsibility to help people get ahead. That citizens have not only the right but a responsibility to rise as far and as high as their talents and determination can take them, and that we’re all in this together.
Make no mistake: This New Covenant means change-change in our party, change in our national leadership, and change in our country. People have lost faith in the ability of government to change their lives for the better.
Supports Hyde Park Declaration of "Third Way" centrism.
Clinton adopted the manifesto, "A New Politics for a New America":
As New Democrats, we believe in a Third Way that rejects the old left-right debate and affirms America’s basic bargain: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and community of all.
We believe:
that government’s proper role in the New Economy is to equip working Americans with new tools for economic success and security.
in expanding trade and investment because we must be a party of economic progress, not economic reaction.
that fiscal discipline is fundamental to sustained economic growth as well as responsible government.
that a progressive tax system is the only fair way to pay for government.
the Democratic Party’s mission is to expand opportunity, not government.
that education must be America’s great equalizer, and we will not abandon our public schools or tolerate their failure.
that all Americans must have access to health insurance.
in preventing crime and punishing criminals.
in a new social compact that requires and
rewards work in exchange for public assistance and that ensures that no family with a full-time worker will live in poverty.
that public policies should reinforce marriage, promote family, demand parental responsibility, and discourage out-of-wedlock births.
in enhancing the role that civic entrepreneurs, voluntary groups, and religious institutions play in tackling America’s social ills.
in strengthening environmental protection by giving communities the flexibility to tackle new challenges that cannot be solved with top-down mandates.
government must combat discrimination on the basis of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation; defend civil liberties; and stay out of our private lives.
that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.
in progressive internationalism -- the bold exercise of US leadership to foster peace, prosperity, and democracy.
that the US must maintain a strong, technologically superior defense to protect our interests and values.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC0 on Aug 1, 2000
Member of Democratic Leadership Council.
Clinton is the chair of the Democratic Leadership Council:
Mission
The DLC’s mission is to promote public debate within the Democratic Party and the public at large about national and international policy and political issues. Specifically, as the founding organization of the New Democrat movement, the DLC’s goal is to modernize the progressive tradition in American politics for the 21st Century by advancing a set of innovative ideas for governing through a national network of elected officials and community leaders.
Who We Are
The Democratic Leadership Council is an idea center, catalyst, and national voice for a reform movement that is reshaping American politics by moving it beyond the old left-right debate. The DLC seeks to define and galvanize popular support for a new public philosophy built on progressive ideals, mainstream values, and innovative, non bureaucratic, market-based solutions. At its heart are three principles: promoting opportunity for all; demanding responsibility from everyone; and fostering a new sense
of community.
Since its inception, the DLC has championed policies from spurring private sector economic growth, fiscal discipline and community policing to work based welfare reform, expanded international trade, and national service. Throughout the 90’s, innovative, New Democrat policies implemented by former DLC Chairman President Bill Clinton have helped produce the longest period of sustained economic growth in our history, the lowest unemployment in a generation, 22 million new jobs, cut the welfare rolls in half, reduced the crime rate for seven straight years, balanced the budget and streamlined the federal bureaucracy to its smallest size since the Kennedy administration.
Now, the DLC is promoting new ideas -- such as a second generation of environmental protection and new economy and technology development strategies -- that is distinctly different from traditional liberalism and conservatism to build the next generation of America’s leaders.
Source: Democratic Leadership Council web site 01-DLC0 on Nov 7, 2000
New Democrat: "Third Way" instead of left-right debate.
Clinton adopted Third Way principles of the Democratic Leadership Council:
America and the world have changed dramatically in the closing decades of the 20th century. The industrial order of the 20th century is rapidly yielding to the networked “New Economy” of the 21st century. Our political and governing systems, however, have lagged behind the rest of society in adapting to these seismic shifts. They remain stuck in the left-right debates and the top-down bureaucracies of the industrial past.
The Democratic Leadership Council, and its affiliated think tank the Progressive Policy Institute, have been catalysts for modernizing politics and government. The core principles and ideas of this “Third Way” movement [began with] Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign in 1992, Tony Blair’s Labour Party in Britain in 1997, and Gerhard Shroeder’s Social Democrats in Germany in 1998.
The Third Way philosophy seeks to adapt enduring progressive values to the new challenges of he information age. It rests on three cornerstones:
the idea that government
should promote equal opportunity for all while granting special privilege for none;
an ethic of mutual responsibility that equally rejects the politics of entitlement and the politics of social abandonment;
and, a new approach to governing that empowers citizens to act for themselves.
The Third Way approach to economic opportunity and security stresses technological innovation, competitive enterprise, and education rather than top- down redistribution or laissez faire. On questions of values, it embraces “tolerant traditionalism,” honoring traditional moral and family values while resisting attempts to impose them on others. It favors an enabling rather than a bureaucratic government, expanding choices for citizens, using market means to achieve public ends and encouraging civic and community institutions to play a larger role in public life. The Third Way works to build inclusive, multiethnic societies based on common allegiance to democratic values.
Source: Democratic Leadership Council web site 01-DLC1 on Nov 7, 2000
Click here for 5 older quotations from Bill Clinton on Principles & Values.
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