New book about Hillary Clinton criticized for unnamed sources
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
A new, unflattering book about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is under attack from an unlikely group: some of her harshest critics.
The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, by journalist Edward Klein, hit bookstores Tuesday.
By Tuesday evening it was No. 3 on Amazon.com's best-seller list, thanks largely to pre-orders. It had been touted in advance by conservative groups such as NewsMax.com and the Conservative Book Club as a book that could derail any presidential aspirations of the former first lady. The publisher, Sentinel, says it has printed 350,000 copies.
Some of the influential, conservative "bloggers" who have used their Internet journals to raise questions about the "liberal" media and to spread damaging information about Democratic politicians said they won't endorse The Truth About Hillary.
At issue: The book includes several personal, unflattering stories about events in the senator's and former president Clinton's past — and the most controversial are based on one or two anonymous sources. (USA TODAY, like many major media, is not repeating such accounts because it has no independent proof of their validity.)
The nature and sourcing of the accounts raised concerns:
•"It seems very similar to the Kitty Kelley book," said Kevin Aylward, who writes the blog Wizbang (www.wizbangblog.com). Kelley's book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty caused controversy with stories about things President Bush had allegedly done when he was a young man.
Aylward's blog was among several that last year led the way in raising questions about a 60 Minutes story concerning Bush's Air National Guard service and in spreading the word about attacks a group known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth were making on Sen. John Kerry's military record.
•"Even politicians should have some protection from things of this nature," said Paul Mirengoff, co-author of the blog Powerline (www.powerlineblog.com), which also played a lead role in raising doubts about the 60 Minutes story.
On the Fox News Channel, Bill O'Reilly — another frequent critic of the senator — said Monday that he had read the book and "there's little new" in it. The most negative accounts, he said, come "from anonymous sources, which is not good. Far too many accusations are coming from people who are settling grudges in a cowardly way."
Klein, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said he had to use anonymous sources. "The Clintons, and I include Mrs. Clinton in this ... have a full-time, 24/7 war room to intimidate and dissuade people from speaking to the media without their prior approval and vetting," Klein said. He said that even the most controversial of the stories he recounts offer insights into the senator's character and political motivations.
Klein also dismissed concerns among some conservatives, such as Aylward, that his book might spark sympathy for Clinton. If that were true, he said, "then why have her people attacked the book?"
Clinton's spokesman, Philippe Reines, repeated a statement Tuesday that he's issued several times: "This is a book full of blatant and vicious fabrications contrived by someone who writes trash for cash."
One non-partisan political observer said the book would neither help nor hurt the New York Democrat's political fortunes.
"The book seems so over the top that I don't think it's going to be taken terribly seriously," said Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report. "The Hillary bashers will still be bashing Hillary, and the defenders will still be defending, but I don't see how this changes anything."
Democratic consultant Donna Brazile said Tuesday she doesn't think the book "will have any impact on Sen. Clinton." |
