NYT, pg1: Clinton Bk Puts Familiar Foe Back in Conservo Sights

[DeepModem Mom]

Clinton Book Puts Familiar Foe Back in Conservatives' Sights
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: June 21, 2004


As a core of Democratic partisans cheer the return of their champion, Bill Clinton, to the limelight in time to pitch in on the campaign trail, many of his old antagonists are gearing up again.

Mr. Clinton appeared on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" last night to promote the release of his book, "My Life," tomorrow, and his foes were ready with a rebuttal.

Citizens United — a conservative lobbying group whose president, David Bossie, Mr. Clinton writes, helped to foment the Whitewater scandal — bought advertising time in several markets during Mr. Clinton's interview on "60 minutes" to argue that the former president was responsible for failing to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks....

***

In the buildup to the release of "My Life," the talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, another villain of Mr. Clinton's narrative, has begun calling the book "My Lie." And a column in the American Spectator, once the leading journal of Clinton-bashing and another target in his book, pronounced "a long hot Clinton summer is upon us" and derided Mr. Clinton's expressions of contrition for his affair with Monica Lewinsky....

(The remainder of this page-one article is pretty much a listing of all of the conservative outlets/voices trashing Clinton, and what they are saying. I suppose the Times thinks this is valuable to its readers?)


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/politics/21CLIN.html

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Then you compare this crap...

...to the article here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1827167

It's almost like reading two different papers.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. You're right -- the Times does a lot of excellent work --

I just posted another article from today about the Bush administration's trying to isolate the UN Population Fund in order to pander to their base. And the lead article on page one is about deception re. the intelligence value of prisoners at Gitmo.

[colonel odis]

3. bring it on. every time people see clinton on television

they'll be reminded how much better things were only four years ago.

let the little righties whine about him all day long.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. WP pg1: "Clinton's Focus on Personal May Have a Cost"

Analysis
Clinton's Focus on Personal May Have a Cost

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 21, 2004; Page A01


For a dozen years, Bill Clinton and his aides have been urging people to get over the obsession with his personal side and pay more attention to his policies. Clinton complained regularly that his achievements got too little notice and the partisan wars being waged against him too much. His aides lectured reporters about playing amateur psychologists, forever analyzing what made him tick.

The publication of "My Life," his memoir, and the unprecedented publicity rollout it has received put the old complaints in an odd new light. This time, Clinton himself enthusiastically has put the spotlight on his inner life and what he describes as his psychological ordeals. In a publicity campaign carefully orchestrated by the former president and his publisher -- and, by several accounts, in the book that goes on sale tomorrow -- the official side of his presidency frequently has been reduced to a supporting role.

The memoir and promotional campaign have revived an issue that Clinton and his aides often confronted while he was president: How much should Clinton give vent to his personal grievances and feed the insatiable public curiosity about his private life? As president, Clinton usually -- though not always -- decided that doing so was against his political interest. As author, he and his publisher have decided that their interests lie in revelations about adultery, marital crisis and coping with the adult consequences of childhood dysfunction.

But this focus has come at a potential cost. Some Clinton aides who read advance copies of the book concluded that the half about his youth and pre-presidency was told with more flair and evocative detail than the half about his presidency, which was written this spring under the pressure of an approaching deadline....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56412-2004Jun20.html

[DeepModem Mom]

5. WP, Kurtz, "Bill Clinton's Aura: Still at the Cleaners" --

Bill Clinton's Aura: Still at the Cleaners

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 21, 2004; Page C01


Bill Clinton, having delivered a command performance in launching his book blitz with Dan Rather last night, is in no danger of getting the Ronald Reagan treatment.

Liberal commentators, some swallowing hard, may have hailed the 93-year-old Gipper as he passed from the scene. But there is no cultural cease-fire for the 57-year-old Democrat who left office less than four years ago.

"The respect and honor that Democrats have shown, in an appropriate way, for President Reagan will not be shown to President Clinton," says former White House spokesman Joe Lockhart. "They don't live by the same credo. They're mean and nasty people. . . . They aren't self-aware enough to understand the image they'll create for themselves when they trash Clinton at every turn."

National Review Editor Rich Lowry says Clinton's book "will go over like a lead balloon with conservatives -- a very large, 950-pound lead balloon. It will prompt an orgy of argument over what happened in the 1990s and who was responsible."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56451-2004Jun20.html

[lancdem]

9. Someone should tell Rich Lowry

the book isn't intended for conservatives. BTW, it was a command performance, and it was a foregone conclusion the media would trash him. But it won't hurt sales of the book, believe me.

[Vogon_Glory]

6. I Hope Talk Show Bozos Keep Talking About Clinton

In a way, I rather hope right-wing talk show hosts continue to talk about Clinton. I'm hoping that most American citizen/voters will consider discussions about Bill Clinton's sex life irrelevant.

This country has been through one hell of a lot since former president Clinton went through Tom DeLay's auto-da-fe. A recession, the September 11th attacks, the Iraq invasion and an occupation turning into a counter-insurgency, and professed concern about Bill Clinton and the former First Member seem like something from long ago and far away.

It is my hope that American voters, listening to the Far Right fulminate about Bill Clinton and his unfortunate trysts with Monica Lewinsky, will come to the same conclusion that we progressives made a long time ago--that the Far Right is clueless, that their obsession about former president Clinton was a smokescreen, and that foaming at the mouth about the Big Dog makes the Far Right look like the fools they are.

[PaDUer]

7. Just caught the end of a show this am...

looks like they're trotting out Monica tonite about his comments.

[robbedvoter]

8. AAR broadcasted MTP - part 2 - pundit reunion - Clenis obsessing

I think they only skipped Vince Foster - I might be wrong since I turned it off.