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Apropos my post below, I love this evaluation of Carl Bernstein's book ''Woman in
Charge'' from Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker.
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There are two kinds of books about Clinton. The first tries to prove
that she's really much worse than you think she is, the second that
she's really no worse than you think she is. Bernstein has apparently
mellowed since his Watergate days, and his book belongs squarely in the
latter camp. Even as he chronicles one fabulous misstep after another,
he describes the former First Lady as "well-intentioned and
"principled, motivated by deep religious faith and a passionate
sense of caring. He characterizes the "so-called Whitewater matter" as
"overblown almost from the moment the New York Times first wrote about
it, and relates Clinton's various self-justifying comments. "If I
wanted to destroy these things, I would have" with no apparent irony. [Two Biographies Search For The Real Hillary Clinton]
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Bernstein is a one hit wonder (Watergate- blah-blah with Bob Woodward),
and even that, we now know, was largely smoke and hype cheerfully
accommodated, if not ordered by, WaPost publisher Katherine
Graham in her quest to destroy archenemy Nixon. During Clinton's
impeachment comedy he was all over the place telling us that nothing
Bill did met the standard of criminality he had exposed in Nixon.
Since Bush is president, he's all over the place calling Dubya's
actions -whatever the current media howl - is wayyy Nixonian in degree
of criminality. He's the journalistic equivalent of the
panhandler who lives in the alley behind the neighborhood gin
mill. In that respect, he's like many working
journalists today.
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