REVEALED: Bernstein's "Hillary" book reveals Sen. Clinton to be... a loyal and protective wife!

[wyldwolf]

Carl Bernstein says his new book "A Woman In Charge" shows Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton as someone who “camouflages” her real self for political gain. But the ultimate pettiness of the excerpts released so far only proves Mr. Bernstein is the latest writer to go to the Clinton well for a bucket of cash and that Senator Clinton may be more like average people than Bernstein wants to admit.

The following are "revelations" from an interview Bernstein did with TODAY host Matt Lauer on Friday, as written in an MSNBC article.

To tell the story of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s journey from a humble childhood marked by abuse at home to the White House, and later the U.S. Senate, Bernstein talked to about 200 close friends and advisers to the Clintons. Bernstein said he learned a lot about Hillary Clinton, including steps she took to try to silence the various women linked to her husband throughout his political career.

Translation: Hillary Clinton, like many women throughout history, attempted to protect her philandering husband's career by pressuring various women to not kiss and tell. GASP!!!

“There’s not a sex act mentioned in this book,” he added. “What is important is Hillary savaging the women he was with, forgiving Bill repeatedly throughout their married life, but not forgiving the women he was with.”

Translation: Hillary Clinton is a terrible person for doing what many people do in cases of adultery - forgiving the spouse and blaming the extramarital partner - sometimes repeatedly. If you've never been in such a situation, you really can't judge. Again, GASP!!

The author goes on to disclose, among other things, that Bill Clinton fell in love with another woman while becoming a rising political star in Arkansas, and quotes insiders who say Hillary Clinton wouldn’t give him a divorce.

Translation: Oh... my... God! You mean Hillary actually didn't want a divorce??? GASP!!

Bernstein said “A Woman in Charge” offers readers numerous revelations, including the fact that Hillary Rodham shocked her friends when she failed the Washington, D.C., bar exam.

TRANSLATION: Hillary Clinton joins a long list of people, including JFK, Jr. and Kathleen Sullivan, Stanford Law School’s former dean and a renowned attorney, who failed the bar exam. It's been estimated that almost half of the country's bar examinees fail their state's bar exam each year.

Further, the fact Clinton failed her bar exam the first time is not a revelation.

Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton’s spokesman, dismissed the relevance of Bernstein’s work, saying the book is intended to make the Clintons look bad for profit, yet again. Lauer said Reines told TODAY: “Is it possible to be quoted yawning? This is an author’s agenda to take an old story and rehash for cash.”

Translation: Same old shit.

[Cameron27]

1. I wouldn't bet on any man

understanding the feelings of a woman who loved the husband who cheated on her. Bernstein, the sage, did the same to his wife when she was pregnant.

[Clark2008]

7. So did my EX husband.

EX being the operative prefix.

I'm glad I'm not in Hillary's marriage (therefore, it's none of my business), but, if I was, I wouldn't be (still married).

I don't forgive or forget that easily. I dumped my ex while I was a stay-at-home Mom earning about $300 a month freelancing part time and struggled continuously with work, lay-offs, mortgage payments and the like. I wasn't about to raise my newborn in a household with so much unhappiness.

Again, HRC's marriage is none of my business, but I couldn't do what she did and stay with the creep.

[Cameron27]

11. Good for you!

I hope that's what I would do if I was in the same situation. It take more courage than most people understand to make that decision when money is a factor, and like I said, I think I'd do the same.

I know women who couldn't do it for whatever reason. Two are ok with it, but the others dumped the SOBs a few years later. I can't judge Hillary on this.

edited to add that I really meant good for you! I wasn't trying to be snarky at all :-)

[napi21]

2. I think this book shows Hillary to be very much the same as

thousands of other women who've done the same thing. I guess Bernstein thought he was slamming Hillary in this book, but he might find out that it simply shows her as very human and much like the rest of us.

[still_one]

3. Bill Clinton was a sexual harasser, who tried to take sexual advantage of his subordinates

Funny how when Anita Hill was harassed by clarence thomas we were rightfully up in arms, but when bill clinton does it, many seem to excuse it

[Colobo]

4. I agree 100% with you.

[SaveElmer]

9. Have any names?

That's a pretty serious charge considering no woman has accused him harrassment as far as I know...

[still_one]

12. Don't you remember the most obvious one?

Paula Corbin(Jones), an Arkansas state worker, filed a sexual harassment case against Clinton after an encounter in a Little Rock hotel room where the then-governor exposed himself and demanded oral sex. How come Clinton settled the case with Jones for 850,000 cash payment?

She isn't the only one, there has been a history of this, no different than Arnold Schwarzenegger's record

I don't like Jones, but that doesn't detract from the settlement of the case, and throughout his life he has a history of this.

I guess it depends what you define the meaning of "is" is

[wyldwolf]

13. didn't you leave something out?

the court dismissed the lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages.

Celebrities pay "go away" money all the time. It isn't an admission of guilt but rather damage control.

Further, the instigator of the lawsuit, David Brock, apologized to Clinton for using Paula Jones in rightwing ploy to take down the president.

[still_one]

16. you defend bill if you want. His sexual history speaks for itself

I'll vote for hillary if she gets the nomination, but I won't like. I don't trust her, especially on the Iraq war

[wyldwolf]

18. Except for the bogus claims of harassment you're pushing

And the left's really odd way of injecting "Iraq" into every conversation is getting comical!

[still_one]

21. No, bill clinton is a womanizer, and has haressed subordinates below him

You can defend the jerk, I won't, or what he did to the Democratic party

[wyldwolf]

23. It's been established he's a womanizer, but not a harasser.

[SaveElmer]

27. "...or what he did to the Democratic Party"

You mean take back the White House after years in the wilderness, be the first Democrat elected to a second consecutive term since FDR, revitalize an ailing economy, produce a0's of millions of new jobs, broker peace in northern Ireland, and halt a genocide in the making in the balkans, among many other things.....? Yeah a successful Presidency is really bad for the Party...!

[still_one]

49. Tell that to the workers who have lost their jobs due to NAFTA

and kiss goodbye to the fairness doctrine, and media mergers because that's what signing the communications act of the 90s did

That is the big reason why right wing radio and media predominates here today

Most successful presidency, B.S., he laid the path for Gore's defeat, which usered in these criminals. The supreme court has already been altered because of his recklessness, and putting his own self-pleasure before the country, and his party

Did he do admirable things, sure, but he also laid the foundation to why we are where we are today

Incidently, the economy did will under bill clinton because of the internet boom. You will hear the right wing freaks also argue that the economy is doing well under bush, I don't give either one very much credit for it, it has more to do with timing

As far as Bosnia is concerned, granted he finally did something about it, but it took a while before he did.

[SaveElmer]

56. Name a perfect President...

Name a single politician who does everything to your satisfaction 100%...

FDR? How about internment of millions of US citizens because of their ethnicity, or pandering to southern racists...?

No one President is going to do what you want 100% of the time...but on balance, not only was Bill Clinton a good President, he was a highly successful one...

And your contention that he ushered in Gore's defeat is laughable in the extreme...Gore ushered in his own defeat (aided and abetted by Ralph Nader)...by refusing to embrace the progress made under Bill Clinton

[wyldwolf]

58. funny thing about that leftwing Gore myth...

...there we were in the midst of one of the greatest economic expansions in our history. Poverty down. Wages up. 28 million new job. So Gore, instead of embracing that, shifts to a "poor vs. rich" populist campaign instead of the "lift all boats" approach that his boss was so successful at.

The reason, at least in my opinion, that "poor vs. rich" populism has never worked is because poor people don't resent the rich - they want to be rich. When the lower and middle classes are told rich people are "evil," they're being told they aspire to be evil.

[doggyboy]

61. More funny things about that leftwing Gore myth

Gore was the Clinton admin's point man for NAFTA. Gore even debated Perot about NAFTA.

Gore has described himself as the mostr hawkish member of the Clinton administration

[SaveElmer]

15. Actually...

The case was initially summarily dismissed by the judge saying Jones could show no damage...

Bill settled the appeals case, but without an apology, and no harrassment was ever proven...

Catting around is not the same as harrassment...

[still_one]

20. Just because he didn't issue an apology doesn't mean he is innocent

I won't be a clinton appologist. If it looks like a duck and qwacks like a duck, its a duck in my book, and I am not referring to is extramarital affiars, I could care less, however, I do resent his arragonce by having a BJ in the oval office, instead of a private location

[wyldwolf]

24. It doesn't mean he isn't. But I'll take his word over Scaif's anyday

[karynnj]

29. There is also the fact that at least in the cases of

Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers, he attempted to lie his way out by smearing the women involved. The thing I regret is that Democrats pretty much knew before he was elected that he tried to persuade Flowers to lie about the affair (confirmed in the Starr testimony) and that his vaunted "war room" attacked her. With Monica, he implied she was obsessed with him and made it up. With Monica the thing that was really sick is that he didn't even bother to know her name.

[wyldwolf]

30. first references to the Arkansas Project, now a cite of the Starr Report! LOL!

[SaveElmer]

34. And the list of right wing sources deemed credible at DU...

Increases by one...at least as it applies to Hillary CLinton!

[karynnj]

46. Grow up - the reference is to Clinton's testimony

He said that he did indeed have an affair with Flowers. Ity was Bill Clinton who was the source of that information. To my knowledge, he is not RW. It also did not apply to Hillary Clinton, but to Bill Clinton - so yeah, it was Bill's words against Bill. I honestly have more problems with his ability to lie straight faced than that he had a consensual affair - which was Hillary's and his concern only. I was also disgusted by the attempts to call the woman "nutty or slutty".

[Ronnie]

62. "nutty or slutty"

Wasn't that used against Anita Hill?

[karynnj]

63. The same phrase created to slander Hill was used in

sevral columns in the NYT (by both Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd) to characterize some of the comments made by Clinton allies - like saying that Lewinsky stalked the President and had fanatsized about him. It was obviosly never said by Clinton.

Here's a WP article where some of those comments are made.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/flowers012398.htm

[dsc]

57. He never did lie about Flowers

He denied, by all accounts truthfully, having a 13 year affair with her. He never, as in not once, denied having sex with her.

[Catherine Vincent]

38. "I do resent his arragonce by having a BJ in the oval office.."

It wasn't in the oval office. They never were.

[ElizabethDC]

40. Exactly, and that's one myth that keeps getting repeated

none of the sexual encounters took place in the Oval Office itself, IIRC.

[ElizabethDC]

17. He settled with Paula Jones because they were digging up other sexual encounters

that's how they dug up Monica, etc. (None of which was illegal, but obviously embarrasing).

The initial Jones lawsuit was dismissed, but brought back through appeals. Her own two lawyers quit the later case, and she was then represented by the conservative Rutherford Institute. The whole thing seemed sketchy.

IMO, they had a sexual encounter, but it wasn't what she described. I think she just wanted money and attention.

[JDPriestly]

35. And then there is Bush rubbing Angela Merkel's back

in front of the cameras for all the world to see. That is not harassment in the legal sense, but it is in the popular sense. The allegations you refer to are like the Merkel back rub. They are harassment in a popular, social sense, but not in the legal sense.

[AZBlue]

52. Paula Jones was nothing more than a GOP puppet

[madrchsod]

6. how many subordinates did billsexually harass?

i know of one he had sexual relations with but who are the others?

[still_one]

14. I wasn't referring to the Lewisnky case. Paula Jones, and a host of others

I guess all that talk about Arnold and Clarence Thomas was just politics as usual, but I won't defend any of those jerks or bill clinton

Clinton screwed the Democratic party and us in other ways, which included NAFTA, the communications act of the 90's, and in spite of warnings by his adivosrs to lay of lewinsky, he continued, and thus indirectly helped pave the way for the disaster we have now with george bush

I don't want anymore clintons or bushs in the whitehouse

though if hillary does win the nomination, I will vote for her reluctantly

[wyldwolf]

19. Paula Jones debunked. Lewinsky - consensual affair. Next?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

22. Believe me, I'm not defending Clinton, but

don't you think that there's a difference between sexual harassment & a guy who cheats? A fine line, I'm sure, but I still see a difference.

And I despise what Clinton did/does & I don't think a lot more of Sen. Clinton for staying with him, but it's none of my business how they conduct their marriage.

[still_one]

25. yes, but both indicate a LACK OF CHARACTER /nt

[wyldwolf]

26. no, it indicates a weakness. We all have them. Can we retroactively crucify JFK and FDR?

How about Thomas Jefferson?

[still_one]

47. It is a contract with your spouse, and if you don't honor that, then it sure is about character /nt

[wyldwolf]

59. it is a weakness and doesn't hinder one's job performance, unlike, say...

...perpetual whining.

[JDPriestly]

37. The Clarence Thomas case may have involved harassment.

Anita Hill worked as Thomas's subordinate and, had she sued, might have prevailed on damages. Since she did not sue, we do not know. The allegations against Thomas were pretty serious.

Frankly, Bush's use of nicknames and unwanted touching of people's bald heads, Angela Merkel's back, etc. are far more offensive to me than the allegations against Clinton.

Clinton is certainly a big flirt. Even the women who later attempted to accuse him of harassment, however, seemed to bask in his attention.

Face it. Clinton has charisma. People who are around him find him kind and charming. That includes Hillary. She is an intelligent woman. She appears to have weighed the alternatives and to have chosen to stay with Bill. They have been married a long time, shared their unusual and purposeful lives and are pretty close to intellectual equals. They enjoy being married to each other. Marriage is a contract between two people. No two marriage contracts are the same. It may be that Clinton's alleged and known infidelities are less important to Hillary than the privilege of going through life at the side of a man who is very, very alive, caring and intelligent.

This is Hillary's business. Personally, I think she has made a good choice in staying with Clinton. Hillary probably sees the women who hang around Clinton as opportunists and johnny-come-latelies encroaching on her territory. Frankly, women who flirt back with a married man are often just that -- opportunists and johnny-come-latelies.

[JDPriestly]

33. The claims of harassment alleged against Clinton that I heard about

were not very strong. The alleged conduct was either not really very serious, was not continuing, and/or did not involve a person whose employment status was such that Clinton could have caused the person damages. In other words, Clinton did not and could not fire the person or affect his or her pay or promotion status. There just wasn't much "there" there in the claims I heard about. I believe one woman was a volunteer at the White House. Obviously, she would not have had any compensable damages even if Clinton did harass her. Paula Jones also had no damages due to anything Clinton might have done even assuming her allegations were true, and, based on facts that became public after her claim was dismissed, there is good reason to suspect her allegations were either untrue or exaggerated. A lot of conduct that is annoying or even insulting is not considered to be harassment in the eyes of the law and is not actionable in a court. The definition of harassment varies from state to state and is somewhat different under federal and state law.

[NoPasaran]

39. You've convinced me.

I'll be damned if I ever vote for Bill Clinton again!
:sarcasm:

[Tellurian]

5. Nothing new here..We've known the Clintons for years..

If Bernstein thought his book was going to discourage people from supporting Hillary; he's sadly mistaken. It's no shocker. Far from it- My conclusion is Bern$tein $old the publi$her a bill of goods saying he could deliver a blockbu$ter. He decidedly didn't- why else? $$$$$ A loser all the way!

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

8. I'm not defending either of the Clintons.

That he was/is such a womanizer & couldn't be faithful & that she would at least tacitly tolerate it by not divorcing him, is IMO, their worst personal failings.

That said, I don't think that Clinton was a sexual harasser. I've heard that when he did come on to a woman & she said 'no' he backed off immediately. And the only subordinates I've heard he approached was Monica who actually came on to him.

While I have a great deal of moral distaste for their relationship, it's none of my business & I'm not the one in the marriage. And I wouldn't not vote for anyone because I disagree with how they conduct their personal lives.

[SaveElmer]

10. Good thing the Morals Police weren't around in 1932...

Trying to give us President Hoover...

[Tellurian]

28. Everybody's a judge... unbelievable that..

when this is Hillary's problem. Bush has not only "screwed" our country, he's more than screwed Iraq and the world.

If memory serves, JFK said the same thing. It's a small price to pay for putting up with geniuses.
If Hillary can do it...so can I..

[BeyondGeography]

31. That's one way to put it

a slave to her own ambition is another.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

32. Perfection does not exist in the human race...

...if you insist upon it in spouses, children, friends, neighbors, politicians, etc ... you will be forever disappointed.

It amazes me how some of the same people who expect tolerance, acceptance, and understanding for their views/opinions/choices ... don't offer the same to others.

Unfortunately... intolerance, 'judgementalism', self-righteousness, hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness are not exclusive to the other side.

[Tellurian]

36. Perfection only exists with the Leftists..

They otta thank their 'Lucky Stars' the Moderates frequent this board!

[Forkboy]

41. LOL

It amazes me how some of the same people who expect tolerance, acceptance, and understanding for their views/opinions/choices ... don't offer the same to others.

:silly:

[Tellurian]

42. And everyday you criticize ridicule and demean...

The Hillary supporters..yeah, you're their 'hero' not mine..

do me a favor and put me on your ignore list, you nauseate me..

[Forkboy]

43. Then put me on YOUR ignore list.

Some people ridicule themselves.You don't need my help.

[Tellurian]

44. some people claim hypocricy

when they're projecting the same thing at others themselves!!!

done- on ignore!

[Grandrose]

45. Bernstein is a sexist pig!!

Matt Lauer and Berntein had the most ridiculous interview I have seen recently!

I am disgusted that they sat there trashing a woman for no other reason than she wanted to protect her child and marriage...it was pathetic! Berstein laminating about getting inside her head, he is the one that needs a psychiatrist.

I totally admire Hillary, some men are just scared she might be the next president!

Go Hillary!:)

[applegrove]

48. Good points. I really think the talk about the issues in her marriage only

ever serves to humanize her. Now she is Hillary the forgiving. Not bad, not bad.

[JeffR]

50. I won't crtique a book I haven't read, but from what you've posted

I agree with you 100%, even though I'm one of those dreadful leftist Clinton-bashers, -trashers, -haters and whatever other epithets I incur from the Clintonistas.

I'm a fan of Bernstein's, but maybe the Italian sun has baked his brains a little. This just seems ridiculous...

[KoKo]

51. Of course she is...She's protecting the Presidency for Co-Equal Rule...Hill & Bill but Bill

get's a chance to redeem himself and bring in those stock market folks who helped him so long ago manage to hide the figures about how bad off America was.

But..HEY! They ALL think they can do better if given a Second Chance. Didn't Poppy's crowd think that the CHIMP/IDIOT/TOOL OF NEOCONS would VINDICATE HIS POPPY?

SECOND CHANCES! It's what America does best. After all isn't former Pitcher for "Red Sox" Roger Clemons now back working for the Yankees?

[alfredo]

53. Ask Nora Ephram about Carl Bernstein. He was screwing around

on her while she was pregnant and in the hospital having their baby.

[cmkramer]

54. Gene Lyons

I'm wondering what his take on all this is. Will he weigh in on this? Or is it a case of "Been there, done that."

FWIW, I do believe BIll probably was not a completely faithful husband although proably not to the extent rumored.

[illinoisprogressive]

55. he said she was programed and inauthentic. Phoney. On today show.

[wyldwolf]

60. uh.. yeah.. people can read the OP.

[AZBlue]

64. "Is it possible to be quoted yawning?"

Yup, that pretty much sums up my feelings on it too.