Of all of the early reviews of Hillary's forthcoming book (if reactions to the few selected paragraphs that have been made public can be called "reviews"), some of the most telling are those of Dick Morris. Whatever your opinions of Morris, this much can be said of him. He was there, as a confidant of Bill Clinton and close political advisor to both Clintons, he is not an ideological opponent of theirs, and has no reason not to be candid now.
In his first public comments on the book, Morris is incredulous that Hillary asks us to believe that she was clueless about the truth of her husbands dalliance with Monica until the day before his Grand Jury testimony in August of 1998. Morris makes the point that:
To buy this latest episode of Hillary's Fables, you'd have to accept that she believed him even after semen was found on Monica's blue dress — and after the FBI took a sample of his DNA, two weeks before his grand-jury testimony. You'd have to be a fool to buy all that.
And, as you might expect, her story is at odds with some other first-hand accounts of that tumultuous time.
But Hillary needs a convenient explanation for having taken such a forceful and combative defensive position at the time; for example, her appearance on the Today show, where she blamed the whole Lewinsky matter on the now famous "vast-right-wing-conspiracy", not to mention having trotted out numerous Cabinet officials to proclaim their belief in his denials, only to have them ultimately look like fools when the truth came out.
So, five years out, the decision has been made to cast Hillary in the role of unknowing wife, instead of as savvy political operative. Why? Because it's politically expedient, of course. As Morris points out, her reward for sticking with him post-Monica was a Senate seat. And keeping it all going requires sticking with that lie. Morris concludes:
She can't admit the truth: that she defended him because she didn't want him forced from office — ending both their political careers — because he'd been unfaithful to her.
So the Clintons continue to dominate the limelight and the Party machinery, much to the dismay of the nine Democratic Presidential candidates who can't generate enough name recognition with their own voters to register a blip on the radar screen. After all, there are books to sell, and speaking fees to rake in. And the rest of us are reminded of the way it was for eight years. With the Clintons playing the American people for idiots, pissing on our heads, and telling us it's raining.