Posted on 06/23/2004 8:17:25 AM PDT by Quilla
Never do anything impromptu whenever the Secret Service is involved. I learned that lesson when I decided at the last minute to cover President Clinton’s book signing yesterday at the Barnes & Noble at Rockefeller Center.
After I’d been waiting for over an hour on the press line, a bookstore employee came by checking press credentials against a special security list and since I wasn’t on it, I was told I would not be allowed inside.
No matter, I had no interest on being inside the store during the signing. I just wanted to get out of the pouring rain, which started around 11 a.m. The lines of fans waiting to have their favorite president sign his book for them had started forming the day before and many did not have umbrellas and were getting soaked. They were the ones I was interested in anyway.
I can’t recall this much interest in a book signing.The press was out in full force, as were the local TV news broadcasters. Gabe Pressman was asking a store employee why the press was being kept outside.
A police officer told me the store had given out 1,500 wristbands to the book lovers and he wasn’t sure if they were allowing anyone else on line. I caught Billy Bush, a co-anchor of Access Hollywood, interviewing someone who had received the last wristband. After he and the cameras had left, I still saw people getting on the line.
Who were these people, I wondered? Were they Clinton lovers or Bush haters? I heard one Michael Moore look-alike being interviewed by a reporter. He was saying that Mr. Clinton seemed like a nice guy and we had eight good years under him. Then he said, “Our current president is a fascist.”
I had learned that Mr. Clinton would be entering the store on the 48th Street side, so I went there and stood under a canopy, eavesdropping on the waiting crowd. A young blonde woman was singing words to an old Marilyn McCoo song, “Bill, I love you still, I always will.”
One tall, balding man who never changed his expression told another that he was just waiting to sell the autographed book on eBay. He was lying. He was at the beginning of the line and people had been waiting there since dawn. No one in their right mind would do that unless they had a better motivation than an auction. He was a Clinton fan.
Finally, after 1 p.m., two black SUV’s pulled to the curb, a cheer went up from the crowd, and I glimpsed Mr. Clinton waving his hand in greeting. Within a matter of seconds, he was safely inside. The rain had stopped and I left his adoring pubic drying out in the slow-moving lines.
Bill Clinton has an office in Harlem and is no stranger to New Yorkers, so why the heavy crowds? Is it the book? Can that many people be interested in learning the details about the Lewinsky affair? The book has received blistering reviews, with the worst charge being that it is dreadfully dull.
I have never been much of a fan of the ex-president, but I must say he is a brilliant strategist. He has managed to change his impeachment trial into a valiant fight against the evil Ken Starr.
When he insisted on being videotaped instead of going to the closeddoor jury room, he knew that whenever anyone viewed this tape, they would think, “This is too much. This is all about sex.”
In his book, he reveals only what he wants to reveal but apparently not enough of what I want to know because what Mr. Clinton’s impeachment always reminded me of was Al Capone. The feds finally nabbed him on income tax evasion because they never could get him on the hard stuff.
The so-called vast right wing conspirators weren’t interested in Mr. Clinton’s sordid fumblings as much as they were worried about Chinagate. Is Johnny Huang mentioned in this memoir? Does Clinton explain why he was given top-secret clearance without a background check?
After receiving classified briefings from the CIA on satellite encryption technology, Mr. Huang regularly sent packages to China and visited the Chinese Embassy. Does Mr. Clinton explain why the DNC received soft money from the communist Chinese government?
How about Charlie Trie escorting several top Chinese officials into the White House? Why did Clinton make significant changes in government regulations applying to the sale of supercomputers to China and India without monitoring their usage?
The Clinton administration released highly sensitive encryption technology that gave China the capability of decoding our spy transmissions. Thanks to the Clinton administration, most of China’s ICBMs have the technology to reach America. Is that explained in his book? If not, then I’m not interested in reading the hefty 957-page hardcover book.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t the only observer unimpressed with the new author.Toni Rachiele of the Free Republic Network was walking back and forth with a hilarious sign offering the full book package: My Life by Bill Clinton, The Communist Manifesto, and Pinnochio.
Why does this media type think Willie is the only sleaze in NYC? There is a sleaze affinity based, some argue, on the hypothesis that average sleazes are attracked to successful sleazes in the hope that they might just pick something up, a fat NYC honey, a black hooker or some Iraqi oil money.
I was just skimming your post and wasn't sure whether to post or not, when my eye caught the above mistake (or was it really a mistake ???) I even checked the web-site and sure enough, it was there too.
A mistake ?? (probably not) LOL ----- funny stuff
I have never forgiven CONSERVATIVES for dropping the ball on the real controversy of the Clinton Administration, the selling of nukes to Red China. Monica is such a collasal weapon of mass distraction, something to laugh at really. There is absolutely nothing funny about this undercovered aspect of Clinton, and if a weapon of mass destruction reaches LA after a showdown with the Chinese within a generation, we are all to blame.
OMG, I didn't notice it and read the article twice. I guess it was too apropos to set off any alarms. LOL!
An adoring pubic --- yep, sounds like slick willie, that's for sure
How interesting to find out the WHOs that are allowed dispensation to use SUVs.
I need some of our more graphically-gifted/photoshop endowed FReepers to mock up the book cover so that the title reads "My Lie"
They probably never persued this because some Repubs were/are probablly involved.
Hitlery - Lying her story
Slick Willie - My Wife.
... or they were scared into inaction by the thought of Craig Livingstone holding 900 FBI files.
Yes yes, one of the best thing Drudge has ever done is what he has on his site right now. It really drives the point home strong!
I disagree about people knowing the truth about the ICBMs though, and I fault talk radio and the moderately conservative papers on that point. I can say that confidently because I am a hard core political hack and even I don't know many details about the secrets sold to Red China, and that is something we should speak about in the same breath as Clinton reflexively. Speaking of associations beyond Monica, I think the reason its not selling is as much to do with "Losing Bin Ladin" as anything. I saw that Clinton's poll numbers have gone down steadily in the past year, the only thing people have been talking about in that time is his Sudanese screwup. He was down to 41% in Jan (Reagan is at 83% at that time, FYI)
The mainstream press will never admit it, but they ALL read Drudge. His local paper's reports of the book-flop is going to positively KILL the buzz.
Never considered that, makes sense....
I'm in LA - Lower Alabama. Last night, the host of our local radio talk show announced that he had bought Clinton's book at Sam's for $20.97. He has offered to read it and comment on it so that no one else in the community would have to waste their money. Then the calls started. I was amazed at how informed these callers were. A couple gentlemen actually mentioned the transfer/sale of technology to China in exchange for campaign dollars. I can guarantee you this story never say the light of day in our local, liberal newspaper. Maybe it's because this show plays on the same channel that airs Rush's program. I was impressed.
You also need a more grammatically-gifted Freeper to make that title plural. As in, "My Lies"
:-)
The book is way to long. But the question is, by next Monday will this story still be in the news.
Usually these stories are in the news for a week.
Remember everyone was talking about Richard Clark's book.
Then it just died all the talk about that book.
Then they bought the book and got soaked again.
ROFL!
I hear that book sales are very sluggish in the Houston area. At lunchtime, I noticed that the bookstore at the mall has already discounted Clinton's book 25%
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