Clinton doesn't forget friends ... or enemies

NH Sunday News ^ | 6/15/03 | Roger Simon

[RJCogburn]

BILL CLINTON's true distinguishing characteristic was his need to be loved. Even though he made more than his fair share of enemies, he believed that with time enough and half a chance, he could win over just about anybody.

His ability to connect with audiences during his speeches and his deep need, almost an obsession, to work the rope line afterward were manifestations of this.

Perhaps it is what drove him. Perhaps it drives him still.

Often when Presidents leave office, they want to settle old scores. Not Bill Clinton. He not only wants to make new friends, he wants to convert old enemies.

This occurred to me when I read a recent story in the New York Daily News headlined, "Clinton stands up for Times editor." The story said Clinton had called New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to plead for the job of Howell Raines.

Raines, the executive editor of the paper, and his managing editor, Gerald Boyd, resigned this month in the wake of revelations of journalistic improprieties by two Times reporters.

According to the Daily News, Clinton told Sulzberger that Raines' departure was "too severe" and "unwarranted." Clinton reportedly also "acknowledged his past differences with Raines' views."

Which is putting it mildly. Raines was the editor of the Times editorial page when Clinton was President, and he wrote editorials so stinging that Mike McCurry, then the White House spokesman, once told me — on the record and I printed it — that Raines was "psychotic."

(Which was the first hint I got that McCurry was planning to leave the White House. Press secretaries who are planning to stay at the White House do not go around calling New York Times editorial page editors psychotic — even if they are.)

There are scores of examples that demonstrate how tough Raines was on Clinton, but a single editorial — perhaps the most extraordinary The New York Times has ever published about a President — sums it up.

It appeared on Dec. 16, 1998, a few days before the House voted to impeach Clinton. It was a difficult editorial to write because even though the editorial board had been scathing in its view of Clinton, it did not think he should be impeached.

The editorial begins by saying Clinton was a "man blessed with great talent and afflicted with a mysterious passion for lying." Then it begins talking about "Mr. Clinton's ugly little lies, his abject failure to lead by example and to speak truthfully to the American people, his equally dismal failure to honor the historic residence entrusted to him, and his abandonment of his constitutional duty to defend and uphold the law. He is, in sum, a man you cannot trust whether you have his handshake, his signature or his word on a Bible."

The editorial goes on to talk about Clinton's "mendacity," but it also warns that the House vote "will be setting precedents by which the nation will be governed when this Presidency is a memory as distant and distasteful as that of Warren G. Harding."

It also calls Clinton's term in office the "most disappointing White House tenure since that of Richard Nixon" and describes Clinton as "wrapped in dishonor, his face a mask of depression. . . "

But my favorite line, and this shows why Raines was such a wonderful writer (though, admittedly, there was room to disagree with what he was writing), was the sentence that followed the argument that the transfer of power between Presidents in this country has to be orderly and not by a politically charged vote in the House.

"That transfer of power without gunfire or legislative chicanery is the jewel in the crown of American democracy," the editorial said. "It should not be sacrificed over Bill Clinton's inability to resist looking at thong underwear."

Pow! Right between the eyes!

Even people who had wanted Clinton to resign, such as Timothy Noah of Slate, wrote that this editorial showed Raines' "pathological hatred" of Bill Clinton.

So what happens? Less than five years later, Clinton is the most beloved figure in the Democratic Party (admittedly the competition is not fierce) and Howell Raines is out of work.

But who comes to Raines' defense? Bill Clinton!

Why? Because Bill Clinton still trying to win Raines over, still trying to get some love. And something else. A lesson from yet another President, Abraham Lincoln.

"The best way to destroy an enemy," Lincoln once said, "is to make him a friend."

[Miss Marple]

I went to the CNN web site to get the transcript for posting, but it isn't there yet. It may not show up until next week, but I will keep checking and will post it when it appears. I bet it's just full of unifying comments, don't you?

[11B3]

Both of the Clintons are the walking dead - putrified dead at that - and normal people feel soiled even by the mention of their name. There has never been a worse president, and the entire concept of his inept wife of convenience becoming president through her name recognition speaks volumes of just how desperate the DemonRats have become to field a candidate.

The world will be a better place for all in this nation when those two are having an eternal dirt nap.

[Ann Archy]

Yeah...right...."Bill the Unifier"...... my arse.

You ARE a glutton for punshment!!!I coudn't read his lies for all tea in China. Was Larry drooling??? LOL!

[Miss Marple]

I didn't watch it, having been warned by my husband, who is afraid I will break the television if I see Clinton. LOL!

However, I think the transcript is useful because it lets us analyze what he is up to, plus his comments are always so low-class that it further puts a period to his reputation as a great speaker.

[sweetliberty]

I guess criminals need to stick together.

[RJCogburn]

Kearn A. Cottingham was found dead of "natural causes",

Haven't heard of this one before. Got details?

[TommyDale]

Cottingham was an engineer at Loral. He was to appear before a committee investigating the transfer of secrets to China prior to the 1996 election, when the Chinese "donated" (via a quid pro quo) campaign contributions to Clinton and the DemocRATs. He was reported in the local Palo Alto weekly newspaper, as having been found in some bushes and pronounced dead from "natural causes". When his name came up as a Loral employee that was to appear before the committee, there was no record to be found in the mainstream local newspapers. I asked an acquaintance there on the police force to check on it, and he reported that there was no record on file as well. This should have raised a lot of attention, but as we all know, it did not because Clinton was in power. The guy was too young to die of natural causes. His name appears on Alamo Girl's list. I researched this cased personally, and it smells really bad.

[TommyDale]

From the Palo Alto Weekly

Publication Date: Wednesday Oct 28, 1998


Deaths
Kearn A. Cottingham

Kearn A. Cottingham, 53, a 23-year resident of Palo Alto, died Oct. 13. He was a senior program management engineer in subcontracts at Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, where he worked for 22 years. He loved golf and cooking. He is survived by his wife, Shirley Kedrowski Cottingham of Palo Alto; his parents, William and Nell Cottingham of Chico; and a sister, Sandra Merlo of Chico. Services have been held. Donations may be made to Green Hills Country Club Tree Gift, or Junior Program, End of Ludeman Lane, Millbrae 94030, or the Kearn A. Cottingham Memorial Fund, c/o Halsted Holman M.D., 1000 Welch Road, Suite 204, Palo Alto 94304 (checks payable to Stanford University).

[TommyDale]

The House Select Committee will probably not want to share all they know about this. I sent requests to Congressmen Rohrbacher and Cox, with no responses. They would be a good source for information, if they wanted to.

[CyberAnt]

This has been the recurring theme lately - the impeachment was all about sex.

We need to start counter attacking that with the truth - x42 was impeached because he lied in a court of law (while he was a lawyer - sworn to tell the truth); committed obstruction of justice (telling people to lie about the situation).

And ... most people don't know x42 was deprived of his law license (not a minor thing), as well as the USSC depriving x42 of EVER bringing a case before them.

[RJCogburn]

Thanks!

Would that AG Ashcroft were interested in seeking justice.

[firewalk]

.

[GOPJ]

The editorial begins by saying Clinton was a "man blessed with great talent and afflicted with a mysterious passion for lying." Then it begins talking about "Mr. Clinton's ugly little lies, his abject failure to lead by example and to speak truthfully to the American people, his equally dismal failure to honor the historic residence entrusted to him, and his abandonment of his constitutional duty to defend and uphold the law. He is, in sum, a man you cannot trust whether you have his handshake, his signature or his word on a Bible."

Sounds like the Clintons are King and Queen of Sociopaths... On some level Howell Raines must have known that...