In such accounts, presidential staffers abandon the code of loyal silence they followed during their term as King’s men and put forth the real story behind the years of spin. Some write to nail down their place in history or settle scores with political enemies. Others simply need the money after being bumped from the government payroll. Washington etiquette permits the practice only after the president has left office, but a few of Clinton’s former confidants have already broken the seal.
Dick Morris published “Behind the Oval Office” in 1997, in which he took full credit for Clinton’s 1996 reelection and revealed Clinton’s propensity for red-faced temper tantrums. George Stephanopoulos earned the nickname “the commentraitor” among Clinton loyalists for his 1999 account “All Too Human,” which painted Clinton as a win-at-all-costs politician with remarkable powers of self-delusion. If you consider Monica Lewinsky a member of Clinton’s inner-circle, her best-seller “Monica’s Story” also provided some stimulating Oval Office insights. A few other Clinton staffers have also published relatively harmless insider tales, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s “Locked in the Cabinet,” adviser David Gergen’s “Eyewitness To Power” and speech writer Michael Waldman’s “POTUS Speaks.”
If there’s any Clinton lore left to divulge, other members of Clinton’s staff would seem to have it covered. A growing list of his closest advisers, from Sidney Blumenthal to Madeleine Albright, are settling down at their computers to draft personalized accounts of Clinton’s page-turning presidency.
Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal earned a $650,000 advance from Farrar, Straus and Giroux for his White House memoir, tentatively titled “The Clinton Wars.” In his book proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post, Blumenthal promises to divulge the content of his “dramatic conversation with the First Lady that was the subject of Ken Starr’s suit to the Supreme Court over executive privilege.” Blumenthal also says he will provide proof “that the First Lady’s statement about a ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ was not an exaggeration.” While he may leave the Clinton’s more or less intact, he will take the opportunity to square off with a few enemies. Christopher Hitchens, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and Matt Drudge (whom Blumenthal has already sued for slander) are among his promised targets.
When Hillary Clinton announced the bidding war for her book rights early last December, so many New York publishers scrambled to meet with her in D.C. that several bumped into one another in the airport. The final $8 million deal she negotiated with Simon & Schuster was the second largest book contract ever issued, trumped only by the $8.5 million contract granted to the Pope in 1994. To land the deal, Hillary Clinton didn’t even promise a sensational tell-all. In her oral book pitch, she offered only a “dignified discussion” of her marriage and of her husband’s impeachment. Publishers, for fear of offending her, did not push for details, and the name Monica Lewinsky was reportedly never uttered during the discussions.
Madeleine Albright has already negotiated a reported $1 million-plus advance from Talk Miramax Books for her autobiography, slated for publication in spring of 2003. The book will cover the full sweep of her life, beginning with her childhood in Czechoslovakia and culminating with her term as the first female Secretary of State under Clinton. Tina Brown, chairman of Talk Media Inc., has said she’s especially interested in the story of “a woman succeeding in a man’s world.” Albright herself has offered few details on what tidbits her book might offer, but she has noted that some of her Washington adversaries are already acting a bit nervous. “Everyone in Washington is being unusually-almost suspiciously-nice,” she said during a recent speech. “I’d like to think this stems from an outburst of spontaneous affection; more likely it’s because I am just about to write my book.”
Nothing’s official, but The Boston Globe reported that Janet Reno has signed a $500,000 contract with Random House. After repeated calls for her resignation and six years of battering from the G.O.P., Reno has more scores to settle than most. In her departure speech from the Justice Department she said she’d been “cussed at, fussed at and beaten about the ears” during her time in Washington. Bitterness is not her style however, and she has said that should she decide write a memoir, it will be a bloodless, straightforward account. “I would like it to have substance,” she told The New York Times in January, “like, ‘Here are some of the issues that you face as Attorney General and here is what you can learn from them.’ " Reno is also unlikely to divulge many unflattering Clinton stories, after proving one of his most loyal staffers, taking the heat on everything from Waco to Elian Gonzalez. Before she gets to her memoir, Reno plans a preliminary book about reducing violence in America-and a cross country trip in her new red Ford Ranger pick-up.
Writing is a familiar pastime for former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who is the author or co-author of nine books. He has said he will continue to write in his post-Pentagon days, in addition to starting his own consulting firm. His position as the only Republican in the Clinton Cabinet gives him an immediate plug for a personal account, but that may not be the topic he’ll choose to tackle. His first publication was a book of poetry, and he’s followed that with memoirs, business advice books, biographies and even a few political thrillers, including “Murder in the Senate.” No word on precisely what’s coming next from the versatile Cohen.
Al Gore, whose is said to be contemplating another presidential bid, will avoid re-hashing Clinton tensions and tackle the politically innocuous topic of “families” in his next book. He and his wife Tipper are collaborating on the project, which may include a companion television series. The idea grew out of the nine “Family Reunion Conferences” that the couple has led at Vanderbilt University over the past 10 years. In Tipper’s words, the book will “draw upon the struggles and successes of families, across the country, including our own.”
Last summer, Random House stunned the publishing world by offering former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin $3.3 million for his memoirs, in which he promised to unveil his secret recipe for the bull economy of Clinton’s second term. “He was rather an oracle,” said Random House publisher Ann Godoff, defending the enormous contract sum when the news broke last summer. “The book will be a front-row seminar to advance thinking on economics and will explain the very practical decision-making tools that he uses. People want to be around that kind of thinking.” That kind of thinking made Rubin get the contract squared away last summer-before the market crash brought his new economy crumbling to the ground.
Other names will no doubt be added to the list, and Bill Clinton reportedly began talks with publishers in February. But since the most disloyal of Clinton’s crew have already opened the floodgates, most of remaining Clinton books are likely to lean toward respectable, historical accounts. Those hoping for juicy White House gossip can cross their fingers for Blumenthal’s book-but they might be best off just re-reading the Starr report.
