posted on April 30, 2007 08:14:03 AM new
DeLay seems to delight in deceit
Instead of coming clean on ethical and political problems, the former House Republican blames liberals and expiates his trespasses by finding Jesus.
By ROGER BUOEN Special to the Star Tribune
Published: April 22, 2007
Tom DeLay, the former House Republican leader, has written what he pitches as a pull-no-punches, truth-telling account of his struggle to advance the conservative cause while in Congress. What he has produced is a study in deception, hypocrisy and excuses.
The trickery begins straight away, with the book's title. The man who retreated from a reelection contest and surrendered his House leadership position after he was indicted for political money laundering calls his political autobiography "No Retreat, No Surrender" (Sentinel, $25.95).
Open the cover and DeLay -- dubbed "the Exterminator" only in part because of his work in the pest-control business before joining Congress in 1984 -- portrays himself as the victim of his liberal opponents. He enlists the nation's arbiter of fair play, Rush Limbaugh, to join the refrain. Democrats targeted DeLay, Limbaugh writes in the book's foreword, because he was "hell-bent on reforming the House of Representatives in ways both political and ethical."
DeLay reforming the House on ethics? In fact, the House tried reforming DeLay. The House Ethics Committee repeatedly took on DeLay for his bad behavior. DeLay says it was nothing but partisan politics led by committee Chairman Joel Hefley of Colorado. Strange. Hefley is a fellow Republican.
The 179-page memoir is jammed with hair-splitting excuses. A favorite: DeLay writes about press reports that his daughter, who received more than half a million dollars while on his campaign dole, threw a wild party in a fancy hotel that involved lobbyists pouring champagne on her in a hot tub. An indignant DeLay investigated and concluded that only one lobbyist poured one glass of champagne on his daughter in the hot tub.
It's the same story when it comes to important questions. What about DeLay's indictment in Texas on state campaign finance charges? Merely the work of a rogue prosecutor, DeLay writes. Didn't this culture of corruption engulfing DeLay, his staff members and their lobbyist buddies (think Jack Abramoff and the K-Street Project) lose Congress for the Republicans last year? Not DeLay's fault. Republicans lost because they botched their message, he insists.
Not that DeLay cuts anyone else any slack. He labels Newt Gingrich an ineffective House speaker, calls former House Majority Leader Dick Armey a liar and finds former President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky disgusting.
Disgusting? The reader can't help but notice DeLay's own extramarital affairs, to which he coyly refers throughout the book. No problem. All that was before DeLay found Jesus.
No retreat, no surrender, no straight answers.
Straight-talking Bradley
Another former politician is writing about U.S. politics, but with considerably more thought and substance. Democrat Bill Bradley, onetime presidential candidate and former U.S. senator from New Jersey, lays out solutions for solving the country's problems. There's an occasional whiff of self-promotion, and the merits of Bradley's proposals can be debated, but the brilliance of "The New American Story" (Random House, $25.95) is its clear, fact-filled and sometimes scary analysis of the nation's coming train wrecks -- from foreign affairs to the economy. What is remarkable about Bradley's writing is that he talks to readers as adults, giving citizens the grim news and difficult choices, like a physician explaining unpleasant options to an ailing patient.
Roger Buoen is a former editor at the Star Tribune.
posted on April 30, 2007 09:44:52 AM new
Well...IF that's true....he certainly isn't ALONE.
Carl Bernstein Book to Contradict Hillary
Carl Bernstein's new book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton contains information that will show "discrepancies" in Clinton's past, according to the Sunday Times of London.
"Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Sen. Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past," Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which will publish Bernstein's book June 19, told the newspaper.
Bernstein has been working on the 640-page biography, "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," for eight years, and interviewed more than 200 of her friends and rivals.
According to the Times, the book will show how Clinton "has played fast and loose with the facts about" her life.
Bernstein's effort was aided by the fact that he was granted access to private papers of the late Diane Blair, one of Clinton's closest friends.
The Times notes that Hollywood mogul David Geffen said earlier this year that "the Clintons lie with such ease, it's troubling."
edited to add:
Carl Berstein, Watergate reporter - book to go on sale June 19th.
posted on April 30, 2007 10:03:25 AM new
Then we have the book about old slick willie that's already out. Looks like a VERY interesting read to me.
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The Clinton Crack-Up Has Arrived
Paul Crespo
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Book: "Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House"
Author: R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.
Publisher: Nelson Current
Press clippings might suggest Bill Clinton has led a charmed existence since vacating the White House — globe-trotting and giving $100,000 speeches, basking in the spotlight, and joyfully waiting for his significant other to return the power couple to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But now a newly released book rips the mask off the Clinton charade, and R. Emmett Tyrrell's blockbuster will be an unwelcome addition to the barrage of criticism the Clintons have received along the way to the expected anointing of President Hillary.
Tyrrell's "The Clinton Crack-Up: The Boy President's Life After the White House" (Thomas Nelson) is the first detailed account of what the former president has really been up to since he left the White House.
"Clinton Crack-Up" has already generated significant buzz before publication, getting comments from Robert Novak, the Drudge Report, and NewsMax, among others.
Hillary has good reason to fear. Tyrrell's magazine, American Spectator, where he serves as editor in chief, started the nightmarish scandal reports on the Clintons with its famous "Troopergate" report in 1994.
Tyrrell also authored The New York Times muckraking best-seller, "The Boy President."
Since Hillary, "the most scandal-tarnished woman in American politics," played such a prominent role in Bill's presidency, she too features prominently in this book.
In a fitting backdrop to her recently launched presidential campaign, Tyrrell reveals the Clinton plan to put Hillary in the White House using Bill's notorious example. "The Clintons," Tyrrell writes in his magazine, "are the most exaggerated figures in modern American political history."
The book may also offer some payback to the Clintons. Tyrrell and the Spectator, after focusing on exposing Clinton's scandals during his presidency, was investigated (and exonerated) by a federal grand jury.
Tyrrell, however, proudly notes that he "might be the only editor in America's literary history who, during government harassment, found the experience thoroughly enjoyable — no public bawling from me, not even a curse word."
Still, the picture of post-president Bill Clinton painted by Tyrrell is not a rosy one.
He describes how Bill Clinton, after leaving the White House, has physically deteriorated and became a tortured soul. Desperate for public attention, he has to carefully avoid upstaging Sen. Hillary during her quest to become President Hillary. Driven from home by his angry wife, Bill remains restlessly active just outside public view, striving endlessly to burnish his tarnished image.
Bill's Calamity in All Ports
Tyrrell compares Bill to a "ghost ship" (similar to the cursed Flying Dutchman) that plies the seas bringing calamity to whomever it comes in contact with. In Bill's case, he does so while grabbing fistfuls of cash from whoever will pay his huge speaking fees.
The "Clinton Crack-Up" also describes how Bill Clinton's extravagant post-presidency has cost the American taxpayer far more than Bush 41 and more than Ford and Carter combined. Yet, this elegant, taxpayer-provided lifestyle has not kept the luxury-obsessed boy president from devoting himself to amassing a multi-million dollar fortune through shameless money-grubbing across the globe, often from unsavory sources.
Tyrrell reports Clinton has raked in some $43 million since leaving the White House.
Harry Truman refused to commercialize the presidency and lived off his government pension. But Tyrrell writes that with Bill Clinton, the buck really does stop with him. His oversized dependence on foreign campaign contributions during his presidency, and on foreign cash in his post-White House days, is unprecedented.
Due to this dependence, Bill has regularly and illegally sold himself, and our country, to the highest bidder. The chapters titled "Ghost Ship" and "The Chop Suey Connection" describe Clinton's incessant globe-trotting and lucrative financial connections to many of these unsavory sources.
China's Lurid Association With Bill
China in particular has played an ongoing financial role in Clinton's life; recall the illegal Chinese campaign contributions. China subsequently received tremendous benefits from the Clinton administration's weakened controls over the transfer of sensitive strategic technology.
These transfers allowed the Chinese to make a quantum leap in both their conventional and nuclear weapons capability which are now threatening us.
For example, in 1993, a Chinese firm controlled by the Chinese military acquired an entire McDonnell-Douglas aerospace plant in Ohio. They took it apart, and using 275 semi trailers, transported the plant to the West Coast, and then shipped it back, whole, to China.
According to Tyrrell's sources up to 95 percent of that plant was defense related. This included sophisticated machine tools needed for missile and aircraft production. These machines significantly enhanced the performance, speed, range and maneuverability of their fighter jets, bombers, and missiles.
Pardons for Sale
In the "Pardongate," chapter Tyrrell shows how Clinton's last-minute pardons broke every rule for granting pardons. Many were allegedly tied to large campaign contributions. According to one investigator, "While other Presidents had issued controversial pardons and commutations, never before had a president made so many grants of clemency with so little justification."
Especially prominent in these numerous "pardons for pay" was Marc Rich, an unrepentant felon whose former wife, Denise, was distributing large sums of money to the Democratic Party and Bill's favorite charities. Rich fled the U.S. after receiving "indictments on 51 counts including of tax evasion, mail fraud, wire fraud, racketeering, and trading with the enemy."
His initial trading with the enemy indictment stemmed from his financing the radical Iranian government by illegally buying oil from Iran. He did this even as U.S. embassy officials were being held hostage there.
After fleeing to Switzerland he continued trading with rogue regimes. But there may have been worse criminals pardoned by Bill.
Harvey Weinig was convicted as a key money launderer for the Cali drug cartel. He too was unrepentant and never cooperated with authorities.
His wife made large political donations to the Democratic Party. Prosecutors were furious at the pardon.
Another Cali Cartel figure whom Bill pardoned was "Jorge Cabrera, who, after contributing $20,000 to the Democratic National Committee, was invited to the White House Christmas party in 1995. Within six months he was serving a 19-year term for trafficking in huge amounts of cocaine," writes Tyrrell.
The final chapters describe the amazing tale of the Comeback Kid after his disgraceful departure from the White House in 2001. They detail how in 2002 many of Clinton's former friends asked him not to help their campaigns and why, among Democrats, Bill's image and value improved in 2003.
The Hillary hit team surely will try to discredit Tyrrell and his book. One "progressive" critic has already viciously attacked Tyrrell and his use of anonymous sources, but a book like this cannot be written unless some sources are unnamed. Bob Woodward, for one, has used them generously in his many similar books.
The "Clinton Crack-Up" is an immensely informative and highly readable book. And it's a must-read, considering the very real possibility of Hill and Bill returning to the White House in 2009.
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Paul Crespo teaches politics at the University of Miami and hosts a political talk-radio show in Miami. www.paulcrespo.com
posted on April 30, 2007 12:43:56 PM new
After more than 6 years of Bush. If a person like LIAR_K still uses the Clinton name to cover up for republican crooks and their blunders. That person is showing their mental illness.
Hey Liar_K, Maybe this republican will find Jesus also.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A top State Department official Randall Tobias' resigned Friday after revealing to ABC News that he had been a client of the alleged "D.C. madam's" escort service.
LIAR_K, do you think (BUSH's "FRIEND" World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz should find Jesus after giving his girl friend a 200,000 a year job.
If Wolfowitz needed to hire a woman he should have gone to the D.C. Madam. The D.C.Madam could have saved the World Bank a lot of money.
I am sure the D.C.Madam could have sent a young,smart and very talented woman to serve an official of the World Bank. I am sure said woman would gladly serve in any capacity needed on a temporary basis for around $300 to $400 dollars.
On a yearly basis the salary would depend on the benefits given. I still believe the cost to the World Bank would be less than the $200,000 per year the girl friend is getting for her work that is sometimes called services rendered.
posted on April 30, 2007 01:40:58 PM newBy ROGER BUOEN Special to the Star Tribune
That already makes this not credible. The Star Diaper is so far left that they can't even tell a non-political story without making it left-winged political.
Although, I must consider the poster as well. Mingopig, that says it all.
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If it's called common sense, why do so few Demomorons have it?
posted on April 30, 2007 02:04:17 PM new
ST0NEC0LD613,
Are you kidding all I did was to suggest how another fallen member of "the moral party" could repent and hoe the World Bank could save money.
Remember its not my fault the majority of Americans now believe the President and his gang you voted for has failed America.
ACTUALITY STONECOLD 613,MANY OF YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS ARE SAYING BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT AMERICA EVER HAD.
BTW, isn't tomorrow the day 4 years ago Bush stood on a Aircraft Carrier and told America, "Major Combat is over in Iraq"?
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz should find Jesus after giving his girl friend a 200,000 a year job.
Are YOU a Bunghole?