Will Bill Clinton's book help or hurt John Kerry?

[Jolie Rouge]

Clinton Says He Never Considered Quitting

By MADISON J. GRAY

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...0040616NYDB204

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Clinton tells CBS' ``60 Minutes'' that he never considered resigning and is proud he fought efforts to impeach him amid the scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

``I stood up to it and beat it back,'' Clinton says of the impeachment process, which he describes as ``an abuse of power. The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don't see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate.''

The interview, to take up the full hour of Sunday's program, is timed to next week's publication of Clinton's memoir, ``My Life,'' which covers his Arkansas childhood, his tenure as that state's governor as well as his presidency.


Clinton sees the Lewinsky affair as ``a terrible moral error'' whose disclosure to his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, put him ``in the doghouse.'' ``I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could,'' Clinton says of his infidelity. ``I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything.''

On Wednesday, Clinton told an audience of about 1,000 people at a screening of a documentary about his presidency in New York that he became an enemy of right wing America in an attack led by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. The film was first shown Tuesday in Little Rock, Ark.

Clinton said Starr was ``the instrument of a grand design.'' The documentary, ``The Hunting of the President,'' portrays Clinton as the target of a political smear campaign by its filmmakers Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry. Thomason is a close friend of Clinton's.

``When the Berlin wall fell, the perpetual right in America, which always needs an enemy, didn't have an enemy any more, so I had to serve as the next best thing,'' Clinton said. Making only an indirect reference to his affair with Lewinsky after the film's screening, Clinton referred to it as his ``stupid, personal, wrong mistakes.''

In the ``60 Minutes'' interview with CBS News anchor Dan Rather, Clinton said he, his wife and their daughter, Chelsea, dealt with their family crisis through counseling. ``We did it together. We did it individually,'' he says. ``We did family work.''

Clinton pronounces his economic plan as his greatest accomplishment of his eight years in office. ``I kept score, how many people's lives were better off,'' he tells Rather. ``People actually had the ability to do more things than ever before.''

The former commander in chief also takes pride in assembling the coalition that stopped former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on independence-minded ethnic Albanians. ``The day that Kosovar war ended and I knew Milosevic's days were numbered was a great day. I had a lot of great days,'' he says.

Excerpts from the interview, taped Tuesday at Clinton's home in Chappaqua, N.Y., and last weekend in Arkansas, were released Wednesday. The book, published by Alfred A. Knopf, has a first printing of 1.5 million copies.

``The Hunting of the President,'' based on the best-selling book of the same name by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, documents the Whitewater scandal, the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's subsequent impeachment.


On the Net:


www.cbs.com


www.thehuntingofthepresident.com


(SUBS 7th graf, 'On Wednesday...' to reflect that documentary was first shown in Arkansas, correcting erroneous statement in BC-Clinton Documentary that it premiered in New York.)



06/17/04 13:37

Former President Clinton tells CBS' ``60 Minutes'' that he never considered resigning and is proud he fought efforts to impeach him amid the scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. ``I stood up to it and beat it back,'' Clinton says of the impeachment process, which he describes as ``an abuse of power. The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don't see it as a stain....

That this man can say this with a straight face is mind boggling.

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[Angel Lips]

i dont think it will really matter

[nanajoanie]

I wish both the Clinton's would just dry up and blow away They are both such incredible liars I'm a Bush girl all the way If I were Kerry I'd run away as fast as I could from them

[Blackerose]

What got me was the total lack of respect on the part of both Clintons at the funeral service of former President Reagan. They both looked like they were totally bored and had their eyes closed when the speakers where remembering him. Why did they bother going when it was so obvious that they didn't want to be there? I don't think this book will affect the presidential race one way or another.

[ilvscooby]

I really like the Clinton's and I was actually thinking about purchasing the book I don't think Clinton's book will really have any effect on John Kerry.

[Kelsey1224]

I was actually going to post a similar thread in the V/W forum...but why duplicate an effort.

I want to preface my comments by saying that I am a dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding heart liberal, born-again Christian. (I know...that's an oxymoron...lol).

Anyway...I have been an active Democrat all of my adult life. I actually worked on election campaigns when I was younger (60's and 70's) and was very politically active. (The McGovern campaign fiasco did temper my youthful enthusiasm for politics however...LOL!!)

Anyway, I was a major Clinton support. I mean...I loved the man!

However, as an American, I felt extremely betrayed by his actions with Monica Lewinsky. As a 'fellow' Christian, I felt his actions were extremely hypocritical.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first read his comments regarding the affair, i.e., "I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could,'' Clinton says of his infidelity. ``I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything.''

I felt that this was a man taking responsibility for his actions and I felt vindicated for my original support of him.

Then he said that it put him "in the doghouse" for a couple of months. IN THE DOGHOUSE??? Puleeze!!! This comment trivialized what he did to his marriage. His affair was a tremendous betrayal to his marriage...to his wife...to his family...and his lies about it were a betrayal to his country!

Men who forget to put the top on the toothpaste end up in the doghouse. Men who forget an anniversary end up in the doghouse. Men who go drinking with the boys after work end up in the doghouse.

To equate what he did with little marital annoyances negates the severe nature of his betrayal. Regardless of Lewinsky's part...this was sexual harrassment...plain and simple. Clinton was the one with power and he abused that power!

Guess I was naive for thinking that he actually 'got' what he did was just plain wrong!

[cleaningla]

I saw the interview and Dan Rather asked him if he was in the doghouse and Clinton laughed and said something like "yeah in the doghouse". The way he answered sounded to me like that was an understatement and he (Clinton) knew it was an understatement.

[dangerousfem]

I wish both the Clinton's would just dry up and blow away They are both such incredible liars I'm a Bush girl all the way If I were Kerry I'd run away as fast as I could from them

ITA!!

[Kelsey1224]

I saw the interview and Dan Rather asked him if he was in the doghouse and Clinton laughed and said something like "yeah in the doghouse". The way he answered sounded to me like that was an understatement and he (Clinton) knew it was an understatement.

Thank you for the clarification. I did not see the interview and, of course, the written word can't begin to show tone of voice.

[nanajoanie]

I did not watch the Rather/Clinton interview. I can't stand either one of them...I saw ads for the program and saw the "aw poor me look" on little Bill's face. GGRRRR!!!!! Funny that Hillary wasn't there for "support". And the actions at the Reagan funeral, they looked so bored...I pray that Hillary never makes it to the oval office. She won't remember where the files are...HAHAHAHHHAAA!!!!

[girlwithsoul]

I wish both the Clinton's would just dry up and blow away They are both such incredible liars I'm a Bush girl all the way If I were Kerry I'd run away as fast as I could from them

Wow....and the Bush's aren't liars? In fact, aren't we all liars? Because we are fallable humans? Bush #1 lied about taxes, Bush #2 has lied about numerous things that I won't go into. We are all wrong at one time or another but at least Clinton's coming out and taking responsibility for the wrongs he's committed. Can't we all let go of the politics and focus on each other's humanity. Goodness.