Carl Bernstein: Hillary Will Continue Bush's Legacy of Secrecy
The following piece is part of an ongoing series of OffTheBus reports by citizen policy experts critiquing different aspects of Campaign 08.
"Hillary's fear of humiliation, her fear of secrets being revealed, absolutely permeates her life," Carl Bernstein told a packed auditorium at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA., earlier this week.
Bernstein is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter on Watergate, and author of a new book on Hillary, A Woman in Charge. His appearance in Yorba Linda was a historic moment of sorts, as he himself noted: if he had said in 1999, when he started doing research on Hillary, "that I would be invited to speak at the Nixon Library, and that I'd be talking about Hillary as possibly the next president of the United States, I'd be accused of smoking something - and inhaling."
The event marked the transformation of the Nixon Library from a private institution run by Nixon loyalists to a public one run by the National Archives, under the direction of historian Tim Naftali. Bernstein spoke to a full house - 300 people - including many students from nearby colleges getting extra credit for showing up.
Hillary's life with Bill, Bernstein said, was one of "remarkable sacrifices and embarrassments," because "she undertook the job of containing and covering up the effects of his sexual compulsions."
At lunch before his talk, Bernstein emphasized Hillary's continuing obsession with secrecy. He told me he did not think Hillary would repeal Bush's Executive Order on Classification, the most restrictive ever, which has outraged advocates of freedom of information in Congress and the media. Bush's order gives the president or any former president the right to withhold the former president's papers from the public. At the time it was issued - shortly after 9-11 - it seemed intended to conceal from the public information about the presidency of Bush senior, many of whose staffers held high positions in the White House of Bush junior.
But the Bush executive order on classification would have a special appeal for Hillary as president, Bernstein said. "Do you think she wants to open the papers of Bill's presidency, which include all the material on her role?" Asked about the legislation introduced by Congressman Henry Waxman to repeal Bush's classification order, Bernstein was skeptical it would pass in the next congress: "Do you thing Democrats in Congress would demand repeal in the face of Hillary's opposition?"
"Nixon's history is settled," Bernstein told the audience at the Nixon Library. "What is not yet settled is the history of the Clintons--their use and abuse of power." That's important because, if Hillary wins, "we're talking about a restoration."
Her obsession with humiliation and secrecy can be traced back to her "hellish childhood," Bernstein said, in a family where her father "verbally humiliated and abused her mother." The question asked by people at the time, according to Bernstein, was "why did her mother stay with this man?" He couldn't help noting that the same question would be asked about her.
While Hillary's concern with secrecy remains a constant today, Bernstein said, she has changed in other ways since her days as First Lady. In the White House she had "a take-no-prisoner combativeness, an anger that was consuming." It had disastrous effects: the 1994 victory of New Gingrich and the Republicans, which transferred control of the House away from the Democrats for the first time since the New Deal, he said, "was a result of the failures of Hillary Clinton."
But in the Senate "she became self-confident in a way she had never been since she met Bill." Her old combativeness "is gone." As for the senators who voted to convict her husband in his impeachment trial, Bernstein said, "she joined their prayer group."
Finally, does Carl Bernstein think Hillary going to win the presidency? He replied, "The night the Supreme Court voted to make Bush president, I said on TV I thought he would be a compassionate conservative, reach out to Democrats, and govern from the center. So don't turn to me for predictions about politics."
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She voted for the Patriot act and she has put forth no bills to help restore the rule of law and the US Constitution....so I doubt she will do much for Freedom.
Clinton will be as much in he pockets of the Big Business interests as Bush is.
Well said.She is a corporate Dem & I need not tell you what that kind has done to this country.
The reason the media is in such a mess who signed the telco act of 1996 consolidating media ownership?You think that will change with Clinton.
I for one would never vote for Hillary. She is the last person on earth that I would trust. Does anyone remember Mena, Arkansas? or Vince Foster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does anyone able to read believe this mishegoss?
Yeah, I remember them ALL as right wing smears against the Clintons...and ALL bullshit lies!!!!!
How much research did you do to come to the conclusion allegations related to Mena were "all lies"?
Did you even bother to read the link to the Washington Post article further up the thread?
It is true indeed that all the hoopla came from angry right-wingers, but most had no idea that Bush Sr. was also implicated. They were like the proverbial blind men touching one part of the elephant trying to figure out what it was. At least they found the elephant.
There is little doubt Hillary is secretive, but that is not the worry so much as she accepts dirty money from the same dirty fascist corporations as the Neocons including AIPAC, and she thinks this is OK, and that she's in control and not going to be influenced, ha. BS!!! Wake up girl! That isn't just an achilles heal, that is being deaf, dumb, and blind, while standing at the edge of a cliff with someone you shouldn't be trusting standing behind you. Just like with her Iraq vote and Iran vote, her next step might be a killer!
The irony is if she cleaned up this massive skeleton out of her closet, she'd probably win the '08 election hands down. But Hillary like everyone else, knows "it's the money stupid" that buys the WH, and out of ambition or fear of failure she and Bill play the game.
Democracy in America is a failure at this point, and nothing, nothing, will begin to get fixed until elections become publicly financed and the for profit lobbyists are given the boot. The current reform nonsense is nothing but a feel good band-aid for Nancy and Harry. Look around, this country is bleeding to death and if the tourniquet doesn't come soon, even a greater disaster will.
Bernstein writes: ...the 1994 victory of New Gingrich and the Republicans, which transferred control of the House away from the Democrats for the first time since the New Deal, he said, "was a result of the failures of Hillary Clinton."
Tell me, Carl, was Hillary also responsible for TWO Bush elections? Global warming? The sun rising in the east?
What utter nonsense.
Utter nonsense indeed. As far as I remember Hillary Clinton was the wife of the President not the president, so how in hell is she responsible for Newt Gingrich? Jeebus people, you Hillary haters are as crazy as the right wing nut jobs.
Another long time resident of places utterly disconnected with reality.
First: If you actually believe Bill was the president you are in serious need of help.
Second: Monkey see-Monkey do. Hillary will continue the failed policies of both her husband and the Bushes.
Third: Examination of her record and stances proves my point two.
Gimme a break you Hillary shills!!
Enough said.
kenoshaMarge-
What hypocrisy!
"Hillary Clinton was the wife of the President not the president, so how in hell is she responsible for Newt Gingrich?"
HA! Are you kidding???
If you want to give her credit for her time in the whitehouse, she gets the blame, too.
You can't have it both ways.
I agree McGee. Hillary haters can't stand that she is going to be the next President. I wish Bernstein would stop; his credibility is taking a nose dive.
Most of us don't listen to the Right Wing become foam-at-the-mouth gargoyles at the mention of her name.
In fact, I want to thank them. If they hadn't picked on her all these years, people may have listened to their irrational rants. They only help her now!!!
Too late haters!!! You just want to take the heat off your worst-prez-ever. I guess it's hard to admit that a paper clip would have made a better prez than Bush; so trying to demonize Hillary now just falls flat.
Women will be voting for her, so if you hate her so bad, you better give money now to Obama.
Republican women will be voting for her. I don't know any Democratic women who will vote for her!
Not one.
The Republican women (Engineering office in Georgia, so three out four are Repubs) would under no circumstances vote for her. And none of the women in my household are voting for her until she acknowledges her mistake to authorize this war.
Yeah, those polls of registered Dems and likely Dem primary voters where she has a 20 point lead don't include a single woman. Riiight!
as we say in the hood,phlipper,you are a hot mess! there is no way hillary clinton win will this election. get out of denial! she is the worst thing that could happen to this country.
If Bernstein thought in 2000 that George W. Bush "would be a compassionate conservative, reach out to Democrats, and govern from the center," then his opinion on Hillary today is worthless.
Amen rocketoo, amen!
Bernstein is part of the cottage industry of Clinton despisers who nonetheless, earn a very nice living off them. So Hillary will continue Bush's penchant for secrecy. Does Mr. Berstein
have an opinion on how things might work in the Guiliani administration? Somehow I doubt it. Look, there are many posters here who want someone other than Hillary. That's fine but at the end of the day, we will be choosing between two candidates. One will likely be Hillary and the other will be a Republican. To me, Republicans have proven incapable of governing. Hillary isn't the sexiest candidate and she's not a great orator but she has proven to be a responsible and capable leader. After the debacle of the Bush years, that looks pretty good to me.
"...but she has proven to be a responsible and capable leader."
Please cite one instance, just one, where she has been a leader in anything. AT ALL!!
She's been a leader here in NY for first responders. But, I do see your point.
That said, she is in the Senate where consensus is the norm. Look, there are no perfect candidates. We must choose from the selection of people who are running and for me, have a realistic chance to win. Judged against that lot, Hillary is the better candidate, at least to my mind. Should the Democrats select someone other than Hillary and my choices boiled down to that candidate against Rudy, Mitt or any of the other Republican choices, I'd choose the Democrat without reservation. I just think when the primaries are over, Hillary will be the candidate.
One thing about the Clintons that is hard to dispute, they know how to win elections.
Never forget: Clinton gave frat boy bush the go ahead to invade Iraq and she just gave him the go ahead to invade Iran.
Also, she is for secret wire taps.
In all, she hates America and its liberty.
She is Bush with two more boobs.
I know this is a little bit of a stretch but bear with me.
Civil Liberties are like sand on the beach. If they get eroded it takes a Herculean effort to restore them.
The new President, NO MATTER WHAT PARTY THEY COME FROM, will not give up the powers that W snatched up without a fight. It will take a Congress and Supreme Court that is willing to take on an "Imperial Presidency". Unfortunately these institutions have neither the backbone or the courage for that fight, so it is silly to expect the next President just to fork these powers over. Someone has to rebuild the beach.
Anyone have a shovel and a strong back?
Well said, last poster. Carl today is "all over the map, on the way to the bank" to combine a couple of cliches. Bernstein now waxes revisionist about how great the Ford pardon was; which made it certain things on Nixon would never be "settled."
Bertstein's book is no doubt a work of snarkary dressed in the garb of "serious" journalism, as one posse in the Clinton hunt always was ("Bloodsport").
But Carl sums it up best himself in the end, there's no reason to take his publishing deal very seriously, and he's not that interested in Hillary anyway. Do people still use big fat books as doorstops?
HOW MUCH DID THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE PAY FOR THIS?
Probably nothing. Truth takes nothing but courage, not $$$$$.
Whether it's Hillary, Ruday or another supported by big business, we're sure to continue the secrecy in Bush's administration. It serves to line big businesses' pockets with more profits. The super rich and elite continue to be on the take and will see democracy erroded for their own ends which are greed and power. I think that the Americans can't stop this steamroller until their is campaign finance reform.
Maybe we'll finally have a leader strong enough to tell the Middle East, "Step away from the derrick".
Hillary Clinton - Making the world safe for the combustion engine until at least 2050.
Hillary - "I'll get that last barrel of crude if I have to suck it out with a straw!" (Huge roar from massive crowd of SUV driving soccer Moms).
Hillary Clinton leads - "It's time we stepped up the bombing of the Kurds and maybe "accidently" hit a few Mothers and Babies!"
Another Hillary Bon Mot - "That's why I'm calling for a full investigation of Blackwater by a wonderful company called Dyncorp!"
She will not continue Bush's legacy because Democrats will not allow it. Unlike the repugs, grassroots Dems will hold a Democrtic president's feet to the fire.
Are you daft???????? I suppose you are going to tell me how strong the Democrats have been.
Get real, wake up.
Would that be anything like the way grassroots Democrats have held the now-Democrat-controlled Congress' feet to the fire? Would that explain why warrantless wiretapping has ended and we're redeploying troops stateside? These appear to be values of the Democratic grassroots.
Given Clinton's past behavior, it seems a safe bet that she will, at best, continue to be secretive and likely attempt to further consolidate power. Everything she's ever done has advanced these two priorities.
If Bernstein thought George W. Bush "would be a compassionate conservative, reach out to Democrats, and govern from the center" then his opinion now is just as worthless as it apparently was then.
Possibly....., but HRC has an unjustifiably high opinion of HERSELF, has a "thin skin," and will bridle at the content of a sustained attack either on her policies or her 'character.' Rationally, the latter should be 'off the table,' but the U.S. electorate, being what it is, if HRC doesn't dev. SOME sense of wit, she's in for an emotional, washboard ride to/in the White House....
How the hell do you know what she thinks of herself? Thin skinned? Doubtful considering all the crap she's had to take over the years. I am growing fonder of Hillary by the day as I watch the hatred and vitriol that is unleashed against her. She is blamed for everything from the war in Iraq, yeah right she's the only one that voted for it, to ingrown toenails. And everybody seems to know exactly what she's thinking.
"...but HRC has an unjustifiably high opinion of HERSELF"?
Methinks an ego is a prerequisite for being successful at anything especially if one wants to be POTUS. "Thin skin" is your take from Berstein. HRC really is as hard as nails. If snarky asides could harm her sense of being she would have given up many years ago. She is driven by a healthy human ambition (another prerequisite for success) to do something no other woman has done...to be President of the United States; and she will succeed in spite of the jealous naysayers. If you like her she has wit; if you do not like her she does not. Simple.
I like Obama, but he is still wet behind the ears. He will have to wait his turn. 2008 is Hillary's year.
Another Clinton in the White House would be a disaster of epic proportions. More conservative legislation was passed during Bill's term than the Nixon years. Hillary's obsession with secrets nearly matches that of Stalin. She has a vindictive personality that also matches Stalin's. Just this year when David Geffen spoke out against her Clinton's minions scurried all over Hollywood with the message "You're either with us or when January '09 rolls around Hillary will remember you." Norman Lear quipped at the time, "What is she going to do, put me in jail?" The answer to that is sadly, yes. Clinton will make the Bush Administration look like pikers when it comes to envoking Executive Privilege. She doesn't even have the decency to admit her vote to go to war with Iraq was wrong. Obama and Edwards both know you must use dipolmacy. Clinton's idea of diplomacy is a sledgehammer. Her "my way or the highway" attitude is just more of the same we've already had to endure for the last 8 years. A female president would be fine, possibly someone on the order of Elizabeth Edwards, who knows how to show compassion. Clinton is a harridan that should be shut out come '08 by any who values a real democracy.
Yep.
Yet another Limbaugh dittohead takes time to post on HuffPo.
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