CyberAlert -- 02/15/1999 -- Snowe, Collins & Chafee "In Touch"; Clinton Vindicated?; People's Fawning
Snowe, Collins & Chafee "In Touch"; Clinton Vindicated?; People's Fawning
4) The February 8 edition of Notable Quotables.
Northeastern liberal, I mean moderate, Republicans are the only
Republicans "still in touch with the people." And so are the two
female Republican Senators who voted not guilty, though they fit into both
categories. So asserted Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on the McLaughlin
Group: Clinton now vindicated, just like Gingrich. On Fox News Sunday last week Juan Williams and NPR's Mara Liasson dismissed the relevance of the IRS ruling on how Newt Gingrich did not violate tax laws, claiming Democratic attacks were just politics as normal with Liasson actually suggesting Gingrich got what he deserved as Democrats treated him the same way he treated Jim Wright. That prompted Brit Hume to scold the two for faulty reasoning and argue that Democrats owe Gingrich an apology. A week later Fox News analyst Juan Williams recalled the argument, suggesting that Hume now apologize to Bill Clinton. Viewers of the February 14 Fox News Sunday heard this exchange between Williams, a Washington Post reporter on perpetual leave, and Fox News Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume: Williams:
"Last week you asked me to apologize to Gingrich. Are you guys going
to apologize to Clinton since he's been cleared in this charge?" To read more about the exchange on the February 7 show, go to the February 8 CyberAlert which is posted on the MRC site: http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/cyberalert/1999/cyb19990208.html#6 Venerating, adoring, glowing, flattering. All those words are understatements for People magazine's February 15 issue cover story titled "Hillary & Chelsea: Grace Under Fire." White House complaints, about how the Clinton parents were supposedly very upset about the invasion of Chelsea's privacy, became a major media story back on February 3 and 4. One passage in the article even raises the possibility that Chelsea was the brains behind the miraculous $100,000 profit on commodities as People recalled how when Chelsea was in 6th grade she alerted her mother when a stock she owned was mentioned on TV. More pressing Senate trial bias kept me from examining the actual story at the time, but a look at it now shows that the Clintons sure weren't hurt by the additional readership for the article their complaints generated. There is not a negative word in the article and amongst the friends quoted is Dr. Nancy Snyderman of ABC's Good Morning America. After the magazine excerpts, a look at what Snyderman said about her relationship with Hillary Clinton. Some representative fawning from the People story by Susan Schindehette headlined "The Ties That Bind: Separated by a continent, united by a lifelong bond, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton rely, in these worst of times, on each other." ....At this past New Year's Renaissance Weekend, while a pensive President walked alone on the deserted beach in Hilton Head, S.C., Hillary and Chelsea stayed behind in their borrowed oceanfront house. Following an unspoken rule of their relationship, mother and daughter have always refused to let the world see their private pain. This past year, too, each has faced the world without flinching. "Chelsea has her mother's strength," says ABC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman, a longtime friend of Hillary's. "She's been bred for it.".... The closeness between mother and daughter shows up in the smallest gestures. When Hillary began to shiver at a beach picnic on Martha's Vineyard with friends in 1997, it was Chelsea who took off her own jacket to drape over her mother's shoulders. The two also share a spiritual bond: Chelsea often prays with her mother, having chosen Hillary's Methodist faith over her Baptist father's. Now, in the wake of the current crisis, "both Hillary and Chelsea have this inner glow," says Rev. Don Jones, who was Hillary's childhood pastor from suburban Chicago. "It's as if they've both reached their higher selves.".... In a sense, Chelsea is the living embodiment of her mother's ideas about child rearing and feminism. As a young mother often on the road, Hillary frequently left messages at Chelsea's elementary school in Little Rock ("Just tell Chelsea that Mommy loves her"). She also encouraged her daughter to write back to her -- a practice that, as Hillary notes in her latest book, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, not only helped keep the family close but also "helped Chelsea practice her language skills." And as half of the most-traveled mother-daughter team in the history of the presidency, Hillary once wrote, "I am beyond grateful for the times we have circled the globe together. And if those travels have changed minds in countries where daughters are not as prized as sons -- well, all the better." Hillary's determination to shape her daughter's life manifested itself early on. "Hillary did everything she could to bring her into the world under the best circumstances," says Rose Crane of Little Rock, a longtime friend of Hillary's. While pregnant, "Hillary once told me that what she wanted more than anything was a great big [diet] Tab over crushed ice," but she abstained because she was afraid it might harm the baby. In the early years after Chelsea was born, following a difficult labor and C-section delivery, it was obvious that both parents adored her, even if they expressed it differently. Bill kept a child's desk in plain view for Chelsea in his office, while Hillary would quietly spread a quilt in the backyard of the Little Rock governor's mansion so she and her toddler could just stare up at the clouds. "Bill drove Chelsea to school, and you would see them holding hands," says Maraniss. "It was a more public demonstration than Hillary and Chelsea have, but that doesn't mean it's any deeper.".... Hillary was also determined to encourage her little girl's independence. Chelsea wasn't allowed to wear shoes with Velcro closures -- a gift from her grandma Virginia Kelley -- until she first learned to tie laces, Hillary later wrote, because "I loved the look of accomplishment on her face when she showed us all what she could do for herself." It was a look her mother would see many times. When Chelsea was in sixth grade, recalls [Carolyn] Staley [childhood FOB], "I was in the kitchen when the TV news came on. Chelsea was watching, and I heard this shriek of delight: 'Look, Mom, it's up!' Hillary had been trying to sock away some money for the family and had given Chelsea a lesson in how investing works. Chelsea was watching the stock report.".... But Hillary's true priority has always been Chelsea, as was evident whenever she wore -- over conservative business attire -- the gaudy, plastic-beaded necklace that her little girl had made. At Little Rock's Forest Park Elementary School, "right up front, Mrs. Clinton made it clear that Chelsea came first," recalls Sadie Mitchell, Chelsea's first-grade teacher. "She gave me all the family's private numbers and told me to call them anytime." Mitchell also recalls that Hillary helped perform science experiments with Chelsea's classmates, took them on outings to theaters and museums and read stories to the class with Chelsea curled up in her lap. Hillary's former press aide Mary Ellen Glynn remembers one harried moment during the 1992 presidential campaign. "Even though she had a million people sitting around her in this hotel room and her schedule was backed up to eternity, Hillary called Chelsea, who was home with a sore throat, and spent 45 minutes saying, `How are you feeling? Are you drinking lots of juices?' Everything else just stopped.".... Days before Chelsea's departure [for college], Hillary rushed home after a 20-hour trip to Mother Teresa's funeral in Calcutta to help her pack, and when Chelsea finally moved out, on Sept. 18, 1997, "it left an emptiness," says a friend, "that I don't think even Hillary expected.".... Today, friends have no doubt that Chelsea, grateful to be 3,000 miles from the Lewinsky earthquake's epicenter, will, like her mother, survive this latest crisis. "They are both forgiving people who don't feel alone. They don't feel sorry for themselves," says a longtime friend of Hillary's. So far, says a male pal of Chelsea's at Stanford, "I have never seen her visibly upset. Before Christmas she looked exhausted. She's under a lot of stress. That's pretty obvious, and it all adds up after a while." But tabloid reports that she had suffered a collapse and visited the university health center after the breakup with her boyfriend were "blown way out of proportion," the friend insists. At present, Hillary and Chelsea are "still healing, but it's going to take time," says a friend. In her 1996 book, Hillary included an anecdote that may speak more about her sorrow and solace in this time of betrayal than anything that she has otherwise disclosed. It is the story of a then 4-year-old Chelsea, who was asked in church on Mother's Day what gift she would most like to give her own mother. "Life insurance," she announced. Later, after questioning her, Hillary learned that the little girl believed such a thing could keep her mother from ever dying. "This tiny child wanted me to live forever," she wrote. "Isn't that what being alive is all about -- being loved like that?" In a world where affection and allegiance are so often conditional, that simple realization seemed, to Hillary, like something of a miracle. END Excerpt AOL subscribers can read the entire article since People has an exclusive deal with AOL. Keyword: "People."
And she's not worried about sleeping with the Clintons either. As reported in the February 27, 1997 CyberAlert, a "Dr. Nancy Snyderman" was amongst the 831 names released on February 26, 1997 of those who spent a night in a White House bedroom during Clinton's first four years. The February 8 edition of Notable Quotables, the MRC's bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media. Assuming Ken Starr's Guilty "...You have a guy [Ken Starr]
exposing himself as a nut job, making this announcement through
'associates say,' yet again revealing himself, not just to be as many of
his apologists say, you know, tone deaf to public opinion. This man really
seems a true believer to me."
Clinton, a Republican? "All right, then let me ask you this.
Why, under any circumstances would the Republicans want to impeach a
'Republican' President?"
Managers Have Too Much Sway? "Is the population of the Senate now
at 113? Now here's what I mean: Are the House managers getting a
disproportionate voice in how you should proceed?"
Canonize St. William Clinton? "One thing I can't figure is how did
this guy thrive so much in adversity. I mean, if they indicted him now,
he'd be canonized for God's sake."
Republicans Remind One of Nazis "As she watches Republicans in
Congress push ahead with impeachment proceedings against President
Clinton, Ellen Mendel of Manhattan says she feels the same despair that
she did as a girl in Nazi Germany when the efforts of a stubborn group of
leaders snowballed, crushing the will of the people. 'It is apparent that
the bulldozing campaign by the Republicans will not end,' said Ms. Mendel,
a psychotherapist. And in a moment of self-analysis, she added: 'Their
efforts are so abusive that I was beginning to feel a sense of
discouragement. I have been feeling very isolated.'"
....And/Or Stalinists, So Clinton Should Sue for False Arrest "Although Jonathan, if the Senate does
go ahead with this finding of fact idea after the Republicans argued so
strongly against censure, doesn't that make this a show trial? And you
might even go as far to suggest, as Lanny Davis almost does, that the
President could sue for false arrest if he's not allowed to present a
case?"
Clinton, Soaring Internet Stock "They're just tickled pink down here.
The polls show the President went up in every respect after the [State of
the Union] speech last night. You know, I've talked to one [White House]
staff member who said, 'We worry. He never worries. He just always pulls
it through' and I noticed in the paper there was a cartoon this morning
comparing President Clinton to one of these great Internet stocks, one of
these dot-coms that just go way up despite the fact that there may be no
value there. That's what his critics say about him, and he just says
'yeah, yeah' and it goes up. The public loves it. They loved him last
night and down here they're ecstatic."
Clinton on Pope's "Lofty Plane"? "If there was any doubt that by virtue
of his position, Clinton occupied as lofty a plane as the Pope on Tuesday
-- or that the Pope, by virtue of being human, had some of the same needs
as Clinton -- it was erased by the sign marking a rest-room near their
meeting room: 'President or Holy Father Only,' it read."
Mills Rebuffed Racist Republicans "Her [White House lawyer Cheryl Mills]
rhetoric wasn't fancy, but it was on target. The G.O.P. is a party, after
all, that owes its post-Barry Goldwater resurgence to opposition to civil
rights. And while its leaders from time to time proclaim their belief in
racial justice, their pledges have been mostly lip service. They're too
genteel for a sheet-wearing bigot like David Duke but all too willing to
embrace bigotry if it's dressed in a suit and tie. Mills, 33, is just the
sort of hard-nosed advocate to drag such hypocrisy to the surface."
"America's Business" On Hold "The Republican leadership has
decided, and spoken....They want the calling of witnesses and the
lengthening out of the process. This is where the matter now stands.
Questions such as what to do about Social Security, improving the nation's
schools, and the drug menace among America's youth basically are on hold.
So is what to do about threats to health of the U.S. economy by what is
happening in Asia and Brazil; the threats to U.S. security posed by Iraq,
Iran, and North Korea; and the peril represented by a collapsing Russia
and an emerging China - all important parts of the people's business - all
remain pretty much on hold, while the trial drags on."
"Secret Clique" of Conservatives "This time last year, Hillary Rodham
Clinton described, in a now-famous appearance on the NBC News program
Today, how a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' was trying to destroy her
husband's presidency. As it turns out, some of the most serious damage to
Bill Clinton's presidency came not from his high-profile political enemies
but from a small secret clique of lawyers in their 30s who share a deep
antipathy toward the President, according to nearly two dozen interviews
and recently filed court documents."
Thank Heaven for Dan Quayle and His "Backward Remarks" "Yes, in a campaign that promises us
such brilliant but boring candidates as Bill Bradley and Al Gore, the
return of Dan Quayle can only be seen as a plus. And it would appear he's
off to a good start. In a recent fundraising letter, he wrote, 'I have
ordered my staff to never, ever, utter the words "compassionate
conservative." This silly and insulting term...is nothing more than a
code for surrendering our values and principles.' That's a dirty word, all
right, 'compassion.' God forbid the GOP should ever be connected with such
an atrocious idea. The great thing about Quayle is that he never
backpedals on his backward remarks. Or in his words, 'I stand by all the
misstatements that I've made.'"
Bipartisanship: Republicans Do What Democrats Want "Republicans Seem Poised to Call
Witnesses, Risk Bipartisan Spirit."
GOP Response: Out of Date "The Republicans are forced back on
the issues they were touting in the '80s: tax cuts, Star Wars, opposition
to abortion. It wasn't really a forward-looking proposal."
Not the Best Wording "This is quite a blow to the White
House...." ----------- More Linda Tripp Monday night, February 15: She's the scheduled guest for CNN's Larry Ling Live at 9pm and 12am ET/6pm and 9pm PT. -- Brent Baker >>>
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