Far Out Crops

O Lord, O Lord, the new books on Hillary Clinton sure seem... as excruciating as you'd expect. Get a load of this:

Unlike many harsh books about Clinton written by ideological enemies, the two new volumes come from long-established writers backed by major publishing houses and could be harder to dismiss.... Gerth and Von Natta  have spent years as investigative reporters for the New York Times.

Uh-huh. Jeff Gerth. If you're not familiar with the man's work, follow that link and play around a while. The basic point though is that Gerth has spent years as an investigative reporter for the NYTimes swallowing and then spewing all sorts of ridiculous bullshit about Bill and Hillary Clinton, most of it from some pretty dodgy sources.

And based on the WaPo report on the new Hillary book... well, let's just say it does not inspire confidence, to say the least:

Gerth and Van Natta's 416-page book... explores Clinton's time in the Senate in greater depth and portrays her legislative career and her presidential campaign as parts of a broad, long-term plan for power that has its roots in the early 1970s.

According to Gerth and Van Natta, even before the Clintons were married they formulated a "secret pact of ambition" aimed at reinventing the Democratic Party and getting to the White House. The authors cite a former Bill Clinton girlfriend, Marla Crider, who said she saw a letter on his desk written by Hillary Clinton, outlining the couple's long-term ambitions, which they called their "twenty-year project."

Got that? The book apparently takes as its hook a "plan for power" dating from the 1970s, and the source for this information is a "former girlfriend" who saw the letter left on the desk of... Clinton's wife. Right. But it gets better:

Crider was first quoted about the letter in a book by a former National Enquirer reporter in 2000, at the time describing it as more about Bill Clinton's infidelities and the "little girls" he had. Gerth and Van Natta, however, report that they re-interviewed Crider and that she said the earlier book's account was "not totally accurate." In this telling, Crider described the note as being more about the couple's political plans, with little discussion of their personal relationship.

Oh come on. The technical term here is "this is a load of crap."

I'm not a Hillary partisan. But please. This is absurd. If I dread anything more than the resurgence of the "ideologically-driven" (and avarice-driven) anti-Clinton bullshit, I dread the return of the way such bullshit was gobbled up by a lazy "MSM" press -- thereby legitimatizing it. In the 90s Gerth was a fine one for turning bullshit into manure, as it were, and spreading it far and wide.  And apparently he's still cheerfully hoeing.

Comments

[NYMary]

Once a hoer, always a whore.

[Nancy Willing]

ql is sending traffic your way this morning, good read.
Bad business.

[verplanck colvin]

OMG! Politicians make long-term plans about their aspirations to higher offices! Stop teh presses!!!!!

[Culture of Truth]

"Gerth and Von Natta have spent years as investigative reporters for the New York Times."

Ah the Times. Because their track record with the Clintons is unimpeachable.

[JP1000]

I have a new book coming out. It's titled, 'Bill Clinton: He Really Likes Hot Dogs'.

Unlike previous biographies, this one will not be that easy to dismiss.

[Michael Bérubé]

I hear that Clinton had a twenty-year project for eating hot dogs, and that he talked about it with Hillary before they were married. Would you like to interview me for your book, JP1000?

[SteveB]

OK, you've convinced me. I'm voting for Hillary simply on the basis that she and Bill seem to be the only two people within the Democratic party who can actually formulate a "plan" to do something, and then carry it out.

Come to think of it, this whole "planning" thing might be a useful quality in a President.

[merlallen]

Plans? Damn that's a great idea. I might even overlook her DLC connections and vote for her just because she can carry out a plan.

[sdf (Stu)]

Clintons' rise to power = Stonecutters conspiracy

[JC]

On the bright side, since this book was reviewed by a real reviewer having "disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a fairly deep sense of the author's (or filmmaker's or painter's) entire body of work," Richard Schickel is satisfied.

[Young Goodman Brown]

The allegations by Crider originated in "State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton," a book by former National Enquirer reporter Jerry Oppenheimer. This is the same classic tome that produced the urban legend about Hilary calling a campaign strategist a "fucking Jew bastard" back in the mid-70s. The alleged slur-ee was a fella named Paul Fray, a disbarred fraudulent former lawyer who suffered from memory loss, brain damage, and drug addiction at the time he made his accusations over a decade after the "fact".

Since this is the quality of Gerth's source material, I eagerly await his second Hilary Clinton book entitled, "Hilary and P'lod: Star-Crossed Lovers in the White House".

[a]

Ah the Times. Because their track record with the Clintons is unimpeachable.

That line made my day! (I hope it was on purpose.)

[bdr]

Before the Clintons, ambition had no role at all in politics.

[res ipsa loquitur]

VanNatta was a wanker back in college when he was the editor of Boston University's Daily Free Presss and he's a wanker now. Van Natta was a poodle to power than (John Silber) and he's a poodle to power now (Repigs). Nothing has changed. Next time I see you I'll tell you about some of his Freep wankery.

[Col Bat Guano]

How can you not trust Jeff Gerth? His reporting on Whitewater was flawless! What? Oh, never mind.

[Njorl]

You doubt the veracity of the Secret Protocols of the Elders of Clinton? You fool!

[noshrub]

Gerth? The guy that got it all right on Whitewater. Yeah. That guy.

Why has this asshole gotten a free pass all these years? Wasn't he making shit up like Jayson Blair? One of the reasons the blogosphere took off is because of the NYT's ridiculous reporting (and editorializing w/Howell "Ladies' Man" Raines) during Whitewater...I got so sick of reading it then I let my subscription lapse and have never renewed.

[Col Bat Guano]

Ok, maybe the Whitewater stuff was a little weak, but that Wen Ho Lee story was pure gold....oh crap.

[low-tech cyclist (formerly RT)]

"Secret Protocols of the Elders of Clinton"! I love it.

Yep, a politically ambitious couple hatching a secret conspiracy to...plan their future! That's worth a Drudge headline for sure.

[liberalrob]

Planning? But that's what Commie Russians do! Fred Thompson even said so in that movie about that Commie sub, you know, the one with the good James Bond and Darth Vader's voice in it. Damn, but Fred Thompson looked good in that uniform on that aircraft carrier...almost Presidential! He looked like he'd be a great Commander in Chief!

He also said, in that same movie: "This will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!"

[four legs good]

You said "ho"

hee hee.

I find the whole "hate Clinton" movement to be absurd and teh stupid. I wish they'd grow up. What the hell is wrong with someone that they'd spend a couple years of their lives working on such trash?

[R.L.Page]

... more disinformation and misdirection from liberal academia. JP, don't let the Professor fool you; your thesis is 180 degrees off. Everyone knows that Bill prefers the taco to the hot dog.

[mikefromtexas]

I heard Gerth on NPR THIS VERY afternoon pimping this sorry excuse for third world toilet paper.

[JP Stormcrow]

Planning? But that's what Commie Russians do!

Yes, and it contrasts poorly to the various Repug candidates. They aren't shifting in the wind and playing to the polls, they are responding to market forces - much more American and in tune with a free enterprise economy.

[Erik]

Not that it matters, but the paragraph you quoted says the letter was on Bill's desk, not Hillary's.