| $8 Million Too Much |
9 June 2003
|
Senator Clinton Writes a Book
New York's junior senator, Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, has a book coming out, and she has been advanced $8 million for the work. Fortunately, there is a Harry Potter novel due out in three weeks, and her time as #1 will be brief. This is not a review of the book, as it hasn't made it to the offices here, and it is not policy of the title to review what has not been read, seen or heard. Rather, one wishes to know what the book could possibly contain to merit $8 million up front.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to call her by her prefered name and title, is a lawyer who once lived with the man who was president. She is a member of the bar. And for a time, she was in charge of reforming the US healthcare system. It is difficult to see what she did or tried to do that makes her comments worth $8 million. Mr. Churchill helped win World War II; Mr. Nixon served as senator, vice president, president, fought (and lost) a war, and was hounded from office for crimes against the Constitution; Mrs. Meir went from Brooklyn housewife to Prime Minister of Israel and won a war for her new nation.
No, Mrs. Clinton's $8 million stems from the Lewinsky matter, marital infidelities and little else. Like her husband, the junior senator from the state of New York will not be remembered from her great achievements because she has little ones at best. She will be remembered as the victim not of a vast right-wing conspiracy but rather of her own ambition. Had she divorced the man, burst into tears on "60 Minutes" or simply kept quiet, one might have some respect for her situation.
Instead, she failed to reform America's healthcare when her husband was in the White House and their party controlled both houses of Congress. Ten years on, she has said and done nothing about it. Memoirs imply achievement. At best, her book is premature.