The Empress with No Clothes

The following article is my column today in The Clinton Chronicle . . .

Recently I read two books about Hillary Clinton.  Former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne explains details of his days guarding the Clintons in his best-selling book Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate.

Byrne shares numerous details of the Clintons up close and personal.  Guarding the Oval Office and seeing the Clintons daily provided more soap-opera fodder than a season of Dallas or Dynasty.  

The screaming matches between the First Couple entertained the guards and made them wonder how to protect the President should his wife actually hurt him.  Showing no affection for each other, when the camera came on or a big-money donor appeared, “they could flip that emotional light switch . . . and then back off again when the crowds and cameras departed.  It was all business for them: Clinton, Inc.”  The guard writes that portraying them as a warm, middle class family was simply a calculated marketing ploy – more political theater.

Byrne observed an immensely arrogant couple who mastered the art of the lie and cover-up.  Their pattern was (and is) to deny, deny, and deny.  But behind the scenes, the “Clinton Machine slut-shamed accusers, impugned their integrity, and supposedly even paid then off and intimidated them.”  For all of their repeated scandals, they blamed everyone but themselves.

In stark contrast to the way the Fords, Carters, Reagans, and Bushes treated their staff and security, Byrne writes that to the Clintons, “we were like furniture.”  Hillary regularly berated and cursed them, threw massive tantrums, and exhibited erratic behavior.  

Byrne actually believes that the discovery of Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress saved his life.  Guarding the President, he knew first-hand of the President’s numerous sexual trysts.  When called to testify in court about Lewinsky, Byrne feared the Clintons would have him killed before he could testify.  The blue dress surfaced, and the truth came out.

While Byrne writes like an earthy security man, Peggy Noonan writes like a professional author.  She should, since she worked under Dan Rather at CBS, became a White House speech-writer for Ronald Reagan and the senior George Busy, and today writes for the Washington Post.  

Noonan, compelled to warn the country about Hillary Clinton, wrote a book in 2000 called The Case Against Hillary Clinton. With the professionalism of an insider journalist, with a breadth of experience and a multitude of contacts, she unpacks the deception, scandals, ego-mania, entitlement to power, and philosophy of Mrs. Clinton.

The goal of the Clintons has been and remains one thing: “the mere continuance of Them.”  Never in modern American history, Noonan writes, has such “tenacity and determination been marshaled to achieve such puny purpose.”  

They have operated for forty years in the same way and for the same goals: “Together they stand for one thing: maximum and uninterrupted power for the Clintons.  What they want is self-advancement, and what fuels them is a sense of self-importance.”  

Bill and Hillary thrive in a culture of deception.  It is in their DNA: “The Clintons are unusually brazen.  They lie in plain sight, with boldness, with utmost confidence in their ability to carry it off.”

Noonan says, “Clintonism is a way of governance based on a dishonesty so pervasive and all-encompassing . . . that you cannot believe they expect you to believe the bizarre story they just peddled because no one would lie like that.”  It is the air they breath.  Their lies are not subtle but flamboyant.  They are masters of covering their scandals, creating the spin, and causing a diversion and looking away when substance is discussed.

One of the most disturbing things about Hillary is “the disconnect between the reality of Hillary, the image of Hillary, and the ruthlessness with which she will go to any length to protect that image.”

They are the most dangerous political couple to arise in recent American history.  As Newt Gingrich aptly said, Hillary Clinton is likely the most corrupt person to ever run for the President of the United States.

Gary Byrne and Peggy Noonan do remarkable jobs exposing the Emperor and his Empress who have no clothes.  I wrote reviews for both books on my blog.