BY EDWARD KLEIN
As might be expected in this era of partisan rancor, my new book, Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary, has prompted criticism by people on the Left.
Much of the criticism can be traced back to Hillary’s notorious attack machine and the henchmen who run that machine:
- Hillary’s book-burning spokesman Philippe Reines (“Killing books has always been a fun pastime,” Reines once bragged).1
- Her “Get Smart” secret agent Sidney Blumenthal, an expert in political wet work
- Her Reich Minister of Propaganda, David Brock, of whom the less said the better.
- And her puppet and Pinocchio-like spokesman, Nick Merrill.
These four horsemen of the apocalypse run what New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd calls the Clinton “Slime Room.”
Here is how Dowd describes that Slime Room: “A $28 million cluster of media monitoring groups and oppo research organizations that are vehicles to rebut and at times discredit and threaten anyone who casts a gimlet eye at Clinton, Inc.”
The Clinton Slime Room has been dishing out its sludgy boilerplate for years, and it often doesn’t bother to come up with fresh ways to attack its victims.
When Peter Schweizer recently published Clinton Cash he was attacked by the Slime Room with the same exact words that have been used against me (“a discredited author”) and the same exact phrase used against my books (“a work of fiction”).
“To this day,” write Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman of Politico, “[Hillary has] surrounded herself with media conspiracy theorists who remain some of her favorite confidants, urged wealthy allies to bankroll independent organizations tasked with knee-capping reporters perceived as unfriendly, withdrawn into a gilded shell when attacked and rolled her eyes at several generations of aides who suggested she reach out to journalists rather than just disdaining them.”
Ron Fournier, the senior political columnist and director of National Journal, explained the Slime Room’s MO this way:
Gennifer Flowers. Cattle futures. The White House travel office. Rose Law Firm files. The Lincoln Bedroom. Monica Lewinsky. And now the Clinton Foundation.
What ties these stories together is the predictable, paint-by-numbers response from the Bill and Hillary Clinton political operation.
- Deny: Salient questions are dodged, and evidence goes missing. The stone wall is built.
- Deflect: Blame is shifted, usually to Republicans and the media.
- Demean: People who question or criticize the Clintons get tarred as right-wing extremists, hacks, nuts, or sluts. [italics added]2
People often ask me, Why has the Clinton Slime Room gone to such lengths to single out your books?
I have two answers to that question:
First, my books about Hillary have been more personal than others.
They have gone behind the scenes to chronicle personal details that exposed Hillary’s shenanigans and cast her in an unlikeable light.
Second, despite the Slime Room’s efforts, it has been unable to suppress my books.
The Truth About Hillary, The Amateur, Blood Feud and now Unlikeable have all been major best sellers. In fact, shortly after Blood Feud was published, it blew Hillary’s memoir Hard Choices off the top of the New York Times Best Seller List and replaced it in the No. 1 slot.
The Times did a story about our dueling books under the headline:
A PROVOCATEUR’S BOOK ON HILLARY CLINTON OVERTAKES HER MEMOIR IN SALES.
The story referred to me as Hillary’s “longtime antagonist,” and went on to say: “While the work of Mr. Klein, a former editor of Newsweek and the New York Times Magazine, continues to rise, some Clinton allies have become sensitive about falling sales of Hard Choices.”
Sensitive is putting it mildly.
In Hillaryland, getting the better of Hillary is the unforgiveable sin.
