A force of nature
Two biographies assess the trajectory of the seemingly unstoppable Hillary Clinton
A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton
By Carl Bernstein
Knopf, 628 pp., $27.95
Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton
By Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.
Little, Brown, 448 pp., illustrated, $29.99
On the first page of "Underworld," Don DeLillo offers up the logical aphorism that "longing on a large scale is what makes history." This simple nugget of literary wisdom should be the all-seasons credo of Hillary Rodham Clinton. From her childhood in Park Ridge, Ill., to working as a Goldwater Girl to Wellesley College and Watergate and beyond, Clinton was fueled by an indefatigable desire to hyper-succeed in US politics. Smart, tough, and vengeful, she has endured many tempestuous seas -- navigating around ordeals like Whitewater and Monicagate and the Paula Jones affair with heartbreaking stoicism -- to be the current favorite to captain the Democratic Party to victory in 2008.
She reached this pinnacle of American politics by never averting her eyes from the grand prize: the White House. First for her husband, now, in a dramatic second act, for herself. She may be a Machiavellian at heart , but in two fascinating new books -- "Her Way," by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., and "A Woman in Charge," by Carl Bernstein -- Clinton, currently a US senator from New York, emerges as a highly capable and cold-blooded force of nature. Only a fool would write her off as yesterday's news.
Whenever two biographies of the same individual are published simultaneously, a horse race ensues. Which is the better book? Who is winning the
Hillary's story begins in the Midwest. Her father, Hugh Rodham, a Navy chief petty officer, instructed sailors in physical education throughout World War II. He was, by nature, a taskmaster and drill sergeant. He returned to Illinois and became a draperies merchant. A rock-ribbed Republican, he espoused a virulent anti-communism and a no-nonsense belief in the virtues of fiscal responsibility. The Rodham household resembled boot camp, where all the children snapped to attention whenever their dad barked, which was often. Hillary's mother, Dorothy, by contrast, was a demure Democrat who stood by her tough man, refusing to contemplate divorce. "Hillary and Bill's difficult but enduring marriage is perhaps more easily explained in the context of her childhood and the marriage of her parents," Bernstein writes, "dominated by the humiliating, withholding figure of her father, whom she managed nonetheless to idolize and (later) to idealize, while rationalizing his cruelty and indifference to the pain he caused his family."
Eleanor Roosevelt once noted that a woman slugging it out in the
Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and editor of the best-selling "The Reagan Diaries."
US political arena had to "develop skin as tough as rhinoceros hide." Bernstein, in chronological fashion, illuminates how Hillary would have earned E.R.'s respect. Whether it's brainstorming her way through Yale Law School or rising above her husband Bill's serial philandering or spitting in the eye of Richard Mellon Scaife's vast right-wing conspiracy , Clinton is an indefatigable survivor. Surprising , at least to me, was the role God and prayer have played in forging her fortitude. Bernstein says her religious zeal "bordered on messiah-like self-perception"; it was a way to cope with Bill's "libidinous carelessness."
Going over the whole Monica Lewinsky affair again has the cumulative effect of making the reader feel sorry for the Clintons. Living in Bush's post-9/11 America, in fact, one almost pines for the frivolous days of Monica's blue dress. But Bill Clinton's womanizing is old hat, and all Bernstein essentially does is validate old skirt-chasing stories. The more troubling part of the book -- at least from the perspective of the 2008 campaign -- is the constant reminder that Hillary wasn't really a distinguished first lady. You might say (as they once did of Harry Truman) that from 1993 to 2001 to err was Hillary. "The inept staffing of the White House, the disastrous serial search for an attorney general, the Travel Office fiasco, the Whitewater land deal, the so-called scandal over her commodities trading, the alienation of key senators and congressmen," Bernstein writes, "all this can be traced in large measure to Hillary."
A pretty tough assessment. But, in fact, Bernstein is mild in this regard when compared with the hard-hitting profile offered by Gerth and Van Natta . In 1992, it was Gerth who broke the Whitewater story wide open in the Times, leading to serious legal charges being harpooned against the Clintons. Thankfully, Whitewater allegations of Arkansas real estate shenanigans and Rose law firm over-billings are kept to a minimum in "Her Way." Instead, the authors, in clear and concise prose, focus effectively on Hillary's behind-the-scene maneuverings as US senator. Nobody has stripped away the veneer of Hillary's rhetoric and gotten down to the raw factual realities of her post-White House years with the adroitness of these seasoned Times investigators. Because Clinton is running for president, all of this is timely.
Written in a way that takes Hillary down a notch, "Her Way" is chockablock with unflattering anecdotes of how she ignored Senate ethics rules and failed to read essential intelligent reports on Iraq before helping to authorize the war with her vote. At times, the authors claim, she behaved with rank arrogance toward Senate colleagues. Former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, for example, lambastes her for chronic "hypocrisy." Apparently, Al Gore gets the creeps just being in the same room with her.
Bill Clinton, naturally, makes appearances in both books. We learn that Hillary thought about divorcing him and wanted him to seek psychological counseling for his sexaholic behaviors. Yet the real story, in my opinion, is that they toughed it out. And Bill Clinton's first-rate political instincts are evident in both narratives.
The irony of these biographies is that they unintentionally elevate Hillary Clinton's gravitas. Because what comes across most, besides the opportunism, is that the senator is extremely disciplined and unflappable in a crisis. Not bad recommendations for a president. These three journalists have taken their best shots at Clinton and scarcely made a lasting dent in her Joan of Arc armor. Forget rhinoceros hides. This woman can out-steel Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, she is becoming a folkloric figure: a female roadrunner, minus the charisma of the cartoon character.
But that probably won't be enough to get her elected . What Hillary Clinton needs most is heart. Her husband has it, and I suppose she has it too. But she is afraid to reveal it to the public. Her sense of privacy is too great. Her challenge will be to let us know she truly cares about the downtrodden and marginalized and forgotten. Neither of these books properly humanizes her. She will have to do that for herself in the coming months. My guess is she will. For DeLillo, in truth, needs to alter his aphorism in "Underworld." As a seasoned pro, Hillary knows that longing can also be for losers. When you're playing for history , it's the winning that counts.
