Monica Lewinsky scandal: In Hillary Clinton’s assessment, Monica Lewinsky was a “narcissistic loony toon” according to one of Mrs. Clinton’s closest friends.
If accurate, the former US Secretary of State may have been alluding to Looney Tunes , the Warner Bros. cartoon series that featured Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other iconic characters.
Political science professor Diane Blair, a Hillary Clinton confidant, included the loony toon comment in extensive papers donated to the University of Arkansas after her death. Some of the materials are still under seal. Her husband, Jim, who helped Hillary Clinton make a killing in cattle futures, a miraculous transaction that came under investigation in the Whitewater scandal, donated his wife’s Clinton-related diaries, notes, and memos to the university after she passed away in 2000.
Overall, the Blair documents portray Hillary Clinton “as a strong, ambitious, and ruthless Democratic operative,” according to the Washington Free Beacon which inspected the records. In fact, the archives also contain the results of an opinion poll indicating that the American public perceived Hillary Clinton as “ruthless.”
Of the Lewinsky scandal that led to the president’s impeachment, Blair disclosed what Hillary Clinton was allegedly thinking when Bill Clinton finally admitted to the relationship after repeated denials: “It was a lapse, but she says to his credit he tried to break it off, tried to pull away, tried to manage someone who was clearly a ‘narcissistic loony toon’; but it was beyond control.” According to Blair’s notes, Clinton also classified her husband’s relationship with the White House intern as “gross inappropriate behavior” that was nonetheless “consensual.”
The archive also suggests that Clinton proposed a strategy for trying to discredit other women who came forward about their sexual encounters with her husband.
Another interesting aspect of the Blair archive is Hillary Clinton’s private admission that she favored a single-payer healthcare system (i.e., a completely government-run program). As a presidential candidate in 2008, Hillary Clinton told the New York Times that she never seriously considered single payer. During the Clinton administration, Hillary Clinton was in charge of the president’s healthcare reform task force that advocated what became known as Hillarycare, a failed initiative that was a precursor to Obamacare . At the same time, Blair claims Hillary Clinton was ironically dismissive of the “whiney women” who then accused US Sen. Bob Packwood of sexual harassment because she need Packwood’s support for healthcare reform.
Clinton also took a dim view of the news media, referring to journalist as having “big egos and no brains,” according to Blair’s papers.
In 2008, that mainstream news media abruptly threw Hillary Clinton under the bus in the Democrat primary season in favor of Barack Obama, who benefited from fawning press coverage and to a large extent still does. That same media is now anointing Clinton as the frontrunner, if not the eventual president in 2016, even though she has yet to officially announce a run.
Late last month, Hillary Clinton admitted that she hasn’t driven a car in 18 years . Imagine the media response if some so-called out-of-touch Republican presidential candidate or presumed candidate made the confession.
US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who may run in 2016 as well, recently made headlines by bringing up the Monica Lewinsky affair: “Someone who takes advantage of a young girl in their office? I mean, really. And then they have the gall to stand up and say, ‘Republicans are having a war on women?’ Added Paul: “One of the workplace laws and rules that I think are good is that bosses shouldn’t prey on young interns in their office. And I think really the media seems to have given President Clinton a pass on this. He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office. There is no excuse for that.” Paul overlooked mentioning that Clinton also signed legislation that toughened sexual harassment laws.
Separately, a new book by two Washington D.C. political reporters suggests that in the aftermath of the 2008 presidential campaign, Team Clinton kept an enemies list on a spreadsheet — not of Republicans, but of their fellow Democrats who jumped ship to the Obama campaign. “‘She and Bill would have at their fingertips all the information needed to make a quick decision’… So that friends could be rewarded and enemies punished. Punishment came in the form of Bill backing the opponents of Obama backers — even four years after his wife’s bitter 2008 campaign.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates also included provocative Hillary Clinton anecdote in his memoir:
Regardless of who was or wasn’t a “loony toon,” if Hillary Clinton does run for president, the Monica Lewinsky scandal will probably be a non-issue in the 2016 campaign. The Benghazi scandal , however, is entirely another matter.