NYT Magazine says Bill Clinton's best new buddies are wingnuts, like Scaife

[BurtWorm]

According to Wonkette:

http://wonkette.com/408841/bill-clintons-best-friends-are-all-wingnuts



The New York Times Magazine always gets the fanciest cover stories, and then people talk about them forever, whether the subject be Chris Matthews or that in-house reporter nut who can’t pay his mortgage. And last Sunday’s profiled Conan O’Brien! (PSST GOOD LUCK ON MONDAY CONAN.) This week’s covers Bill Clinton, the former president who now cures AIDS. A number of anecdotes merit the ol’ Wonkette Blockquote — one comical bit involves the president planting trees, alone, in sadness — but we’ll run with the part about how Clinton’s best friends are Christopher Ruddy, the vicious wingnut founder of Newsmax, and Richard Mellon Scaife, who spent the ’90s actively working to destroy the Clinton Presidency from a gargoyle chamber in Pittsburgh.

Bill Clinton just wants to be loved, is the thing. That is the whole thing about Bill Clinton.

Yet if Clinton has a powerful memory for slights, he also has a remarkable capacity for reconciliation. He is likelier to find peace with people who hate him the most than with friends who betray him. He focuses his considerable charms on seducing the person in the room he finds most resistant. Among those he has been friendly with lately is Christopher Ruddy, a conservative journalist who was a chief proponent of cover-up theories involving the Clintons during the 1990s. In his book, “The Strange Death of Vincent Foster,” Ruddy rejected official findings that Foster, a deputy White House counsel, killed himself in a Virginia park and suggested the possibility of “a cover-up conducted by people who have, with the help of the press, placed themselves above the law.” Ruddy also advanced the notion that Ron Brown, the Clinton commerce secretary who died in an airplane crash in Croatia in 1996, was actually shot in the head.

Ruddy today is the founder and chief executive of Newsmax, a conservative news-magazine. He told me he came around on Clinton after Ed Koch, the former New York mayor, introduced them. That led to lunches and more contacts, and now Ruddy says he was wrong about Clinton. “I do consider Bill Clinton a friend, and I think he would consider me a friend,” Ruddy said. “And to think of all the wars we went through in the ’90s, it seems almost surreal.”

With the passage of time, Ruddy said he came to believe that Clinton was much less liberal than his enemies thought. After all, Clinton overhauled welfare, tamed the deficit and promoted free trade. While still a proud “Reagan conservative,” Ruddy said he now thinks the attacks on Clinton in the 1990s went too far. “Did we like and enjoy all the salacious reporting and all the stuff going on in the ’90s?” he asked. “I guess we thought, This is just politics. But looking back at my role, I was probably over the top. And if I knew then what I know today, I wouldn’t have pursued some of that stuff as aggressively as I did. I did an honest reporter’s job. But I have a different take on it now.”

Ruddy also attributes his change of heart to Clinton’s foundation, which has impressed him and other onetime foes. Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire publisher who financed Ruddy’s investigations and other anti-Clinton activities, is now a contributor to the foundation. So is Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman whose Fox News was a regular thorn in Clinton’s side. Clinton over the years has also made peace with other former adversaries, like Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich. The elder George Bush told me he now considers Clinton “a real friend.” When I asked what changed his view, he wrote in an e-mail message: “I didn’t know him personally back then. I knew him, but not up close and personal. Now I do.”

The next few paragraphs are about how Clinton loves George W. Bush, and even filmed pornography for him to watch on his flight home to Texas in January. Recommended Reading! But this blockquote is long enough, for a blog.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/magazine/31clinton-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=all">The Mellowing Of William Jefferson Clinton

[davidinalameda]

1. filmed porno?

of who

:puke:

[sandnsea]

3. This is the actual quote

"Clinton taped a funny testimonial alongside the elder Bush for a video shown on the plane as the 43rd president flew back to Texas"

People have lost their damned minds, and clearly it isn't just around here since this shit came form Wonkette.

[sandnsea]

2. What a way to twist the interview

Jesus. It was pointing out Bill Clinton's peculiar need to win over those who are most antagonistic towards him, and then use them to his own benefit. They're donating to his poverty programs.

This is such a fantastic article on Bill Clinton, it's revolting that somebody reduced it to a political attack.

[FarPoint]

6. I'm always somewhat

miffed when I hear or read of such distorted political articles. Reminds me of Nellie Olson and her mother from the classic TV show, "Little House on the Prarie".

[sandnsea]

7. The actual article is terrific

It was posted last night and I just loved it - and I've been pretty pissed at Bill for a lot of reasons. If you haven't read the actual article, click through to the nytimes piece, it really gets into what he's been doing with himself since leaving the White House. Very human.

[DJ13]

4. "New" buddies?

Clinton's economic policies throughout his two terms were targeted at those same wealthy folks.

Ending Welfare, NAFTA, China in the WTO, deregulation of the banking and insurance industries, telecom deregulation....the list is longer than I care to post.

The attacks on Clinton in the 90's were probably more show than serious hatred (in the top rungs of the far right), like a piece of theater so no one looked very hard at the potential ramifications of those economic policies.

After all, back in the 90's if the right hated something Clinton did it just HAD to be a good idea, right?

[blm]

11. While those dog and pony shows were played out with constant media attention, real matters

outstanding in Iraqgate, BCCI and CIA drugrunning were being muted, downplayed or buried.

But....people were definitely entertained by the 'overthetop' antics the RW used to play their role as Clinton's tormentors while Poppy and his cronies carried on in the world, business as usual.

[jjray7]

5. chicken came home to roost

Clinton never was a real progressive. The big corporations owned him. I see it just as a chicken gone home to roost in his old age. All I can say about Bill is that he was able administrator and looks like John Kennedy when compared to George W. Bush. George Bush is the best thing that ever happened to Bill Clinton.

[Captain Hilts]

9. And GWBush is the best thing to happen to Barack Obama, who also is not a progressive.

Everything old is new again.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Mmmm...no. Try again. nt

[choie]

10. although this disgusts me to no end...

it doesn't surprise me. Clinton stands for nothing and believes in nothing. Makes me sick.

[KoKo]

12. Remember...Obama has told us we need to Respect All and Work for UNITY!

So..it's good that Clinton is loving up those who prosecuted him. It's what we Democrats Do! We work for Peace at all costs and part of that is finding "common ground" with one's enemies. Clintons have done this extremely well...unlike the Repugs who NEVER GIVE GROUND..when they can claim every inch/centimeter to themselves.

Sounds good doesn't it. Everyone is onboard with the "NEW POLITICS/NEW PARADIGM of GOVERNENCE!

COOL! Our DEMS have LEARNED HOW TO PLAY THE GAME...

[Greyhound]

13. Yet Jimmy Carter still will not even look at him, hmmm...

I think I'll stick with Jimmy, he's an old hand at spotting charlatans.

Children and dogs are also good judges of real character. I've experienced the "Clinton charm" personally and it is both undeniable and powerful, but then again so was Hitler's.

[UTUSN]

14. Well, his upcoming co-starring thingy with Shrub smacks of "rehabilitating" Shrub n/t