XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SAT JUNE 07, 2003 17:30:01 ET XXXXX
HILLARY KEEPS COVER OF TIME
Sat Jun 07 2003 17:28:27 ET
After talk of legal action over an unexpected leak ahead of publication for Hillary Clinton's book -- editors of TIME magazine have decided to keep the former first lady on their cover for next week, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Publishing sources can now reveal:
AFTER CLINTONS RETURNED FROM VACATION IN SEPTEMBER 1998, THEY HAD 'REGULAR COUNSELING SESSIONS'
'BY NOW I WANTED TO SAVE OUR MARRIAGE, IF WE COULD,' SHE WRITES
* Bill Asked Hillary to Marry Him Several Times Before She Said Yes, 'He would wait me out'
* After learning about Monica: 'It was, for me, an isolating and lonely experience...'
* 'Bill and I failed to recognize the political significance of Whitewater's sudden reappearance'
* 'He has to be very careful,' Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis tells Clinton when they discussed security. 'Very careful.'
New York - After the Clintons returned from their vacation in September 1998, they had "regular counseling sessions which forced us to ask and answer hard questions that years of nonstop campaigning had allowed us to postpone. By now, I wanted to save our marriage, if we could," writes Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in her memoir "Living History." TIME publishes first serial rights to Clinton's book in its new issue (on newsstands Monday, June 9).
The former first lady tells her own story in a book that is a love poem, a policy paper, a travelogue and a campaign memo. In this excerpt, she describes how she and Bill first met, her adjustment to living in the White House, the trials of health care, Whitewater and impeachment, and, finally, how she-and her marriage-survived the most public and painful of indiscretions. From TIME's excerpts:
On Marrying Bill: "Bill Clinton is nothing if not persistent. He sets goals, and I was one of them. He asked me to marry him again, and again, and I always said no. Eventually he said, 'Well, I'm not going to ask you to marry me any more, and if you ever decide you want to marry me then you have to tell me.' He would wait me out."
After She Learns About Monica Lewinsky: "I knew that people were wondering, 'How can she get up in the morning, let alone go out in public? Even if she doesn't believe the charges, it has to be devastating just to hear them.' Well, it was.... It was, for me, an isolating and lonely experience. I also worried that the armor I had acquired might distance me from my true emotions, that I might turn into the brittle caricature some critics accused me of being. I had to be open to my feelings so that I could act on them and determine what was right for me, no matter what anyone else thought or said. It's hard enough to maintain one's sense of self in the public eye, but it was twice as difficult now."
On Whitewater: "Bill and I failed to recognize the political significance of Whitewater's sudden reappearance, which may have contributed to some public relations mistakes in how we handled the growing controversy. But I could never have predicted how far our adversaries would take it."
* "We were discovering that some opposition to health care reform, like Whitewater, was part of a political war that was bigger than Bill or the issues we championed. We were on the front lines of an increasingly hostile ideological conflict between centrist Democrats and a Republican Party that was swinging further and further to the right."
Advice from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: "Jackie and I also discussed the Secret Service. She confirmed my instincts that even though security was necessary, it was important to stress to Chelsea, as she had to her own children, that she owed respect to the agents sworn to protect her...Jackie spoke frankly about the peculiar and dangerous attractions evoked by charismatic politicians. She cautioned me that Bill, like President Kennedy, had a personal magnetism that inspired strong feelings in people. She never came out and said it, but she meant that he might also be a target. 'He has to be very careful,' she told me. 'Very careful.'
Why She Stayed with the President: "After all that has happened since, I'm often asked why Bill and I have stayed together. It's not a question I welcome, but given the public nature of our lives, it's one I know will be asked again and again. What can I say to explain a love that has persisted for decades and has grown through our shared experiences of parenting a daughter, burying our parents and tending our extended families, a lifetime's worth of friends, a common faith and an abiding commitment to our country? All I know is that no one understands me better and no one can make me laugh the way Bill does. Even after all these years, he is still the most interesting, energizing and fully alive person I have ever met. Bill Clinton and I started a conversation in the spring of 1971, and more than thirty years later we're still talking."
On David Kendall: "Other than my husband, he was the only person with whom I felt I could talk freely." Before appearing on the Today Show with Matt Lauer shortly after learning about Monica Lewinsky, she talked to Kendall. After the show "David Kendall called to discuss my appearance, I told him I had thought about him as I was going in to the interview. 'I heard your words of wisdom ringing in my ear,' I said. 'And which words of incredible wisdom were you hearing?' said David, going for the bait. 'Screw 'em!' I laughed. David, who was raised as a Quaker, chuckled and said sheepishly, 'It's an old Quaker expression.' 'Oh like 'Screw thee'?' We were both laughing hard now, letting off steam."
On Health Care Reform: "One afternoon in Seattle at the end of July, I pulled into town as part of the Health Security Express, which we call the 'pony express.' The idea was to spread the word about the health care plan at the grassroots level and generate crowds from the West Coast to Washington, showing Congress that there was support for the bill...The Secret Service warned me that we might run into trouble. For once, I agreed to wear a bulletproof vest. It was one of the few times I felt in real physical danger. During the rally, I could hardly hear my own voice over the booing and heckling... The Secret Service made several arrests that day, and they confiscated two guns and a knife hidden in the crowd.
On the defeat of health care reform: "Bill and I were disappointed and discouraged. I knew I had contributed to our failure both because of my missteps and because I had underestimated the resistance I would meet as a First Lady with a policy mission...But our most critical mistake was trying to do too much, too fast."
After the 2000 election: "Bill and I were dismayed by the outcome of the election and concerned about what a return to the failed Republican policies of the past might mean for our nation. My only comfort was that I would soon begin my new job and have the opportunity to use my voice and vote on behalf of the values and policies I thought best for New York and America....Since only members of Congress and their staff are allowed on the Senate floor-with no exceptions for Presidents-Bill had to witness my swearing-in from the visitor's gallery, along with Chelsea and other family members."
Developing...
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