It's one thing to review a book by pounding out a few hundred words of criticism but it's quite another to review a book by writing an entirely new book. That's what Dick Morris, former advisor to President Bill Clinton, has done in Rewriting History, an energetic response to Hillary Clinton's Living History. Mrs. Clinton, Morris warns, is on a direct path to the White House due to a lack of Democratic alternatives and a leftward trend in the nation; therefore America must evaluate who she really is and not just what her memoir says. Morris's book is actually remarkably similar to the slew of attack books published about recent presidents but with the crucial difference that Hillary is at the very least four years away from the Oval Office. So Morris's criticisms of her, though backed up by a 20-year relationship with the Clintons, are rarely more than speculative, worrying about what she might do and asking ominous questions that are inherently unanswerable. Hillary Clinton, in Morris's view, is a much more insecure, disingenuous, and calculating creature than "Hillary," the palatable political product that won election to the Senate in 2000 and she's also an inferior politician to her husband. But as a political operative who has worked for both conservatives and liberals, Morris's indictments of Clinton evolve into a grudging respect as he demonstrates her considerable political resolve. All the same, he refutes many passages in her book with his own accounts of what transpired and indicts her integrity and behavior dating back to Bill Clinton's early career in Arkansas. Going forward, he says, she must decide whether to rely on her behind-the-scenes political acumen or embrace actual convictions. Often, Morris puts Clinton in no-win situations. For instance, while First Lady, she decides to get a dog, a decision that Morris infers is entirely politically motivated despite Clinton saying that it was because daughter Chelsea had moved out. Thus, if she had "admitted" her motivation was political, it would be an admission of cynicism and manipulation, but if she protests that her motives were simpler, Morris would have us believe that she's just lying. Nowhere is it allowed that the woman may have just wanted a dog. Rewriting History, co-written by Morris's wife Eileen McGann, offers a pleasing blend of Washington (and some Little Rock) gossip along with its political strategizing and is more valuable as insider scoop than presidential road map. Fans of Hillary Clinton will find little to alter their view and those who oppose her will find plenty of talking points for all the years of future debates that Hillary Clinton will surely inspire. --John Moe


From Publishers Weekly
"All public figures use makeup to cover a blemish or two," admits seasoned political consultant Morris, but he charges that "only Hillary wears a mask of so many layers, one that hides her true face altogether." In his latest book, Morris (Off With Their Heads, The New Prince) aims to unveil what he says is the real Hillary Rodham Clinton—the calculating tactician, zealous ideologue, dubious dealmaker—before she becomes president, in part by including what he alleges she left out of her bestselling memoir, which Morris dismisses as "Hillary Lite." He recasts Clinton as a political chameleon—to Morris, metaphorically characterized by her changing hairstyles—whose nefarious duplicity is rivaled only by Richard Nixons. Unlike other leaders, she has learned little from her political mistakes, Morris says, and he frets that she may not have grown adequately to take on the presidency. To support this critique, Morris covers much familiar territory: Hillary is not sufficiently thankful for the ride on Bill Clinton's political coattails; she lacks her husband's intellect, charisma and everyman appeal; she cloaks herself in phony domesticity to shield herself from criticism and scandal. He also charges that she may be anti-Semitic (she was, he says, overly concerned about accommodating kosher diets at the governor's mansion). Ostensibly a nonpartisan insider, the author's colors bleed when he praises Ronald Reagan as the president whose "joy and optimism... animated the world," or George W. Bush as "[t]he boy [who] became a man before our eyes." But while Morris's approach seems partisan, he was also close to the Clintons for many years, and here he offers a deep insider's take on the couple and on Hillary in particular that is going to raise eyebrows (for example, the astonishing list of gifts Hillary received after being elected senator, but before taking office, when Senate rules would have prohibited the acceptance of such gifts—one of many nuggets in this book not to be found in Living History . Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
When Hillary Rodham Clinton was running for the Senate in New York, a research assistant and I undertook a little project. We kept a count of the number of editorials and opinion columns that each of the three major New York City dailies -- the Times, the Daily News and the Post -- devoted to discussion of Mrs. Clinton's candidacy and, being as fair and objective as human beings can be, assigned each editorial and column a value: positive toward her, negative or mixed.The Times's writers played it right down the middle, with about 25 pieces in each category. (Viewed for much of the campaign as a presumptuous interloper, Hillary Clinton did not fully win over the city's liberal establishment until quite late in the race). The Daily News skewed slightly against the candidate, with 19 positive pieces and 23 negative ones.The numbers at Rupert Murdoch's Post, meanwhile, turned out like this: seven positive, 17 neutral -- and 212 negative. That's not a misprint. And trust me, we were being generous with the seven.Not a few of those 212 were penned by Dick Morris, the erstwhile Clinton adviser whom the paper had once ostracized -- in late 1997, another Post columnist referred to Morris in print as "the Rasputin Whore-Monger." But by 1999, Morris had repositioned himself as a Clinton critic and was, in Murdoch-land, restored to full person-hood, brushed back into the picture like a rehabilitated commissar at Stalin's side. Understanding his new assignment, he scribbled away, tossing out disparaging and -- it turned out -- often inaccurate columns, predicting first that she would pull out of the race and later that she would lose (at a point when anyone paying attention to the way the race was shaping up on the ground knew that she had opened up a lead against opponent Rick Lazio).Well, we all make incorrect predictions. But the perfervid quality of Morris's prose gave one the suspicion that he was rendering something other than the dispassionate judgments of an expert. And Morris remains true to form with Rewriting History, his newest harangue against New York's junior senator. If you hear a faint echo in that title, it's intentional; Rewriting History is, in essence, a book-length rebuttal of Sen. Clinton's Living History, her wildly successful bestseller from last year.Living History, you see, proves "how willing Hillary is to distort, exaggerate, falsify, fabricate, invent, omit, or obfuscate facts" to achieve her political goals. Further, it shows us a woman who will "cut, trim, dice, slice, sew, alter, or otherwise conform" any aspect of her personality or past to suit today's needs. It is a sham, an attempt at self-humanization by an author who is in fact "too elitist, feminist, substantive, serious, driven, focused, and careerist" to relate to regular people. Clearly, Morris is quite angry, upset, mad, disgusted, affronted, appalled and beside himself.The premise, naturally, is that Hillary Clinton won't settle for merely being senator and aches to become president; and that, therefore, we have an obligation to root around in the attic of her past to see if she has the potential to lead this nation. And so the chapters -- Hillary the politician, Hillary the ideologue, Hillary the "material girl," Hillary the inquisitor -- follow the general pattern of reheating old dishes (Whitewater, the commodities futures and so forth) and then, at the end, posing questions about the future that sound as if they were stolen from old Carol Burnett parodies of soap operas. Crank up the organ music and listen: "As president, would the fact that she and her husband have made close to $20 million writing books diminish her appetite for money? Will his $10 million annual income quench her thirst for security? Or will her sense of entitlement . . . still burn so brightly that it might consume a second Clinton presidency as it did the first?" Now, to be sure, Living History was a rather opaque and sanitized volume. The one reasonably relevant point that occurs to the reader of Rewriting History is that, should she in fact run for president someday, Sen. Clinton, lacking her husband's natural empathy and as a rule still not comfortable speaking publicly from the heart, will surely face some of the questions Morris raises, and Living History did not quite settle them.But Rewriting History doesn't settle much, either. Mostly, it reaffirms yet again that Clinton-hating remains a thriving industry (Regan Books, which published Rewriting History, is an imprint of HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the man who signs Morris's checks for his New York Post column). And it reminds students of the Morris method, yet again, about his sense of scruple. I'm no political-consultant ethicist, if there is such a thing; but is it really all right for a consultant to reveal on the printed page loads of things former clients told him years ago, presumably in confidence? And I'm no psychoanalyst, but I did chuckle, reading through the pages devoted to Hillary's motives for staying with Bill, when I took note of Morris's co-author. It's his own wife, who stayed with him after his penchant for the fetching female foot was exposed. No mention of any of that in these pages. Rewriting history, indeed. Reviewed by Michael TomaskyCopyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.


Book Description

Now, for the first time, Fox News political analyst and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris turns his sharp-eyed gaze on Hillary, the longtime First Lady, current New York senator, and bestselling author. For, as he argues, no politician in America today is better aligned to become president in 2008 -- and none would bring more baggage to the White House -- than Mrs. Clinton. In Rewriting History, Morris draws on his own long working relationship with the Clintons, as well as his trademark deep research and candid, nonpartisan analysis, to create a rebuttal to Hillary's bestselling autobiography, Living History. Morris documents how Hillary hides her true self behind a "HILLARY" brand that is chatty, charming, giggly, and warm -- but is far from her true personality.

In Rewriting History, Morris pierces the mask to get at the truth behind the distortions and omissions of Hillary's memoir. Here we meet the real Hillary, both good and bad: the manager who makes the trains run on time, but also the paranoid who sees all those who disagree with her as personal enemies; the idealist, but also the "advice addict" easily misled by the guru of the moment. Morris describes Hillary's sense of entitlement, and warns that it may lead deep into financial scandal. And he demonstrates how Hillary dodges criticism by pretending that every attack is directed not just at her, but at every working woman in America.

Ultimately, Morris argues, the Hillary Clinton of today is marketing a false front, obscuring both her wants and her assets behind the phony facade of a domestic Everywoman. But as she pursues higher office, she also faces a choice. Will she, like Bobby Kennedy, see the error of her ruthless ways, and embrace the sincere idealism she professes? Or, like Richard Nixon, will she allow the darker angels of her nature to overcome her, jeopardizing herself and the country in the process?

As Rewriting History suggests, we can only hope that Hillary Clinton's past performance is no guarantee of future results.


Download Description
"Political consultant extraordinaire Dick Morris, former Clinton adviser and confidant, turns his sharp-eyed gaze on Hillary Clinton - whose appetite for power, he argues, has only increased since her husband's checkered presidency. Morris draws on his own extensive interactions with the Clintons, as well as his trademark deep research, to create a rebuttal to Hillary's bestselling autobiography, Living History. Focusing on Senator Clinton's attempts to remake her image in preparation for a future presidential race, Morris exposes Clinton's habitual attempts to pad her resume, amplify her accomplishments, and otherwise misrepresent her life story - in short, to lie - for political gain. Armed with years of political experience and insider credibility, Morris rises to challenge the Senator's memoir, lifting the mask to reveal the dark side of Hillary Clinton.

Now, for the first time, Fox News political analyst and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris turns his sharp-eyed gaze on Hillary, the longtime First Lady, current New York senator, and bestselling author. For,as he argues, no politician in America today is better aligned to become president in 2008 -- and none would bring more baggage to the White House -- than Mrs. Clinton. In Rewriting History, Morris draws on his own long working relationship with the Clintons, as well as his trademark deep research and candid, nonpartisan analysis, to create a rebuttal to Hillary's bestselling autobiography, Living History. Morris documents how Hillary hides her true self behind a ""HILLARY"" brand that is chatty, charming, giggly, and warm --but is far from her true personality.

In Rewriting History, Morris pierces the mask to get at the truth behind the distortions and omissions of Hillary's memoir.


About the Author
Dick Morris is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Off with Their Heads and Behind the Oval Office and the Washington Post bestseller Power Plays. He is also a political analyst for the Fox News Channel and a columnist for the New York Post. A former campaign adviser to political leaders as diverse as Bill Clinton, Trent Lott, and Mexican president Vicente Fox, Morris lives in Connecticut with his wife and coauthor, Eileen McGann.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Fox News political analyst and former Clinton adviser Dick Morris turns his gaze on Hillary, the longtime first lady, current New York senator, and author. He argues, no politician in America today is better aligned to become president in 2008 - and none would bring more baggage to the White House - than Mrs. Clinton." In Rewriting History, Morris draws on his own long working relationship with the Clintons, as well as his trademark deep research and candid, nonpartisan analysis, to create a rebuttal to Hillary's bestselling autobiography. Living History, Morris documents how Hillary hides her true self behind a "HILLARY" brand that is chatty, charming, giggly, and warm - but is far from her true personality.

SYNOPSIS

Fox News political analyst Morris offers a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's bestselling autobiography, Living History. Drawing upon his own working relationship with the Clintons (he was a campaign advisor for Bill) he describes parts of Hillary's personality and history that were omitted or glossed over in her memoir. Coverage includes topics such as Clinton's ideological agenda, her financial scandals, and her Senate campaign. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly