December 24, 2000

Congress A Disgrace Needing Overhaul Hillary's Early Gift Opens Political Book Controversies

Santa Claus came early to New York Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton -- $8 million dollars for promising to write a book a bit more hefty than “Socks’ Birthday.”

A pair of Saint Nick’s elves, Simon & Schuster, delivered the package. Ignore that media conglomerate, Viacom, pulling the sleigh.

Don’t misunderstand. Eight million dollars for an unwritten book is chicken feed for a First Lady – pun intended. She gave friend Tyson, the chicken tycoon, a thousand dollars to invest for her. A year later he forwarded a $100,000 profit from cattle futures.

That is a really handsome rate of return. But, hey, this is America where private enterprise is richly rewarded. The market place rules.

The Texas Rangers Baseball Club – once bossed by President- elect George W. Bush -- just gave all-star shortstop Alex Rodrigues a ten-year $252 million contract. All Alex can do is hit a round ball with a round stick. Hill – her preferred moniker among friends who press money on her -- says she will give “some” of her booty to charity.

Presumably this will be the residue after buying some expensive real estate this year. The country estate in Chappaqua, N.Y., for an official residence, cost $2.5 million. A nine-bedroom town house in Washington, D.C., for a retreat from her senatorial duties, cost $4 million.

Thus, it is surprising to note the bile of liberal columnist Jimmy Breslin in New York Newsday.

“Every time Hillary Clinton passes a bank,” he posits, “the burglar alarm goes off. Good morning suckers! You got exactly what you wanted.” He likens her proposed book to a “whirlpool of slime.”

It is always amusing to see a liberal recant, but Breslin misses the point. Simon et al estimates it will take three years for Mrs. Clinton to guide a ghostwriter and for the book to be printed.

How clever of you to notice that the publication date will be 2003 --just in time for the 2004 presidential race.

Hillary says she is not interested in becoming the first woman president of the United States – a statement that adds measurable length to her nose every time she says it.

The hullabaloo over Hill’s book recalls the infamous books that brought down House Speaker Jim Wright in 1989 and House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1996.

Books, usually written by flacks, have been popular with candidates in the 40 years I have been reporting politics. In my olden days, thin paperbacks were devices to pad qualifications. Authoring a “book” was prestigious.

Al Gore, for example, made much of his 1992 environment book “Earth In the Balance” – originally self-published in paperback, then by Houghton Mifflin in hardcover.

Congress got super ethical after destroying President Richard Nixon. Limits were set on honoraria for speeches and outside “services.” Book sales became dodges to circumvent stingy rules.

Jim Wright perfected the avoidance ploy. As House Speaker, he commanded fabulous fees for speaking engagements. When he bumped the ethical ceiling, he spoke for free but “sold” a requisite number of thin books of his old speeches.

Lobbyists were eager buyers of Wright’s “Reflections of a Public Man.” The Teamsters Political Action Fund, for example, bought a thousand copies a year at an exorbitant price.

Unfortunately for Wright, he was greedy. In addition to the book subterfuge, he accepted $145,000 in monetary “gifts” for expediting legislation favorable to donors -- such as Fort Worth real estate and oil well developer George Mallick. .

A brash, young congressman named Newt Gingrich – angry over the Democrat’s false and malicious attacks against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork two years earlier -- filed an ethics complaint against Wright.

The House Ethics committee found Wright guilty of 69 violations. Wright resigned from Congress – the first speaker of the House to do so in midterm because of scandal.

Gingrich was elected Speaker and won control of Congress through his “Contract With America” campaign. Ironically he came a cropper over a book deal in 1996 offered by Harper Collins Books, owned by conservative newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch.

The target of a demonizing campaign by labor unions, Newt was accused of tax evasion by selling his earlier book “Renewing American Civilization” to his non-profit GOPac political action committee. The Democrats accused him of evading income taxes.

Rather than fight the charge – later exonerated by the Internal Revenue Service – Gingrich declined a $4 million book advance in lieu of a 15 percent royalty on sales. He also agreed to pay a $350,000 fine backed up by recently defeated presidential candidate Bob Dole.

Nonetheless, the Democrats continued a drumbeat of accusations against Gingrich. They nailed him for having an affair with one of his secretaries while estranged from his wife.

Having criticized President Clinton for dilly-dallying with Monica Lewis – Gingrich, nearing the end of his term, retired from Congress.

The lesson from this litany of literary missteps is: be careful what you write and how you sell it. Books are forever and are their own masters.

PARTING SHOTS

Hillary’s new townhouse in Washington, D.C., has nine bedrooms. One wonders how much she will charge friends to sleep in them?

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The Miami Herald likes to pick scabs. It is counting under- vote ballots in Florida to define what is a pregnant chad is.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist