Must-see TV? "The Cinton Years", ABC Nightline

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DOROTHY RABINOWITZ'S MEDIA LOG

The Clinton Years--- Getting Hillary's approval proved daunting.

Monday, January 8, 2001 opinionjournal.com

A decade ago it would have been hard to imagine a program like the five-part "Nightline" series beginning tonight (11:35 p.m. EST, on ABC), but then, the Clinton years have made much imaginable that was inconceivable before. By the time it ends viewers will have heard unvarnished opinion, and data such as no former staffers have ever before publicly uttered about any outgoing president and first lady--a first lady fearfully volatile and punishing when challenged, as Bill Clinton's former press secretary, Dee Dee Myers, is not alone in noting. Mr. Clinton had a temper of his own--a legendary one--but it is clear, both from the "Nightline" series and from its companion report airing on "Frontline" next week (Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 9 p.m. EST on PBS) that it is Hillary Clinton's accusatory rages that remain unforgiven and unforgotten.

After "Troopergate" (the charges that when he was governor of Arkansas Mr. Clinton used state troopers to arrange amorous liaisons) and the Paula Jones charges, and the stonewalling on Whitewater, then senior White House adviser George Stephanopoulos recalls concluding that it was necessary for the president to appoint an independent counsel, and advising that there was no longer any choice but to do so. Mrs. Clinton responded with accusations of disloyalty, telling him "You never stood for us."

Anyone who stood up and tried to tell her that her policy was a bad idea was, says Dee Myers, "smashed down" and belittled "very personally." Ms. Myers, who suffered severe dressings down of her own at Mr. Clinton's hands, one of which she describes in detail, nevertheless announces that, in the end, she still feels a certain affection for him, for reasons she doesn't quite comprehend. Neither she nor any other of the commentators here seem inclined to any similar expression of affection for Mrs. Clinton--not altogether surprising, given the portrait of the first lady that emerges in these anecdote-rich productions. They feared her in a way they never feared the president, their huggy scamp in the White House whose misadventures caused them nightmares and tears and regular bouts of fury.

Mr. Stephanopoulos couldn't believe his ears when he heard Mr. Clinton's voice on the telephone tapes that Gennifer Flowers recorded--how stupid can you be, to make such a call in the middle of a campaign, he wants to know, now. He would have roughly the same response just after the state trooper stories emerged and the president began calling the troopers. It infuriated him, it was just like the calls to Gennifer. All the trouble came from "this maneuvering," he tells "Frontline." And this time it was worse--calling these people from the Oval Office. "Just nuts."

The "Nightline" series (which offers roughly the same material as the somewhat more detailed "Frontline" documentary) takes us through the Clinton presidency chronologically, beginning with the 1992 campaign. A lot of years have passed since Bill and Hillary Clinton confronted their first nationally publicized crisis. Who knew--as they testified to their mutual devotion on "60 Minutes" and Mrs. Clinton declared, in accents that have since lost a certain heartland twang, that she wasn't Tammy Wynette standing by her man--what was yet to come? The troopers, maybe, and a few others, but surely not the core staffers who had come, as "Nightline" reports, trembling over the prospect that this scandal might destroy the campaign. James Carville cried a river. And all for nothing. The team had not yet learned what the comeback kid could do--though not, to be sure, without the help of his wife.

"Nightline" delivers a vast amount of material in shapely fashion, capturing, in one vivid scene after another, almost every key drama of the Clinton years. There is the first great issue, summed up in Brit Hume's semi-question, hurled during a raucous press conference, in which he pointed out that instead of an instant laser focus on the economy, as the president had promised, he was busy leading gays-in-the-military week. It wasn't that they wanted this entanglement just then, Ms. Myers observes, they simply didn't know how to get out of it.

In due time, the problem of Whitewater came knocking and the Washington Post wanted documents. Republican David Gergen, who had come on to help out in what had begun to be perceived as a failing presidency, had some advice for Mr. Clinton which was, in brief, that the documents should be handed over. As far as he was concerned that was fine, the president said--now all that was necessary was to convince Mrs. Clinton. An impossible task since, as Mr. Gergen relates, the first lady simply refused to return any of his phone calls. She had already made up her mind; no one was turning any papers over.

If Mr. Gergen's arrival disturbed the core Clinton team, Dick Morris's entry was cause for hair-tearing. The group's detestation of him is visceral. He isn't one of them, politically. Robert Reich complains that he was a cabinet member after all, and he had to tolerate submitting ideas to Mr. Morris, who would then take a poll to see if they flew. Mr. Morris himself relates, with relish, how he wrote the State of the Union address in secret. Such was his power, for a time, that every important plan and strategy the other staffers developed could all be upended by a single phone call between the president and Dick Morris. No doubt they all felt immensely superior to him, for all the reasons Messrs. Stephanopoulos and Reich and the rest describe--but it's hard to avoid the feeling that he was also the handiest vessel for frustration in the hotbed of paranoia that was the Clinton White House.

Still, they had periods of pride and triumph. With Mr. Clinton's victory in the face-off over the government shut-down, Leon Panetta, for one, felt powerfully reassured in all the reasons he'd come to work for this president. In the midst of calamity, they found causes for pride, none of them enough, in the end, to make any one of these witnesses to the Clinton presidency look other than grim, or confused, or both, as they try to assess Mr. Clinton's works and his place in history. There is, on the other hand, nothing confused or grim about these extraordinary documentaries.



-- Lars (lars@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001

Answers

Hillary, gotta love that woman!

I thought this was going to be more of a "group hug" documentary than the above seems to indicate. I didn't hear DD's dislike for Hillary til now.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), January 09, 2001.


This question belongs on the "whatever happened to.......?" thread but I will ask it here. What is Dee Dee doing now? Last I saw her was several years ago when she did a short-lived TV show with Mary Matalin. (Carville's much better half). Obviously, I did not see Nightline last night.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), January 09, 2001.

I saw Dee Dee Meyers' name listed in the credits of the West Wing on one show last season. I forget what the actual credit was, but it had to do with the writing.

I like her, and I wish we would see more of her.

-- Mac the Knife (long_time_pal@w/new.name), January 15, 2001.


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