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the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, several critics
have remarked that Bill Clinton has spent a lot of time discussing
events in terms of himself — a trait that Clinton has displayed
throughout his political career. Now, however, the former president
has been outdone by his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In
the latest issue of The New Yorker, Mrs. Clinton says that
she has come face-to-face with the kind of "unreasoning anger"
that appears to have motivated the terrorists who crashed planes
into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Her statements are
contained in an article by Nicholas Lemann, based on an interview
Lemann conducted with Mrs. Clinton on September 25. "We talked
about possible responses to the attack," Lemann writes, "and
then I asked her how she thought people would react to knowing that
they are on the receiving end of a murderous anger." "Oh,
I am well aware that it is out there," Sen. Clinton responded:
One of the
most difficult experiences that I personally had in the White
House was during the health-care debate, being the object of extraordinary
rage. I remember being in Seattle. I was there to make a speech
about health care. This was probably August of '94. Radio talk-show
hosts had urged their listeners to come out and yell and scream
and carry on and prevent people from hearing me speak. There were
threats that were coming in, and certain people didn't want me
to speak, and they started taking weapons off people, and arresting
people. I've had firsthand looks at this unreasoning anger and
hatred that is focussed on an individual you don't know, a cause
that you despise — whatever motivates people."
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