Andrew Sullivan writes:
STILL PLAYING THE GAME: Here’s an interesting nugget that tells you a lot about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her book contains many inflammatory charges about various political and judicial figures. In particular, Chief Justice Rehnquist is portrayed as a political hack rather than a principled justice. Fair enough. It’s a free country. Rehnquist wisely decided not to comment on the smears. But what’s remarkable is that Hillary herself, when contacted by the Washington Post, “declined to be interviewed about the political content of her book.” Huh? There she goes again. Even now, as a Senator in her own right, Hillary still pulls the First Lady schtick to avoid a political fight. Yet the book is highly political. It’s not some anodine memoir of private life. It’s a tough piece of political rhetoric. Yet she won’t allow the press or others to challenge her on the politics of it. She still thinks she’s above it all. Perhaps she always will.
Now I <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/03_06_08_corner-archive.asp#009740
” target=”_blank”> caught this on Saturday when it originally appeared. Not only was I first, I think I was more right. Andrew ascribes Hillary’s refusal to discuss the political views in her book to egotism and arrogance. That, in my opinion, is too generous an interpretation because it assumes some level of good faith on her part. I think in her perfect world, Hillary would love to rail against her enemies, real and perceived. It’s not arrogance which stops her, it’s cynicism. She understands that the only way a majority of Americas will see her in a somewhat favorable light is if she plays the role of dignified-but-victimized-wife. She denies that she’s merely a wife, and yet when it comes time to market herself she refuses to be anything else.
And I should say that if Barbara Walters and Katie Couric and the other journalists who interviewed her agreed to any ground rules which said the political stuff is off-limits for discussion, then they are nothing more than shills for the Hillary PR machine. And, to be honest, I don’t understand why the media watchdog journalists didn’t pounce on this issue the second that Washington Post article came out.