On a book chat yesterday on the Washington Post website, one chatter asked Joe Klein: “How can we make politics more interesting to the public?” Klein replied: “More honesty from politicians. I know, I know…hopelessly romantic, but there it is.” Hopelessly romantic? How about hopelessly self-deluding? That’s always a comical answer for “Anonymous” Klein, who lied his face off denying his authorship of the novel Primary Colors, including to his employers, as he became a wealthy man.
When another chatter fussed that he helped the Clinton haters with that one, he insisted, “I always thought Primary Colors was a tribute to larger than life politicians….When Mike Nichols bought the film rights, he said: ‘There is no villain in this book.’ Amen to that.”