WASHINGTON -- I have been defamed by Taylor Branch, and he
will not reply to my repeated calls for clarification. The
defamation takes place in his new book, The Clinton Tapes:
Wrestling History with the President. The
defamation he printed comes from the Boy President himself, so
perhaps my reputation will emerge immaculate. By now I think it
is pretty clear to all Americans that Clinton tells the truth
only when he misspeaks.
Branch's book is a very personal chronicle of the Clinton
Administration based on taped interviews Branch conducted with
Clinton in the White House over Clinton's two terms and prefatory
to Branch's assisting Clinton in writing his sloppy memoir.
Branch's problem is that he artlessly has accepted everything
that Clinton told him, even on those occasions when Branch was
nearby and should have recognized that Clinton was bathing him in
absurdity. The book's treatment of me is such an occasion.
It involves my by now well-documented encounter with
Clinton at the Jockey Club not far from the White House July 17,
1995. I was dining with my 14-year-old daughter, Annie, and one
of her girlfriends when the Clintons came in with fifteen friends
to dine behind a partition in the restaurant's back room. Branch
and his wife were with them. As the Washington
Post reported with the utmost accuracy, I sent
over a couple of bottles of champagne, for the sight of this big
lovable lug of a president always puts me in a good mood.
"Next thing you know," reported the
Post, "Clinton, the ever affable [obviously
a trait we share], is having the champagne donor come back to
meet and thank him." Unfortunately we disagreed on a recent piece
of mine from The American Spectator. After
characterizing the 42nd President's response as "ballistic," the
Post reported me as sympathizing: "I didn't
want to disturb his meal. I had to break off; he was getting
worked up."
Now here is how the oblivious Branch reports the incident.
Clinton came over to him and "whispered, leaning over," 'Did you
see that?'" Branch said no. Nonetheless he dutifully records
Clinton's version of our encounter: "Emmett Tyrrell, publisher of
The American Spectator [actually I am
editor-in-chief], had slipped through the partition to ask
whether Clinton had read his new article, 'The Arkansas Drug
Shuttle....'" Branch describes the piece as one that "vouched for
the most lurid anti-Clinton fantasies in circulation, about how
the former governor had nurtured a drugs-and-murder CIA ring from
the airport in Mena, Arkansas." Where poor Branch got that
interpretation of the piece I do not know. Probably he took
Clinton's word for it.
Had Branch read the piece he would have never seen anything
about a "drugs-and-murder CIA ring." All the piece reports is
that Clinton encouraged one of his state troopers to do contract
work for CIA during which the trooper discovered that another
contract worker, the pilot flying arms from Mena into Central
America, was bringing back cocaine. After he reported this to
Governor Clinton, the trooper claims Clinton quipped as though he
were aware of the trafficking. Possibly Clinton was just
B.S.-ing, as he often does and really knew nothing about the drug
trafficking. If so he opened himself up to a greater controversy
than merely being aware of a CIA arms operation out of his
state.
Clinton's lies often get him in trouble, as those familiar
with the scandals of his presidency know. That night at the
Jockey Club, Branch reports, Clinton went on "gasping" that
"Tyrrell had brought two young teenage girls with him like
shields, which made it hard to fend him off." Well, fending off
intruders at a presidential meal is something the Secret Service
does very well. Obviously the Post's report
is accurate. I was invited over by Clinton. He bounded across the
room, and I immediately introduced him to my daughter and her
friend, whereupon he talked about his daughter's trip to camp.
"Shields," indeed -- actually Clinton had invited them over
too.
One would think that Branch, who by 1995 had been with the
President frequently, would have understood one does not breach a
Secret Service barrier. Why make me out to be a boor in an
episode that is so patently absurd? Moreover, why mischaracterize
a magazine piece that any curious reader can see has been
mischaracterized? Is Taylor Branch (sounds like an upscale
bourbon, no?) a willing accomplice with Clinton in defaming a
Clinton critic, or is he another of Clinton's episodic
apologists, whom the ex-President uses for his own purposes? I
believe the latter, and I shall commiserate with him if ever he
returns my telephone calls. But Branch's readers should beware.
This book is very unreliable.
topics:
Bill Clinton, Taylor Branch, Jockey Club
