Book calls Clintons' Whitewater deal 'reckless'
March 9, 1996
Web posted at: 1:15 p.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Bob Franken
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In "Blood Sport," First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is portrayed as manipulative -- someone willing to take advantage of friends and push ethical boundaries.
The book by Pulitzer Prize winner James Stewart is being excerpted in the upcoming Time magazine. It relies heavily on interviews with Jim and Susan McDougal, the Clintons' Whitewater partners, who are now being tried on federal criminal charges in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Stewart describes the Clintons' deal with the McDougals as "reckless," one in which the McDougals, owners of the now-failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, put up much more of the money for the supposed 50-50 Whitewater partnership than did the Arkansas governor and his lawyer wife.
That caused an angry confrontation between Susan McDougal and Hillary Clinton. Susan McDougal won't talk about that or the book.
"I've heard about it," she told CNN. "I haven't read it."
Stewart says Jim McDougal got angry, too, when a close friend of the Clintons suggested he had taken more money out of the Whitewater deal than he put in.
"I think I said that if I felt I was being abused I could probably in an adversarial proceeding say things that would be unfavorable to certain of the other parties," McDougal said, apparently referring to the Clintons. (162K AIFF sound or 162K WAV sound)
"Blood Sport" goes on to refute Hillary Clinton's claims that she has not actively tried to block Whitewater disclosures, and that she and her husband were only "passive" investors in the planned Arkansas land development.
Jim McDougal makes no secret of his low regard for the first lady.
"Let's just say she is not the kind of lady I was raised among," he said.
White House spokesmen say they are withholding comment until "Blood Sport" is made available to them.
The book's title was taken from the note found after the suicide of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster, in which he complains that in Washington, "ruining people is considered sport."
Outside the federal courthouse in Little Rock, Susan McDougal's attorney reflected on the intense bitterness that continues to permeate Whitewater.
"I'd like to get my hands on 'Blood Sport' and see what's in it," said Bobby McDaniel. "The last chapter will be written here. The sport continues."
In fact, the Whitewater controversy will probably last much longer than the current trial. As the book points out, the questions are extremely complicated, and the answers agonizingly incomplete.
Related stories:
FeedbackSend us your comments.Selected responses are posted daily. |
|
![[Imagemap]](/US/images/9601/navbar.gif){kind=small}
Copyright © 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.