Another Hillary Book, But Liberal

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:53:54 -0400

To the question of how many books about Hillary Clinton the market can bear -- the answer is...

at least one more.

Judith Lamanna Rivette, a lawyer from upstate, sent over a copy of her new book, "Chasing HIllary,"
a novel purportedly based on the true experiences of several middle-aged women from Central New York who worked in Hillary's Senate and fundraising offices. It's published by an outfit called Oh, How Upstate Enterprises.

After a cursory skim, the book goes like this: they are star-struck and idealistic, they grow angry at their treatment by high-handed staffers and, in the end, they are disillusioned by HIllary herself.

It's not a sensationalistic book by any means, and is unlikely to make it onto any best-seller list. The highlights of the story are insidery anecdotes about staff interaction, a messy departure from Hillary-land and a climactic final scene taking place at a restaurant where the women take turns griping about their former boss.

(It was a quick read, so I could have missed something. But I don't think so.)

Here's one of the choice passages from that last chapter, in the voice of one of the formerly-adoring-but-now-bitterly-disappointed Hillary workers:

She just won't take a position about anything. Abortion is a 'tragic choice'? But not saying she supports it. She's trying to be so New Democrat but she so supports the war in Iraq. She's getting freekin' initations from the Pentagon to help rethink defense issues. The Economist magazine hit it. She is now what Bush was when he first ran.

And so on.

-- Josh Benson

Observer » Another Hillary Book, But Liberal

Another Hillary Book, But Liberal