“Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady – a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation – is a congenital liar.” – William Safire, Jan. 8, 1996
William Safire died in 2009 after an illustrious career as a political columnist that included the winning a Pulitzer Prize. (Photo courtesy The Economist)
In the 1990s, I enjoyed reading William Safire’s columns in The New York Times and took delight in his appearances as a regular on NBC’s Meet the Press. (Before Fox News Sunday started.) Employed by a Fortune 500 company at the time, I was not permitted to state my opinion in letters to editors, op-eds or in a blog as I do today.
Although Safire was a political reporter, columnist and commentator, he was a fine wordsmith and his other columns were of a lexicological bent.
Shortly after his controversial quote above, NBC’s Tim Russert asked him about his blunt accusation of Hillary Clinton. In his response he said he chose the words the American public would understand.
Safire once wrote a column of columnist “do’s and don’ts,” in which he stated that one should “resist swaydo-intellectual writing (sic) of the hifalutin.” I am reminded of the style of George Will.
In Safire’s January 8, 1996 essay, “Blizzard of Lies,” he wrote of Hillary’s lies to cover-up her 10,000 per cent profit in 1979 commodity trading that “some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe.”
He wrote of her inducing a White House lawyer to assert flatly to investigators that she did not order the firing of White House travel aides in Travelgate, and a long-concealed memo stating there would be “hell to pay” if the First Lady’s desires were scorned.
He included her order to overturn an agreement to allow the Justice Department to examine the files of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster after his suicide, which led to more lies.
Damning records from the Rose Law Firm were mysteriously moved from Foster’s office and hidden for two years before they were found in a third-floor storage closet in the White House residence by an aide. The delay in surfacing the records, beyond the statute of limitations, allowed Hillary to evade a civil suit in the Madison Guaranty S&L case that cost taxpayers $3 million. The failure of the S&L cost taxpayers $60 million.
“She had good reasons to lie; she is in the longtime habit of lying; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends,” wrote Safire.
He pegged her correctly as a congenital liar 20 years ago, and if he were alive today, would not be surprised to see how she has continued that role, with the help of Cheryl Mills, Uma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, among others, including Democrat voters who choose to ignore the seriousness of her lies.
Think about those young supporters she hopes to garner as voters. How many are aware of her habit of lying? How many are aware of “old Bill’s” dalliances and the lies that cost him his ability to practice law.
The Clinton’s and their sycophants like to say this is all “old news,” followed by a desire to “move on.” After all, “what difference does it make?”
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