rushlies's Full Review: Joe Conason and Gene Lyons - The Hunting of the Pr...
Conservatives, understandably enough, hate this book. The reception it received by the right was very similar to that of David Brock's new "Blinded By the Right". Why all the hate? Why not? The right appears to hate everything and everyone not of their political ilk. I digress.
The research (and documentation) Joe Conason and Gene Lyons put into this book is truly inspiring and refreshing, compared to some of the reading material put out by the likes of the Barbara Olsons, Peggy Noonans, and Rush Limbaughs of the world. Quotes are attributed to specific sources the vast majority of the time (meaning, where available), and much of the information was originally included in the newspaper articles on the events the book chronicles, however inaccurate or misleading some of those accounts may have been at the time of their printing.
To put it succinctly, this book shows that:
* yes, Virginia....there really WAS a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" (certainly extensive, if not "vast). It was called the "Arkansas Project", funded by the reclusive, right-wing zealot Richard Mellon Scaife, and included David Brock and the current U.S. Solicitor General, Ted Olson, and many other high-profile, well-known conservative republicans.
* the myth of the "liberal media" is just that, exposed as such through many of the New York Time's and Washington Post's sensational and inaccurate articles (mainly on the Whitewater matter), much of it done with knowing approval by those papers' executive editors, designed to destroy Bill Clinton's presidency (Hillary Clinton is quoted in the book as saying that prior to announcing Bill Clinton's candidacy in the '92 elections, the Bush I camp told the Clintons to sit that particular election out, and that they'd get a free pass on the next one. Otherwise, they would be "destroyed").
* the level of sexual and moral hypocrisy existing among Washington's conservative republican elite is of stratospheric levels (while the impeachment proceedings plodded along, the married Newt Gingrich was carrying on an affair with one of his staffers, who would later become his third wife).
The reading does have a tendency to get tedious at times, simply because the cast of characters and source documentation in this book is so extensive. It doesn't always make for easy reading, but it leaves you much more confident that what you just read is true.
Much of the information documented in the book has been corroborated by both the Pillsbury and Ray reports that chronicle and document the several independent counsel investigations of the various Clinton "scandals". In short, the conservative right knew along that the various "scandals" were fabrications, with individuals being paid in many instances to support the allegations, and that the move all along was to get Bill Clinton under oath about his sex life. Articles of impeachment were drafted weeks before it was actually discussed with any degree of seriousness amongst members of congress.
As with David Brock's book, the response from the right to this book was to attack the credibility of the author(s), all the while being utterly impotent in refuting any of the claims made in the book.
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