Politico notes that for years after Bill and Hillary Clinton’s health care reform effort failed, “the generally accepted storyline was that they cooked up the health care plan in secret, didn’t work with Congress enough and that’s why it stalled.”

“Not true, according to the documents released Friday, which include transcripts of briefings Hillary Clinton gave to members of Congress and memos from White House advisers. They show that she was constantly being urged to hold more meetings with key members of Congress, including Democrats and Republicans, in early 1993 when the plan was being put together — and she was being advised on how to stroke the egos of individual lawmakers.”

“And yet, the Clinton White House didn’t put the pieces together to see the coming collapse, with Democrats unable to get on the same page and Republicans under pressure to say no to the whole thing.”

The Clinton Presidential Library “will make its first release on Friday of records that were previously withheld from the public under legal provisions that expired early last year,” Politico reports.

“About 4,000 to 5,000 pages will be put online at 1 P.M. Friday, with paper copies becoming simultaneously available at the library in Little Rock… More releases are expected in the next couple of weeks.”

First Read: “Our understanding — for now — is that they probably won’t contain any
big news or revelations (unless, say, you’re looking to pore over memos
that current Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan might have sent Clinton
when was working in his counsel’s office). But we’ll have to wait to
find out.”

“A trove of Clinton White House records long processed for release remains hidden from public view at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock — even though the legal basis initially used to withhold them expired more than a year ago,” Politico reports.

“The papers contain confidential advice given to or sought by President Bill Clinton, including communications with then-first lady Hillary Clinton, and records about people considered for appointments to federal office.”

Joe Klein: “I wasn’t expecting much dirt from the Diane Blair papers, even though they were splashed internationally on Drudge on Sunday, with a big SCANDAL headline. And I wasn’t disappointed: not much there, except Hillary’s stiletto discription of Lewinsky as a ‘narcissistic loony tune.’ Indeed, the ‘editor’ of the ‘publication’ that ‘broke’ this story described the then-First Lady as ‘surprisingly human.’ To which I can only ask: Why surprisingly? I’ve known Hillary Clinton for nearly 30 years now. I wouldn’t say I know her particularly well, but well enough to describe her in an entirely different way-as relentlessly human…”

“My overwhelming reaction to the release of the Blair papers was sadness-sadness because I remember Diane Blair fondly, the sort of smart, level-headed person I’d want as a friend. But also because it brought back the disgraceful bilge volcano of the Clinton years-the non-stop garbage peddled and sleazed by Drudge and Rush and the then frisky young Fox Network, the fact that the Clintons were accused of drug-trafficking, murder, financial scandals and all sorts of vile craziness-none of which proved to be true. And no apologies have ever been forthcoming from the greasy perps.”

Hillary Clinton said that she hasn’t driven a car since 1996, TPM reports.

Said Clinton: “I have to confess that one of the regrets I have about my public life is that I can’t drive anymore. My husband thinks that’s a blessing, but he’s the one who should talk. Last time I actually drove a car myself was 1996, and I remember it very well. Unfortunately so does the Secret Service, which is why I haven’t driven since then.”

Bill Clinton “may be a globe-trotting citizen of the world, but these days he is focusing on his home state, and for good reason: The election ballot for next year looks like a Clinton political family tree, full of the former president’s protégés and ex-staff members and family friends,” the New York Times reports.

“Senator Mark Pryor, who was 11 when he first met Mr. Clinton and whose father has been a close ally of the president’s for four decades, is fighting for re-election. James Lee Witt, whom Mr. Clinton met in a Little League dugout in 1974 and eventually named director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is running for Congress. And Patrick Henry Hays, a protégé and one of a band of locals who stumped on Mr. Clinton’s behalf in 1992, calling themselves Arkansas Travelers, is also seeking a House seat.”

Washington Post: “Maybe it was something about what they served in the White House mess in the 1990s. Or perhaps it’s what happens to baby boomer Democrats more than a decade after leaving office. For whatever the reason former vice president Al Gore has gone vegan, just like the president with whom he once served.”

Bono did a remarkably good impersonation of Bill Clinton today at the Clinton Global Initiative.

[Read more…]

The New Republic takes a fascinating look at the role Doug Band played in Bill Clinton’s post-presidential inner circle.

“A longtime Clinton associate was approached by a company interested in having the former president speak at a conference and asked Band for guidance… Band explained that the company should pay a certain sum to Clinton’s speaker’s agency and ideally contribute a certain sum to the Clinton Global Initiative or the foundation. Of course, he told the associate, the company should ‘also pay you for having made that happen’ — as if that were simply the way things were done.”

“Band had a key ally on Hillary’s team: Huma Abedin. Bill’s body man and Hillary’s body woman had bonded over their loyalty to their bosses. They were known to show up at parties together… They also had an ingenious method of collecting intelligence on each other’s behalf. Abedin would sidle up to someone in Bill’s camp and, in a confiding tone, make a disparaging remark about Band. If it was reciprocated, she would relay the criticisms to Band and he would do the same for her, says someone who fell for this technique.”

Gennifer Flowers told the Daily Mail that she and Bill Clinton would still be together today, were it not the birth of Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea.

Said Flowers: “Bill and I would be together today if it wasn’t for politics. It was me, Bill and Hillary. Then they had Chelsea and the stakes got too high.”

She also claimed that Hillary Clinton was bisexual: “I just know what Bill told me and that was that he was aware that Hillary was bisexual and he didn’t care. He should know. He said Hillary had eaten more pussy than he had.”

Politico: “It’s like he never left. Bill Clinton is more than a decade removed from the White House, but if you were to look at the cellphone bills of some House Democrats, you wouldn’t know it. For a select group of Capitol Hill lawmakers — call them the Bill Clinton Caucus — the former president is a familiar voice on the other end of the line.”

“Sometimes Clinton is on the hunt for intel on competitive congressional races in districts he’ll be traveling to. At other times, he wants to know about pending bills or to see what kind of messaging his party will be using. Or the former president might just be calling to check in and shoot the breeze.”

Washington Post: “The Clintons are in fundraising mode again… But this current quest for cash, which shifts into high gear this fall, is not to fund a run for political office. It is to boost the financial standing of the newly rechristened Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.”

“As he contemplates his legacy, former president Bill Clinton is trying to build an endowment with the declared goal of $200 million to $250 million to ensure that the charitable foundation he started lives on after his death.”

“While this fundraising push is philanthropic in nature, there are political implications. There is an unspoken deadline, for example. Clinton insiders said they hope the endowment drive will be completed ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign so that if Hillary Clinton chooses to run, the foundation fundraising would not distract from her campaign.”

The New York Times has a must-read piece on the Clinton Foundation, long Bill Clinton’s domain since its formation in 2001, which “will become the nerve center of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s increasingly busy public life.”

“This fall, Mrs. Clinton and her staff will move into offices at the foundation’s new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, occupying two floors of the Time-Life Building. Amid speculation about her 2016 plans, Mrs. Clinton is adding major new initiatives on women, children and jobs to what has been renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.”

Chelsea Clinton told CNN that she’s still not ruling out a future run for office.

Said Clinton: “I’m grateful to live in a city and a state and a country where I really believe in my elected officials, and their ethos and their competencies. Someday, if either of those weren’t true, and I thought I could make more of a difference in the public sector, or if I didn’t like how my city or state or country were being run, I’d have to ask and answer that question.”

“Moments before Huma Abedin stood amid a phalanx of television cameras last week and announced to a national audience that she was standing by her embattled husband, Anthony D. Weiner, she made a quick phone call to a trusted colleague,” the New York Times reports.

Philippe Reines “said his primary interest was in supporting his close friend Ms. Abedin” but his “behind-the-scenes presence illustrates the overlapping roles played by Clinton advisers as they seek to help Ms. Abedin navigate the circuslike atmosphere surrounding the campaign, and at the same time protect the Clinton brand from any spillover damage.”

“It underscores the extent to which top aides in the extended Clinton family, whatever titles they take on inside and outside government, remain steadfast in their desire to protect the interests of their benefactors, Bill and Hillary Clinton.”

Daily Beast: “B.C., or before Clinton, politicians caught with a prostitute, sharing crotch shots with anonymous strangers or disappearing to hike the trail — would be drummed out of office, never to return. But that was before the 42nd president wrote the modern playbook on how to come back from a sex scandal.”

ABC News has the back story behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) appearance today at the Clinton Global Initiative:

“Intimates of both men say the real story behind today’s event is the private friendship that has developed between the ex-president and a governor who would like to be president. The two have met, traded war stories, talked on the phone, all inside the four years since Clinton campaigned hard on behalf of then-Gov. Jon Corzine, the incumbent Christie beat in 2009.”

“Right now I’m grateful to live in a city, in a state and a country where I strongly support my mayor, and my governor, and my president, and my senators, and my representative. If at some point that weren’t true and I thought I could make a meaningful and measurably greater impact, you know, I’d have to ask and answer that question.”

— Chelsea Clinton, quoted by NBC News, on whether she would run for political office.