
EXILED BUBBA'S POLITICAL NIGHT-MAYOR
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS
March 2, 2008 -- Bill Clinton arrived at his $1.3 million dollar
home in Westchester at 6 p.m. Jan. 21, 2001, deeply in debt, jobless
and struggling to adjust to his downgraded lifestyle, according
to Chicago journalist Carol Felsenthal, whose unauthorized biography,
"Clinton in Exile," hits stores next month.
As his final days in the White House waned, supermarket magnate
John Catsimaditidis, a longtime Clinton backer, flew down to Washington
to bolster his friend's spirits.
The self-made billionaire - who now is preparing his own bid
for mayor of New York - tried to convince Clinton he should run
for mayor in 2001.
"He didn't rule it out as foolish the minute it was mentioned,"
Catsimaditidis says in the book.
"I think for a few seconds he considered it."
It wasn't until after 9/11, however, that Clinton really began
to regain some of his confidence and focus.
As America's popularity overseas diminished, Clinton's personal
fame grew; he nabbed six-figure speaking fees at summits and seminars
abroad while still somewhat shunned by the party establishment
at home, Felsenthal says.
His true re-entry into politics came in 2006, Felsenthal writes,
when his wife began planning in earnest for her run for the White
House.
Los Angeles Times
December 24, 2007 Monday
Home Edition
Publishers will hit the campaign trail
BYLINE: Josh Getlin, Times Staff Writer
Political celebrities
Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich penned "Real Change,"
which Regnery's Ross described as a critique of Republicans and
Democrats for losing touch with Americans. Meanwhile, Democrats
are putting out a flurry of books: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
has written "Open House," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb "A
Time to Fight," and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "The
Good Fight." Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright
is releasing "Memo to the President-Elect," and former
White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers has written "Why
Women Should Rule the World: A Memoir." Nobel Prize winner
Al Gore will publish another environmental title, "The Path
to Survival," on Earth Day.
Books on the Clintons have become a publishing niche unto themselves,
and new titles include "Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary,"
a collection of essays edited by Susan Morrison; "Clinton
in Exile," a look at Bill Clinton's post-presidential years
by Carol Felsenthal; and "Clintonisms: The Amusing, Confusing
and Even Suspect Musing of Billary" edited by Julia Gorin.
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April 10, 2007
BY ROBERT FEDER Sun-Times columnist
Chicago magazine contributing editor Carol Felsenthal's 1993
biography of the late Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham
is about to be made into a movie by HBO Films.
Writer Joan Didion has adapted Power, Privilege and the Post:
the Katharine Graham Story into a screenplay. No word
yet on who'll play the legendary media mogul in the film to be
directed by Tom Hooper.
Meanwhile, Felsenthal is busy working on a new biography of former
President Bill Clinton, to be published by William Morrow.
June 12, 2008
Lynn Sweet
The scoop from Washington
Obama at first downplayed vetter Johnson problem. Chicago's Carol
Felsenthal new "Clinton in Exile" book looks into Obama
veep vetter Holder role in Marc Rich pardon.
WASHINGTON -- Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama
-- after first downplaying questions about the ethics of his chief
vice presidential vetter Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chief
-- on Wednesday accepted his resignation.
"Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important
task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee,
so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept," Obama
said in a statement.
"We have a very good selection process under way, and I am
confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates
for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to
Jim for his service and his efforts in this process."
Johnson, Caroline Kennedy and former Deputy U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder were the three-member team Obama tapped to vet potential
running mates.
On June 5, Obama told reporters traveling with him that "there
is no decision that I am going to make that is more important
before the November election. I intend to do it right and I'm
not going to [do it] in the press."
But that was before Saturday's Wall Street Journal report that
Johnson obtained below-market mortgages from Countrywide, the
national home lender under investigation for subprime loans --
and a company singled out by Obama for contributing to the housing
market crisis.
The apparent sweetheart deal, coupled with rehashes of Johnson's
lucrative pay packages while at Fannie Mae -- executive boondoggles
are another Obama target -- exploded on the Internet, cable political
shows and into mainstream newspapers.
On Monday, Obama brushed aside questions about Johnson and Holder.
Republicans started using Johnson to bash Obama's holier-than-thou
anti-lobbyist drive, throwing Holder into the mix because of his
role in the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich
by President Bill Clinton.
"I mean, first of all, I am not vetting my VP search committee
for their mortgages. . . . I would have to hire a vetter to vet
the vetters," Obama said.
In a new book about Bill Clinton, Clinton in Exile by Chicago
author Carol Felsenthal, Holder -- then the No. 2 man in the Clinton
Justice Department, with responsibility for pardons -- was seen
as "so ambitious to be attorney general in the expected Gore
administration" that he "played ball" with a Gore
confidant, Jack Quinn, who was Rich's lawyer. Felsenthal wrote
that Holder ''adamantly denies there was any secret deal.''
(Holder, also a former federal prosecutor, headed the team that
indicted former Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dan Rostenkowski.)
Several people I talked to in Obama's orbit were surprised that
Obama tapped Johnson. For a candidate running on a change platform
and against Washington, Johnson is an insider's insider. He vetted
vice presidential contenders for Walter Mondale in 1984 and John
Kerry in 2004.
Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee,
said if Obama "is concerned his campaign's ties to special
interests are distracting from his VP search and message, why
is Eric Holder still on his search committee," adding "Obama's
hypocritical attacks show he can't stand up to his own standard
-- and that he just isn't ready to make change."
Shot back Obama spokesman Bill Burton, "We don't need any
lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge the lobbyists
from their staff, and only did so because they said it was a 'perception
problem.' "
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"Media Mix," The Examiner.com
POSTED June 13, 2:25 AM
Carol Felsenthal is the author of “Clinton in Exile: A President
Out of the White House.” The book takes readers everywhere
from Bill Clinton’s humanitarian efforts to his role in
his wife’s presidential campaign.
Q: What CD are you listening to now?
“Sain-Saens: the 5 Piano Concertos,” by L’Orchestre
du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson
Q: What was the last movie you saw?
“Atonement”
Q: What Web sites do you visit in the morning?
CNN Political Ticker, PoynterOnline (Romenesko), MSNBC’s
First Read, Huffington Post, Washington Post
Q: What book are you reading?
“Obama: From Promise to Power,” by David Mendell,
and “Shelley’s Heart,” a novel by Charles McCarry
Q: What’s your favorite TV show?
“Hardball” with Chris Matthews
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The Huffington
Post
Carol posted her first blog on The Huffington Post
on March 17, 2008. Look for, she hopes, a couple of posts most weeks
on:
The
Huffington Post
Read Posts:
7 /01/08: Barack
Obambi? Not Quite; Just Ask Alice Palmer
6/27/08: Bye
Bye Book Section?
6/25/08: Someone
Get Barack Bill's Cell Phone Number
6/24/08: Big
Slip of Chris Matthews' Tongue
6/24/08: What
Does Elian Gonzalez Have to Do With Obama's Search for a VP?
6/20/08: Bill
Clinton’s Hurt Feelings: When Will He Endorse Obama?
6/20/08:
Obama’s
Shortlist Just Got Shorter
6/17/08:
The
Big Unmentionable
6/10/08:
Bill
and Dorothy Rodham: What Must She Think of Him?
6/08/08:
Bill
Clinton's Failed Television Career
6/06/08: Dick
Cheney Says He Has Never Written a Book; Oops! Yes He Has
6/05/08:
Does
Obama Really Want Voters to Remember Marc Rich?
6/03/08: Bill
Explodes But Then Apologizes
6/02/08: Bill
Clinton's Sad Response to a Magazine Piece
5/26/08: Jim
Johnson, NAFTA, and Barack's Short List for Vice President - Politics
on The Huffington Post
5/26/08:
Give
Hillary a Break?
5/22/08:
Chelsea
in 2016? Just a Minute! What About Hillary?
5/18/08:
Carol
Felsenthal: Gov. Bobblehead for Vice President? - Politics on
The Huffington Post
5/15/08:
Hillary
on the Bottom?
5/13/08:
Myanmar
(and China) Need the odd Couple
5/07/08:
George
McGovern and Bill Clinton: The state of the Friendship
4/30/08:
The
Reverend Wright on Bill Clinton and Monica
4/28/08:
Billary
Revisits a Tactic From 2004
4/27/08:
George
McGovern and Bill Clinton: the State of the Friendship
4/23/08:
Bill
and Hill On Stage Together Again
4/22/08:
Bill
Clinton: "They (Obama and company) Played the Race Card on
Me"
4/19/08:
Bill
and Hillary's Biggest White House Stresses were Self-Inflicted
and Obama Should Say So
4/17/08:
Bill,
Bernardine, and Barack
4/15/08:
It
Takes One Elitist (i.e. Bill Clinton) to Recognize Another
4/10/08:
Bashing
Bill Clinton (Again)
4/03/08:
Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton: They Genuinely Dislike Each Other
3/31/08: The
Cost of Being a Woman (Candidate)
3/28/08: Waiting
for a Wise Man
3/24/08: Who's
Paying Maggie Williams?
3/21/08: The
Blue Dress, The Stain, and the Deal
3/21/08: The
Big Whopper
3/17/08:
Bill Clinton's Memoir Envy
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Spring reads
New Vonnegut, a big debut, a pig in the city . . .
By Brandon Griggs
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 03/29/2008 08:34:35 AM MDT
It's spring, traditionally a time of year to emerge from hibernation
and get outside. Publishers don't issue as many major books this
season as they do in the fall, but that doesn't mean there's nothing
new to read.
Here are a handful of titles - high-profile, provocative or just
intriguing - scheduled to hit bookstores in April and May.
Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut - To be released
on the first anniversary of Vonnegut's death, this volume collects
12 of the the master satirist's new and unpublished writings on
war and peace. Included are Vonnegut's last speech, selections
of his artwork and an introduction by Mark Vonnegut, his son.
(April; Penguin, $24.95)
Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark - Clark, America's
reigning queen of guilty-pleasure suspense novels, returns with
this tale about a young New York lawyer investigating the mysterious
disappearance of her older brother 10 years earlier. He places
a ritual call to their mom every Mother's Day, tells her he's
fine and then hangs up. (April; Simon & Schuster, $25.95)
The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga - Reviewers already
are hyping this literary debut by a young Indian novelist. Adiga
explores India's infamous class struggles through a darkly comic
story about an impoverished but cunning man whose fortunes rise
after he's hired as a driver for a rich landlord. (April; Free
Press, $24)
Boots on the Ground by Dusk: The Remarkable Life &
Death of Pat Tillman, by Mary Tillman - Tillman chronicles the
life of her son, who walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL
contract to enlist as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, where he
was killed by friendly fire. She also recounts her efforts to
pry the truth about his death from a reluctant and secretive U.S.
military. (April; Modern Times, $25.95)
Story of a Marriage, by Andrew Sean Greer - Set in a
pre-liberated 1950s San Francisco, this novel is about an agonizing
love triangle among a dutiful housewife, her childhood sweetheart-turned-husband
and his male lover, all of them trapped by the conformist nature
of the era. Dave Eggers calls it "a haunting book of breathtaking
beauty and restraint." (April; Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
$22)
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What's Wrong
with Washington, by Scott McClellan - Political pundits already
are speculating about what's in this account by McClellan, White
House press secretary from 2003 to 2006. His publisher says the
book was "written with no agenda other than to record his
experiences and insights for the benefit of history." We'll
see. (May; Perseus, $27.95)
Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House,
by Carol Felsenthal - If you're wondering what Bill Clinton has
been up to in recent years besides campaigning ineffectively for
his wife, here's the book for you. Felsenthal promises fresh insights
into the ex-prez's post-White House life, his health and the true
nature of his complex relationship with Hillary. (May; HarperCollins,
$25.95)
Swine Not? by Jimmy Buffett with illustrations by Helen
Bransford - The tropical crooner's latest, pitched at adults and
kids alike, is the tall tale of a family who move from the South
to a posh New York hotel and must hide their beloved pet pig,
Rumpy, from the staff. Think Eloise meets "Babe: Pig in the
City." (May; Little, Brown, $21.99)
griggs@sltrib.com
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