"The Hillary Papers" — a large archive of previously unpublished documents allegedly kept by Hillary Clinton's friend and adviser Diane Blair — are seeing the light of day through a report The Washington Free Beacon posted Sunday night.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (Image source: AP/Jason DeCrow)
The archive paints Clinton, a former U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state, and possible 2016 presidential candidate, as a 'strong, ambitious, and ruthless Democratic operative," the Free Beacon concluded. "The Hillary Papers" include "correspondence, diaries, interviews, strategy memos, and contemporaneous accounts of conversations with the Clintons ranging from the mid-1970s to the turn of the millennium."
Blair, who died in 2000, was a political science professor Clinton described as her “closest friend," the Free Beacon said, adding that Blair allegedly kept a record years of candid conversations with Hillary and Bill Clinton on issues ranging from single-payer health care to Monica Lewinsky.
More from the Free Beacon:
Diane Blair’s husband, Jim Blair, a former chief counsel at Tyson Foods Inc. who was at the center of “Cattlegate,” a 1994 controversy involving the unusually large returns Hillary Clinton made while trading cattle futures contracts in the 1970s, donated his wife’s papers to the University of Arkansas Special Collections library in Fayetteville after her death.The full contents of the archive, which before 2010 was closed to the public, have not previously been reported on and shed new light on Clinton’s three decades in public life. The records paint a complex portrait of Hillary Clinton, revealing her to be a loyal friend, devoted mother, and a cutthroat strategist who relished revenge against her adversaries and complained in private that nobody in the White House was “tough and mean enough.”
The Free Beacon article offers an overview of the contents of "The Hillary Papers" divided into sections with titles such as:
Many notes on Hillary Clinton's alleged attitudes toward and reactions to Washington politics are described in the Free Beacon piece. What's most telling appear to be Clinton's reportedly unvarnished personal assessments regarding her adversaries and political hurdles she had to overcome.
On health care:
“[Hillary] adamant; [Bill] must devise new outside strategy; we’re getting killed. Congress a bunch of whiners; no courage. Her health care plan will save billions in long run but will cost big $ up front. [Members of Congress] don’t work; only 3 days a week; only care for re-election,” wrote Blair. “[Bill] clearly not very happy w. his own crew and advisors. [Hillary] urging hard ball.”
On the Lewinsky scandal, specifically the day after Bill Clinton's impeachment:
“[Hillary] sounded very up, almost jolly,” wrote Blair. “Told me how she and Bill and Chelsea had been to church, to a Chinese restaurant, to a Shakespeare play, greeted everywhere with wild applause and cheers—this, she said is what drives their adversaries totally nuts, that they don’t bend, do not appear to be suffering.”Hillary Clinton’s “adversaries” included the media, Republicans, and top members of President Clinton’s staff, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis of the contents of the Blair archive.
On the press:
"HC says press has big egos and no brains,” wrote Blair on May 19, 1993, during the White House travel office controversy. “That [the White House is] just going to have to work them better; that her staff has figured it out and would be glad to teach [Bill’s] staff.”
Hillary Clinton reportedly told Blair about many clashes with White House staff and administration, as well as with President Clinton. By the spring of 1994, Hillary was “furious” at Bill for “ruining himself and the Presidency,” the Free Beacon noted the files said.
“She keeps trying to shape things up, knows what’s wrong, but [Bill] can’t fire people, exert discipline, punish leakers,” Blair wrote on May 17, 1994. “Never had strategy for Whitewater, troopers, Paula [Jones]. … Inability to organize, make tough choices, drives her nuts.”
To read the full Free Beacon article, click here.
(H/T: Drudge Report)
