Hillary's Book

Hillary Clinton is not too popular in our conservative enclave. But I like her and have great respect for her. So there!

Senator Clinton's book, "Living History" hit the bookstores last week. First day sales set a record for a non-fiction book, according to Simon & Schuster, selling about 200,000 copies on Monday The first print was a million copies, and they have already ordered another 50,000.

What with Americans' obsession with sex, and curiosity about the Clintons' personal lives, many of those copies undoubtedly were bought in the hope of finding some juicy tidbits about the Clinton marriage. Those people are going to be disappointed. Hillary feels, as do I, that their lives behind their bedroom door are not any of my business. One of my favorite quotes comes from Pat Schroeder, U. S. Representative from Colorado for many years. "I have a brain and a uterus, and I use them both." What Hillary does with her uterus is her business. What she does with her brain is mine so long as she chooses to be a public figure.

Why did she stay with him? She says, "I was always happier with Bill than without him." She also wrote that "Bill Clinton and I started a conversation in the spring of 197l, and more than 30 years later we're still talking.

There just one commandment for First Ladies, " Thou shalt keep your mouth shut." Added to that, you must be a perfect hostess, have a good hairdo and smile at the President (in public). Many Presidents' wives have been highly intelligent, capable, outspoken and have broken the rule to various degrees. Eleanor Roosevelt was a wonderful example.

But Hillary was the real pioneer. She was a professional woman with a highly successful legal career, and she was an independent woman of her baby boomer generation, and an outspoken feminist. She was under attack from the day she entered the White House. In May of 1993 a Time cover story said that "A Republican consultant told a network newscaster that his job was to make sure Hillary Clinton is discredited before the 1996 campaign."

Her book, "Living History" is not a defensive book, but rather a story of her White House years, written with humor and passion and extensive knowledge of the period. It tells of the years long battle with Starr whose single minded ambition was to bring her and her husband down in any way possible. She stood up with strength and dignity, however, and today she is a United States senator and I had to go to the web to look up Starr's first name (Kenneth, if you care).

The battle against her was so violent that at one speaking engagement on the west coast she was persuaded to wear a bullet proof vest.

In spite of all the abuse she suffered for eight years, she comes through as a dignified, strong, intensely human, compassionate woman. She admits to her imperfections and her mistakes. Her humor is often subtle, but very much a part of her. In fact, in her earlier book, "It Takes A Village To Raise A Child," she says that her father had a big booming laugh which she inherited. She says her laugh can startle everybody in a restaurant or scare cats. Her experiences during her eight years in the White House would have needed the ability to scare more than cats.

Gloria Borger, who claims to have read all 525 pages in less than a week said on Washington Week that the book is a political campaign piece. That opinion has to assume that Hillary plans to run for President in 2008. Does she? Who knows? But if, by any wild chance she does and by the even greater chance that I am still around at 94, I'll probably vote for her.

Meanwhile, if I could choose a celebrity to have lunch with, I'd sure like to buy lunch for Hillary Rodham Clinton.