The SEDUCTION OF HILLARY RODHAM (Paperback)

~ (Author) "In Hillary Rodham, the qualities of a firstborn high-achieving straight-A student, world-class organizer, determined operator, and gifted proselytizer were evident from the beginning..." (more)
Key Phrases: travel office workers, womanizing stories, preferred stock deal, White House, Little Rock, Bill Clinton (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this surprising, often thoughtful, political biography, investigative writer for the American Spectator David Brock--best known as the right-wing hatchet man who produced "The Real Anita Hill"--makes a case for Hillary Rodham Clinton as a brilliant, principled, but betrayed woman. Hillary Clinton's social activism, Brock notes, is rooted in liberal Methodism and deep compassion for the underprivileged, especially children; but it has been distorted and derailed by her Faustian alliance with her husband, "the greatest seducer who ever lived," according to former White House aide David Watkins. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Hilton Kramer New York Post A brilliant account of...how the Clintons as a team succeeded in bringing the political radicalism of the 1960s to power in Washington in the 1990s -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684837706
• ISBN-13: 978-0684837703
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #734,217 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars She's a Great Woman, June 28, 2005

By	Alric Knebel "[e-mail]" (Biloxi, MS) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Almost ten years have passed since the publication of this book. From before then and until recently, David Brock has appeared now and again on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," during which time he moved from the right to the left on the political spectrum, eventuating in his disavowal of the right-wing attack machine in which he had played such an important part. Compelled by a sudden interest in Hillary Rodham because of her possible run for president, I selected THIS book to educate myself on her because it was during the research and writing of it that Brock turned away from the dark side of the force. Something about her inspired him to take a political one-eighty, so one would assume that he shared in this book something of what it was that brought him to such illumination. I remember when it was released, right wingers were furious to learn that their heretofore reliable hitman hadn't delivered the magic bullet that would put an end to the Clintons, and Hillary in particular. Instead, Brock presented a detailed account of the influences that drive Hillary Rodham, and to a liberal's delight and a right winger's disdain, she's basically a deeply spiritual person, with her ideology steeped in Christianity, the type known as social gospel activism. It's hard to take the moral high ground in opposing her after these submissions, and you'll have to find something else to hate her for besides your affected righteous indignation.

The book focuses primarily on her moral influences, and shows how they consistently affected her. She had always been personally conservative, despite the influences of the campuses she attended in the 60s, shunning the libertinism, refraining from drugs, and remaining relatively chaste; politically she rejected the destructive anti-establishment revolutionary thinking preached by the harder activists. Her activism lay in the belief in making change within the system by altering how the law is viewed. It was all very fascinating stuff, and the reader will learn to split a hair or two.

What some readers in some of these reviews possibly objected to was the way Brock mentioned some of the rumors -- gossip, mostly from her detractors, alleging lesbianism or an affair with Vince Foster; the gossipers should make up their minds -- but these stories had to be discussed if the book was to have any credibility at all. Brock inserted some incredulity into the comments by putting them in the context of hardball politics played by her husband's political enemies, jealous backbiters, and sometimes just plain old Arkansas male chauvinism. When Hillary moved with Bill back to his home state, she didn't deal graciously with a male-dominated political system that resented strong women. Some of Bill's closest friends panned her. Her strenghts made them feel weak. From what I gleaned, she was committed to intelligence itself as a tool, as a gift, and as such, regarded it as an asset she was sure principled people would appreciate. This was not the case, as most people's agendas were less noble than her own. Eventually, she learned to play the political game, to take on APPEARANCES, using tactics every politician on Capital Hill uses every day, and, as in everything else she sets her mind to, she excelled in it. Lacking her practicality and her commitment to her long-range goals, some people were harshly critical of her, accused her of selling out. The truth is, she detested the political games even as she played them -- preferring instead entreaties to reason -- but she brushed aside her objections for what she felt was a greater good, the use of her gifts to make positive changes in society.

More instructional to the reader is the detailed accounting of the scandals that had eclipsed everything and anything else about the Clintons. The tableu that had played out via hundreds of insinuating soundbites was revealed as just a shadow play. The financial scandals were too complicated to be appreciated through snatches of news, and Brock here lays them out in detail, connects the dots, forming a cohesive story, and you realize that a lot was made of nothing, that the whole fiasco resulted from machinations of a partisan political system, polemics gone wild. He doesn't explicitly say so here in this book, as he does in a later one, but that is indeed the case.

Overall, it's a good read. Only one part was boring, an interminably long description of how people were selected for President Clinton's cabinet, a tedious detailing of the relationships Hillary relied upon to establish control. This is only a minor point. Most of the time, he moves along. Brock's criticisms were always accompanied with a mitigating point, describing Hillary in the context of a political food chain. And while Brock's criticisms seemed harsher toward the end of the book, the rest of it betrays his very high regard for her.

And why wouldn't he have a high regard? She possesses a moral conviction to advance society for everyone's benefit, and a superior intelligence at her disposal to aid her in accomplishing it, qualities that would add up to greatness in any other politician. Brock's main detraction is how Hillary dealt with a hostile poltical environment, that her education and her values inhered in her a more principled approach, one based on moral arguments she might deliver in a courtroom, and this worked to her detriment in the final analysis. But she's unable to set the rules, and thereby forced to play by them as they are. That's a small detraction in my estimation. By the time I had turned the last page, I had come to see her in an entirely new light, as one fine human being with only minor character flaws. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a clearer picture of her.

On the other hand, to the rabid Clinton bashers, I say this: Don't bother, as YOU won't get much out of it; it is simply not spiteful enough.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Even-handed????, June 13, 2001

By	Arthur Amchan (McLean, Va USA) - See all my reviews

I disagree with the other reviews of this book. It is even-handed only if you consider damning with faint praise to be even-handedness. Brock's thesis is that while Bill Clinton is a sleaze bag; Hillary is a sincere committed radical--sort of a Emma Goldman with a law degree. While he does at times acknowledge that a double standard has been applied to the Clintons, as compared for example to the Bushes, he repeatedly denigrates Hillary by resorting to guilt by association. He trots out every associate she has ever had who has been involved in any liberal or left-wing cause and gives you their background in lurid detail. According to Brock, Hillary's intellectual development stopped in college or law school. I await his new book to see whether he really is ready to write an even-handed appraisal of the current political scene. In this book, he assumes that the liberals are naive or out to destroy basic American values. For example, he assumes that there wasn't merit at all to the Vietnam war protests or that anyone could actually believe that the war was both immoral and not in the interests of the United States of America.--Arthur Amchan

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative book and well worth reading, January 15, 2000

By A Customer

I picked up this book to gain further insight on the Clinton's. I have read what I consider the most reliable and informative book on the "Boy Wonder" by David Maraniss (First in his Class), and I wanted to learn more about Hillary as she prepares to run for the Senate.

I found this book to be a fairly balanced and compelling book. Brock portrays Hillary as a intelligent, committed woman who made apparently bad choice to marry the Devil in Ms. Jones, and follow him from Yale to Arkansas, from triumph to tragedy. Brock portrays a woman who made a Faustian bargain in marrying Clinton and hasmany problems because of it. As he says, Brock believes that Hillary and Bill are some sort of co-dependents. I had this feeling after seeing how radiant she was after the accusations of Lewinsky started to arise two years ago.

Hillary Clinton comes across as a very sad woman who has chosen to look the other way during numerous transgrssions by her husband, both sexual and legal. To me I felt she is the perfect anti-feminist because she denied her own obvious gifts and subverted her own desires to get her husband elected President. Clinton himself comes across as a real doofus(just look at the wonderful pictures(the first one of Hillary is enough to make anyone regret living through the Sixties-YIKES! ). she comes across as a lonely woman, who is committed to her causes because of a belief in them, and because it must take her away from an obviously unhappy married life.

This book made me feel a real human affinity for Hillary. I don't agree with her politics, but I still think she is an interesting woman.

The President comes off like a real sleaze, and he seems to make her one as well by both association, conspiracy, and her own behavior.

Ultimately, she reminds me of those people in life who see life through their own granny glasses, and can't stand to have anyone disgree with them.

A worthwhile book!