VF article: "White House Civil War" or Clintons v. Gore

[Mabus]

Posting the first few paragraphs. Link to article at the bottom of excerpt.

I don't want the party to get fractured over this any more than it is right now.

Promised real power as Bill Clinton's vice president, Al Gore found he had a rival for that role: the First Lady. And when Hillary decided to run for the Senate, a tense competition got ugly. In an excerpt from her new book about the Clinton White House years, the author reveals how conflicting agendas—the triangle of a scandal-ridden lame-duck president, the wife he'd betrayed, and his designated successor—sapped Gore's 2000 campaign as the bond between two couples dissolved into distrust, anger, and resentment.
by Sally Bedell Smith November 2007

Excerpted from For Love of Politics—Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years, by Sally Bedell Smith, to be published this month by Random House, Inc.; © 2007 by the author.

During the 1992 campaign, Bill and Hillary Clinton took several successful bus trips with vice-presidential candidate Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, where they bonded to such an extent that Tipper called Hillary her "long-lost sister." "If there is a subject under the sun that we haven't discussed, I don't know what it might be," said Al. So it seemed fitting that the four of them again boarded a bus three days before Bill Clinton's inauguration, this time for a 120-mile ride from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Washington, re-enacting the trip that Thomas Jefferson had made in 1801.

After conducting an interview with Bill and Hillary, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw lingered while the two couples sat around a table in the kitchenette in the front of the bus. "It struck me like a college-dorm bull session rather than an incoming administration," Brokaw recalled. "Hillary was not leading, but she was like a junior partner. It was Gore to Bill Clinton, and Hillary was gracefully part of the conversation."

Eight days later, Bill appointed Hillary head of the health-care task force, which was charged with developing a plan to re-structure the health-insurance system. The move took nearly all his top officials by surprise, including Al Gore. Bill had invested Gore with considerable responsibility, but his failure to confide in his vice president was a telling sign of the real pecking order.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/clinton200711?printable=true¤tPage=all

[Mabus]

1. Links to author 's Sally Bedell Smith website

Sally Bedell Smith's website: http://www.sallybedellsmith.com/

Bio from her website:

Sally Bedell Smith is the author of the bestselling biographies of William S. Paley, In All His Glory; Pamela Harriman, Reflected Glory; Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana In Search of Herself and John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Grace and Power.

A contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996, she previously worked at Time and The New York Times, where she was a cultural news reporter. She was awarded a Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for magazine reporting in 1982 and was a fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in 1986.

Sally lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Stephen. They have three grown children.

http://www.sallybedellsmith.com/about/

[marlakay]

2. I read the whole article

and I don't care if those here that like Hillary say mean things to me. I felt like being sick after reading the article and if it was possible for me to dislike her more after reading it I do. And now I am one of those in the camp of I WILL NOT VOTE FOR HER no matter what....

sorry...you can have republicans for another 4 years...yes the countries in the toilet...but sorry I won't vote for her after what she and Bill did to Gore.

[rosesaylavee]

3. She is not trustworthy.

I am not sure I would vote for a Republican for president or abstain - the SCOTUS is at stake afterall. But if she is the nominee and wins the presidency, I will friggin dog her every step to keep her in line.

[stlsaxman]

4. I read it too and wholeheartedly agree.

She is not to be trusted.

Should Gore declare he WILL NOT run, i'm gonna start working day and night for Edwards.