‘The Clinton Tapes,’ a New Book

By now you may have read about a Boris Yeltsin anecdote in the historian Taylor Branch’s new book, “The Clinton Tapes; Wrestling History with the President.”

As Mr. Branch retells it, former President Clinton recalled getting a security alert in 1995 that the Secret Service had found Mr. Yeltsin, in his underwear, outside Blair House on Pennsylvania Avenue trying to hail a taxi. He was clearly inebriated, wanting a pizza. And he eluded security the second night, nearly causing an even more serious ruckus when he was initially mistaken for a drunken intruder, according to these accounts. What that says about the security near Blair House or those who protected Mr. Yeltsin is anyone’s guess.

That’s perhaps one of the most gossipy moments publicized so far from the book, which goes on sale early next week. But the book also includes confrontations between the president and Al Gore after the 2000 election loss; Mr. Clinton’s frequent frustrations with and assessments of the Republican takeover of Congress and the role the media played in the many investigations against his administration.

Beyond that, Mr. Branch’s book offers up presidential observations and recollections in near time to when events were taking place, a quite unusual method for chronicling a presidency, even one as heavily covered by the media and in aides’ books as Mr. Clinton’s. (Or for that matter, books and coverage of his wife’s career.)

This 700-page book is the result of Mr. Branch’s extraordinary access to Mr. Clinton, in more than 70 sessions, during the eight years of his presidency, from 1993 through 2001. The conversations, which sometimes were scheduled with little advance notice and often lasted hours (no surprise there), were recorded.

Mr. Branch indicates in the book that he didn’t have access to those tapes. Rather, whenever he left the White House, he would dictate his recollections of the lengthy chats into cassettes as he drove home to Baltimore. In an interview with Susan Page at USA Today, Mr. Branch indicated that he would sometimes sit in his driveway, dictating away in the middle of the night.

The two tried to keep the existence of the White House tapes secret; remember that the Clinton presidency and its counsel were flooded with subpoenas over varying investigations from Hillary Clinton’s years at the Rose Law firm, to Whitewater and to, of course, the sprawling Monica Lewinsky investigation. Asked in a GQ interview how he managed to conceal for so long that he had become the president’s oral historian, Mr. Branch said:

I couldn’t communicate with people, because I felt like I was in a different galaxy. I just dropped out. I didn’t see a way of fighting it that didn’t endanger the project. I couldn’t challenge my friend [Washington Post critic] Jon Yardley, who would sit around and bitch and moan about Clinton: ‘He’s no good, he doesn’t care about anything, he doesn’t believe in anything.’ I couldn’t say, ‘Jon, I know that’s not true.’ I couldn’t start that conversation, because the only way I could combat it would be to say, ‘I’ve been around Clinton a lot, and my experience is totally different.’ And then some story would come out that he had these tapes, and they would get subpoenaed. So I just basically had to be quiet and not talk to people.

He and Mr. Clinton also apparently sometimes avoided matters under investigation, so as not to invite the possibility of subpoena. And it would appear from the book that Mr. Branch tread lightly at times on the matter of the Lewinsky investigation or the former president’s failures on that front, even while he was sitting in the White House at the height of the impeachment scandal.

Mr. Branch wrote that the former president had read his manuscript, and that they’d been in contact about it. He told Ms. Page he believed Mr. Clinton “was nervous” about the book’s publication, but hadn’t changed anything in response. In addition, Mr. Branch said he was indebted to Strobe Talbott, the former deputy secretary of state, for advising him on particulars in the book and details of events.

The tapes’ existence has been known for quite some time now. And the original recordings of the conversations between Mr. Branch and Mr. Clinton don’t appear to be subject to the Presidential Records Act, because the talks weren’t conducted during the course of official business, according to the National Archives. (At least not usually – Mr. Branch does note interruptions so that Mr. Clinton could deal with Bosnia or other matters.)

Mr. Clinton’s set of cassettes, Mr. Branch said, were tucked away in a sock drawer or somesuch until he had had them transcribed upon leaving the White House. Volumes upon volumes of their talks were lined up on shelves in a building on the grounds of Mr. Clinton’s house in Chappaqua, N.Y., Mr. Branch indicated. It’s unclear when or whether Mr. Clinton’s tapes and transcripts will be accessible for historians and the public.

Mr. Branch’s will be available next year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Big surprise – the press has good information on a Democratic politician who has done something wrong, but cuts him slack and hides the information from the public.

Clinton, Edwards, Obama – keep up the good work, liberal media…

I guess this is another sign that the Obama administration has “jumped the shark.” :) The Clinton administration is back in the news…

John C Drew, PhD –

It’s amazing how quickly you declare that the Obama administration is effectively over, while most Americans who aren’t political scientists still believe that his presidency will last another 3 years and four months, and that he may even be elected to another term. I know you haven’t forgotten that your hero Geore W. Bush was still enacting disastrous policies up until the final days of his presidency, despite having been characterized as a lame duck. A biography of a former president gets published, and that’s the sign of the end of the current president’s effective leadership? Really? And they give out PhD’s for this level of political awareness? Where should Glenn Beck go to get his?

Personally, I hope Obama gets his act together and stops trying to engage with the Republican idiots who have been marching this country down the tubes for the last thirty years.

Just curious, what motivated you to out yourself, to get away from the internet anonymity of Augustus 25 or John D?

“I hope Obama gets his act together ” from your mouth to God’s ear. (if I might say that) This country needs all the help it can get.

Elections have consequences!

Why do people continue to have empty “hope” for an inept president who has lied to all of us on a daily basis, who meddles in the affairs of free nations while cozying up to Chavez and backstabbing our European allies? Not to mention he has broken the financial back of the United States, and wants to continue bailing out businesses that should die a natural death. I bet you can’t wait till the government owns the newspapers! They might as well own them now, the way the press covers for him. Jimmy Carter will soon pass his crown as worst president to Barry Obama, and our nation of gullible, immature voters deserve what they get… but our children’s children, do not.

The conditions of being “Boris Yeltsin” and being “a drunken intruder” are not mutually exclusive. Especially if you’re Chechnya.