politics

Dick Morris Can Still Whirl a Reporter or Two

April 15, 2004

It’s a slow day here at Campaign Desk. How slow? Well, we’re actually reading the New York Post‘s “Page Six” for campaign coverage, that’s how slow. And, lo and behold, there we found a gem — the ramblings of political-consultant-turned-partisan-columnist Dick Morris. (Yeah, we know: you’re probably already thinking about a barrel, a gun, and large, slow-moving fish.)

Morris showed up to supply the Post with ammo in its assertion that Bill Clinton may be “using his long-awaited autobiography to help Hillary win the vice presidential spot on Sen. John Kerry’s ticket.” The proposition, as articulated by Morris, is that Clinton is blackmailing Kerry by threatening to publish his book shortly before the presidential election. Such a move would take the spotlight off Kerry and put it on the former president, hobbling Kerry’s election chances. According to “one political expert” cited by the Post, Clinton will obligingly delay the release date of the book if Kerry agrees to name Hillary to the ticket.

Some conservatives’ enduring obsession with the Clintons — which has lately manifested itself in conjecture that the couple is conspiring to get Hillary into the White House as soon as possible — was nicely mocked by Slate‘s Tim Noah a few months ago. Earlier, William Safire and other pundits came up with the novel theory that Gen. Wesley Clark’s campaign for the Democratic nomination was in fact a “stalking horse” for Hillary, used to sap support from other candidates so that she could jump into the presidential race. And back on Sept. 21, Morris, who Noah says “has long made clear his loathing for Hillary Clinton,” said in an interview that the Clintons told potential Democratic donors dining at their home “not to give money to anyone else.” Last July, Carl Limbacher (and the NewsMax.com staff) even came out with a book — titled, not-so-subtly, Hillary’s Scheme — about “Clinton’s ruthless agenda to take the White House.”

Neither Clinton’s decision not to raise funds for a campaign nor her repeated denials that she wanted the job daunted the indefatigable Morris — or his ideological brethren — back then. And now that Kerry’s the presumptive nominee, Morris seems to have decided to simply shift gears and bring his wild speculation to the veepstakes.

There’s little reason to think Kerry would even think of selecting Clinton as his running mate, considering that she’s a polarizing figure from a non-swing state — someone who could cost him votes nationwide, and whose choice would hand his opposition an invaluable fundraising tool.

On Tuesday, the normally sober Jim Rutenberg and David Kirkpatrick voiced their own version of the Clinton-As-a-Monkey-Wrench Theory in a page one piece in The New York Times. They made the undocumented assertion that “leading Democrats are voicing concern that the [Bill Clinton autobiography] could overshadow Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign.” As Bob Somerby points out today, the piece was a classic case of a story containing no evidence for its central thesis. “In the course of a 1500-word piece, Rutenberg failed to quote even one [leading Democrat]!,” writes Somerby. Dick Morris, however, did get a few words in edgewise in the Times article. “What I really believe,” he confided, “is if he were to come out with it during the campaign it would be intended as a way of undercutting Kerry. It would turn the whole election into a debate about Clinton rather than Kerry.”

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Morris embroiders on that theme in the “Page Six” item in the Post:

If Bill, who has trouble finishing anything and procrastinates constantly, actually finishes the book, there is a reason. Likely she was nagging him to do it so he could raise the pressure for her.

Neither the Post nor the Times bothered to note that Morris — as an advisor dropped by Clinton like a hot potato after an unsavory sex scandal — just might have a grudge or two to bear.

Morris, who has a book of his own coming out next month about — you guessed it — Hillary Clinton, may be wrong, but he isn’t stupid: He managed, after all, to insert the kind of spin that makes news into two prominent New York papers. In doing so, he raised his profile, publicized his book, and pleased his ideological peers, all in less than a week — proving that the press is a sucker for a good soundbyte, even if it comes from a talented spinmeister whose predictions are about as reliable as a television psychic‘s.

–Brian Montopoli

Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.