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Description
Olson turns her razor sharp vision on the Clintons' shocking excesses in their final days of office: the outrageous pardons to political cronies and friends, the looting of the White House, the executive orders that were sheer abuses of presidential power, the presidential library that is becoming a massive boondoogle of vanity more appropriate for a Third World dictator, and much more.
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LibraryThing member kkirkhoff
"Stroke of a pen, law of the land"
- Bill Clinton
This was the attitude of the Clintons during their final days in office. They had absolute control over monuments, land grabs, and pardons.
Barbara Olson does a masterful job detailing the things done by the Clintons (usually Bill) in the last few days
Olson explains the pardon process and why this president's pardons were so unusual. He bypassed or ignored the Justice Department. He submitted numerous pardons the morning of the inaguration guaranteeing they wouldn't be looked into with any great detail, if at all.
He pardoned drug smugglers. It's hard to be tough on the drug world when we release their kingpins back onto the streets.
Olson went into great depth on who Marc Rich was, what his businesses were, why he was in trouble, and why it was such a travesty to pardon him. You just don't pardon people who haven't even had a trial yet.
There was an enormous amount of land that was commandeered by the Federal Government without anyone getting a say on it.
The Clinton family gets in on the party also. Roger Clinton and Hugh Rodham take up a couple of chapters.
Finally, we see quotes from a lot of Clinton apologists and Democratic big-wigs displaying their disappointment and outright anger at the President for getting around the system. It was obvious that since Bill was no longer president, they didn't need to stick up for him anymore.
There was also much analysis done on the op-ed piece that Bill wrote expaining the pardons. This was truly a spinmeister work of art. As one columnist put it, "Four excuses, eight lies."
I enjoyed reading this book. Not because it bashed the Clintons, yet again. But it explained in great detail why people inside the Beltway were so appalled and upset at what was done by the Clintons during their final days in power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in one of the few things the President of the United States has absolute authority over with no veto possible.
- Bill Clinton
This was the attitude of the Clintons during their final days in office. They had absolute control over monuments, land grabs, and pardons.
Barbara Olson does a masterful job detailing the things done by the Clintons (usually Bill) in the last few days
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of his administration. What impressed me the most is the level of detail that is presented on each topic. This was something that I had not been presented with from the standard media outlets.Olson explains the pardon process and why this president's pardons were so unusual. He bypassed or ignored the Justice Department. He submitted numerous pardons the morning of the inaguration guaranteeing they wouldn't be looked into with any great detail, if at all.
He pardoned drug smugglers. It's hard to be tough on the drug world when we release their kingpins back onto the streets.
Olson went into great depth on who Marc Rich was, what his businesses were, why he was in trouble, and why it was such a travesty to pardon him. You just don't pardon people who haven't even had a trial yet.
There was an enormous amount of land that was commandeered by the Federal Government without anyone getting a say on it.
The Clinton family gets in on the party also. Roger Clinton and Hugh Rodham take up a couple of chapters.
Finally, we see quotes from a lot of Clinton apologists and Democratic big-wigs displaying their disappointment and outright anger at the President for getting around the system. It was obvious that since Bill was no longer president, they didn't need to stick up for him anymore.
There was also much analysis done on the op-ed piece that Bill wrote expaining the pardons. This was truly a spinmeister work of art. As one columnist put it, "Four excuses, eight lies."
I enjoyed reading this book. Not because it bashed the Clintons, yet again. But it explained in great detail why people inside the Beltway were so appalled and upset at what was done by the Clintons during their final days in power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in one of the few things the President of the United States has absolute authority over with no veto possible.
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Publication
Washington, D.C. : Lanham, MD : Regnery Pub. ; Distributed to the trade by National Book Network, 2001.
Pages
iv; 240
ISBN
0895261677 / 9780895261670