The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House

In the final days of their co-presidency, the Clintons flipped off the American people one last time. After two terms of lies, corruption, slander, and immorality that were their trademark, was another book about the Clintons really needed? If only to reveal their contempt for the nation and Constitution, if only to see that eventually even Democrats had had enough-- yes, this book was tremendously necessary. The Clinton presidency was like none other. The man who called late at night to proposition Cyd Dunlop in the hotel room where she stayed with her husband, who was forced to confess on national television to his affair with Gennifer Flowers, brought a New Republic editor to conclude that his persistent adulterizing revealed "a frightening lack of self-control." Arkansas troopers admitted that they had procured more than a hundred women for Clinton. One of those women refused to be cowed and became the bane of his presidency: Paula Corbin Jones would pay dearly at the hand of the savage Clinton slander machine. Eight years later, in return for immunity from prosecution, Clinton landed a sweetheart deal in which he admitted knowingly violating a judge's order to tell the truth. A federal court held him in contempt for making false statements in a federal proceeding, and Arkansas disbarred him for five years. Upon leaving the White House, they rather unsubtly opened gift registries with luxury retailers, and Clinton acolytes took the hint. Expensive White House art was shipped to the Clinton Library, and furniture to their new upstate New York home. Terry McAuliffe financed that home and was rewarded with the leadership of the Democratic National Committee. When Newt Gingrich accepted a $4.5 million book advance, Democrats howled in protest, so he returned the advance and settled symbolically for one dollar. When Mr and Mrs Clinton accepted $8 and $10 million respectively for their ghostwritten books, there was no outcry. Senator Hillary refused to have her deal vetted by the Ethics Committee. Hillary is one tough cookie. Author Michael Tomasky: "With Hillary, there was something about the way she answered questions that only raised other questions." In 1991 she reportedly chewed out an Arkansas state trooper: "Where is the [g-dm] [f-ing] flag? I want the [g-dm] [f-ing] flag up every [f-ing] morning at [f-ing] sunrise." Did she really once claim her husband and daughters's used underwear as a tax deduction? She interned for Communist Party lawyer and Stalinist Robert Treuhaft and later admitted to a journalist that "I want to run something." She demonstrated her respect for New York taxpayers by renting her Manhattan offices at more than half a million dollars per year, more than double the amount paid by her co-Senator Charles Schumer. Bill billed the government $830,000 for the entire 56th floor of the Carnegie Hall Towers, almost three times more than any other president. But most flagrant was the spasm of executive orders and pardons

Barbara Olson gave a very personal account of Bill and Hillaray's granting of favors, lying, and manipulating during the last years in the White House. It was a powerful read because of Barbara's professional relationship with the Clintons as a lawyer charged by the US Goverment to aquire information on suspected misdeeds of Hillary. I was a little put off by Barbara's pejorative tone at times but I came to understand her attitude after reading "Hell to Pay." She has devoted years of research into these two people and has shown how their past ideologies have been inflicted in a secretive, manipulative way on the unsuspecting citizens of America. I feel it should be required reading for anyone who wants to support Hillary in any further elected office. It is well worth anyone's time who wants to have a better understanding of what really happened behind the closed doors. It is very readable because Barbara's writing style keeps the reader engaged.

I've just finished reading this book and agree with those who gave it five stars...It's well written, deals with facts, with touches of Barbara's humor, and with excellent notes backing up the quotations...It's interesting to note that many of the most damning observations come from George Stephanopolous's book, as he was a close advisor to Clinton during his administration, and certainly knew the Clintons as well as anyone did. If I have any criticism of the book it might be that it is a much better assessment and portrayal of Hilary than of Bill, probably because Barbara had previously written an excellent book about Hilary, which I am now reading, Hell to Pay.

Barbara Olson left behind as part of her legacy a truly engrossing account of the greed driven Clinton administration, particularly in its last months. Barbara's literary style is breezy but compelling. When I completed reading this book I was paradoxically filled with admiration for the author, who presented a detailed and damning story on the subject matter, and at the same time I was filled with revulsion toward both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Such greed and abuse of power on both their parts likened them to me in my mind to the Marcos regime in the Phillipines during their reign of power in the 70's and 80's. Their collective attitudes could be summed up with the following: Do the right thing? What's in it for me? Do the wrong thing? Grease my palm and I'll consider it. Those who value history should consider Ms. Olson's book for their personal library. It's a keeper and a call to vigilance to voters when they again consider questionable characters for high office.

Jefferson has Dumas Malone, Lincoln has Carl Sandburg, and Bill Clinton has Barbara Olson -- the biographer who, if there's any justice in the world (for him, if not for her), will be associated with his name for the rest of time.Olson's final book is a chronicling of the last weeks of Bill and Hillary Clinton's co-presidency. She gives us a quick, but important, survey of a number of Clintonian outrages, including massive land and power-grabs, Senator-to-be Hillary's shameless and desperate panhandling of expensive gifts before she fell under the Senate's ethics rules, and Slick's international 'farewell tour' of foreign countries -- a field trip that cost taxpayers billions and gained us, diplomatically, less than nothing.But where Olson's analysis really shines is in her efforts to get to the bottom of 'Pardongate,' the wave of commutations, clemencies, and pardons that Clinton dished out, some literally in his last minutes in office. About a quarter of the book is spent detailing Clinton's most outrageous pardon, that of multi-billion dollar tax cheat Marc Rich. The last quarter or so discusses his other pardons, handed out to a rogue's gallery consisting largely of relatives, business partners, ex-girlfriends, Cabinet members, and cocaine dealers.Even as skilled a reporter as Barbara Olson is at a loss to explain why Clinton chose to pardon who he did, or why he consulted so few people before issuing the pardons. One of Olson's theses -- both provocative and believable -- is that Clinton was so outraged at being compelled, on his last full day in office, to sign a deal with the independent counsel admitting his wrongdoing in the Lewinsky case and disbarring himself from the practice of law, that Clinton chose to lash out at his own 'persecutors' by granting clemency to criminals whom police and prosecutors had spent years pursuing. As one of Clinton's own Justice Department lawyers noted, 'He [Clinton] just can't stand law enforcement' (p. 141).Ultimately, Olson helps us put Clinton in context, marshalling observers from Left and Right before drawing her own conclusions. Forrest McDonald, acclaimed historian of the American presidency, asks simply, 'What did [Clinton] get done? Was there any major legislation he was responsible for? ... Everyone approves of what he's doing, but no one can say anything he did' (p. 212). More directly, Andrew Sullivan of The New Republic notes, 'In Bill Clinton, we had for eight years a truly irrational person in the White House, someone who, I think, lived on the edge of serious mental illness. He was and is a psychologically sick man' (p. 199).It's clear to see why -- if reports are correct -- Hillary Clinton was so anxious to get this book silenced following Barbara Olson's death. If, as it's said, people in democracies get the leaders they deserve, we can at least repay the favor by making sure our 'leaders' get the biographers they deserve. There's no question that Barbara Olson is the biographer Bill and