One of the more indignant passages in Dick Morris's soon-to-be-forgotten memoir Behind the Oval Office concerns Alex Castellanos, a Republican media consultant in Washington. As Morris tells the story, a Washington Post reporter called him in 1995 or 1996 and said that Castellanos had told her that when Clinton was governor, Morris "had procured women for [Clinton] whenever he visited New York. Alex claimed that I told him that I personally delivered women to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel." Morris goes on: "The story was wild, totally ungrounded in any possible fact at all."
Cut to inaugural weekend, to a party thrown by chatmeister John McLaughlin at the Willard Hotel. Castellanos approached Morris and asked, "How's the repentance going?" Morris had no time for small talk.
"Was that item I wrote about you in my book really true?" Morris asked. " Did I really tell you that?" When Castellanos assured Morris that Morris had indeed told him that, the penitent pollster shrunk sheepishly away.
But his spirit remains unbroken. At the same party, Morris was introduced to the nationally syndicated columnist (and TV personality, and activist, and author) Arianna Huffington. Mrs. Huffington has been extraordinarily tough on Morris. His greeting will live forever in the annals of Washington solipsism: "Oh yes!" exclaimed Morris. "I've read all your columns about me!"