Did Hillary Clinton, in a moment of rage, once call someone a "f -- ing Jew bastard"? So a new book about the Clinton marriage, State of a Union, alleges. Mrs. Clinton, seconded by the usual crew of mudslinging bootlickers, denies it.
Here again, as always, we'll never know the absolute, undeniable truth. The source of the allegation is the purported Jew bastard himself, one Paul Fray, Bill Clinton's campaign manager in an unsuccessful race for the House of Representatives in 1974. Two other apparent earwitnesses back him up. But Fray has a troubled history and appears three years ago to have apologized to Mrs. Clinton for circulating unspecified falsehoods about her. And he's not Jewish. To say nothing of the fact that the author of State of a Union once worked for the National Enquirer.
In other words: He said, she said. And he's disreputable. And the reporter involved is a sleazeball. And "they" are behind it all, Mrs. Clinton complains. "I'm sure they'll come up with a lot more." Some things never change.
Usually, though, the Clintons are more efficient at tarring their accusers.
Fray's tale of a furious 1974 argument with Mrs. Clinton -- minus the anti-Semitic slur -- has been in the public record for years. She has never before disputed it. Now, though, she says she doesn't remember it happening. Her husband, the president, does remember it happening, and allows as how Hillary might have called Paul a bastard, but doesn't remember the f -- ing Jew part. How come the first couple can't keep their stories straight?
And how come Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign staffers have responded to the controversy with dishonesty? In a memo to members of the campaign's "Jewish Advisory Group," Clinton staffer Karen Adler asked that they phone reporters at two Jewish newspapers and pretend to be merely "concerned citizens." As Adler explained: "It is important that you do not say that you calling [sic] because the campaign asked you to, but because you are outraged with what was said about her."
That is to say: It is important that you lie. One thing about the Clintons -- they always seem to get the staff they deserve. THE SCRAPBOOK suspects there will be epic screaming and swearing inside this campaign, too, before it is over.