-Caveat Lector-
the national interest
Patriot Games
David Brock was the lead gun on The American Spectator's
anti-Clinton
hit squad -- that is, before he switched sides. Now he says Ted
Olson,
Bush's lawyer, was, too. Should we care?
BY TUCKER CARLSON
May 28, 2001 issue of New York Magazine
If you're a Salon.com reader, you may be wondering why Ted Olson
isn't
in jail by now. "Despite his evasive disavowals," blared a
recent
headline in the on-line magazine, "Salon investigations showed
the
right-wing consigliere was deeply involved in a sordid plot to
bring
down President Clinton." According to evidence assembled by an
investigative team, for a time in the nineties, Ted Olson did
legal work
for The American Spectator -- a magazine that published articles
critical of Bill Clinton. And that's not all. On at least one
occasion, Olson himself wrote a story hostile both to Clinton and
to his
wife.
Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the scoop --
evidence of
Olson's deep involvement in an evil plot to produce unflattering
magazine articles -- was noticed on Capitol Hill. The time came
in
April, when President Bush nominated Olson to be the U.S.
solicitor
general. Olson had seemed a natural choice for the job. He was
generally well regarded in Washington. Most significant, he had
argued
many times before the Supreme Court, including on behalf of the
Bush
campaign during the Florida recount. He was considered
reasonably
scholarly and reliably conservative -- just what you'd want if
you were
George W. Bush and in the market for a solicitor general.
Then the Salon.com bombshell dropped.
Democrats on the judiciary committee asked Olson pointed
questions about
his affiliation with The American Spectator. Pat Leahy of
Vermont was
particularly eager to discover what Olson might know about the
"Arkansas
Project," the Spectator's investigation into Clinton's behavior
as
governor of Arkansas. "Were you involved in the so-called
Arkansas
Project at any time?" Leahy wanted to know. "When and how did
you first
become aware of the Arkansas Project?"
Olson's replies were straightforward. Pointing out that he was
not an
employee but a member of the magazine's board, Olson said he had
no
direct role in the Arkansas Project. He said that he first
became aware
of the project sometime in 1998. The one Clinton story he wrote
for the
magazine had nothing to do with it.
The story might have ended here if the judiciary committee hadn't
heard
from David Brock. Brock used to work at the Spectator. He had a
different memory.
According to Brock, Ted Olson's role in the magazine's
anti-Clinton
stories was larger than he had admitted. As Brock later told the
Washington Post, Olson attended dinners at the home of Bob
Tyrrell, The
American Spectator's editor-in-chief. Some of those dinners,
Brock
alleged, were actually "editorial planning sessions, on articles
on the
Clintons in Arkansas."
Senator Leahy was appalled. He demanded that Olson turn over
"any
minutes, audits, or records" pertaining to anti-Clinton articles
and the
Arkansas Project.
And he suggested that investigators from the judiciary committee
"obtain
information firsthand" from writers and editors who worked at the
Spectator during the years Olson served on the board. In the
meantime,
Olson's journey to the solicitor general's office stalled.
There are two striking things about Ted Olson's recent
experiences in
the Senate. One is that so far, hardly anyone on Olson's side --
or,
for that matter, at the ACLU or on the Washington Post's
editorial page
-- has cried McCarthyism.
Olson has not been charged with a crime. He stands accused of
being in
the company of journalists who dislike Bill Clinton. This
shouldn't be
enough to derail a nomination.
The other thing is that Brock was able with a straight face to
describe
any dinner at Bob Tyrrell's house as an "editorial planning
session." To
anyone who has ever eaten dinner with Bob Tyrrell (and I have a
number
of times), this is ludicrous. A sober Tyrrell sitting at the
table,
sharing his editorial vision, listening as story ideas are batted
around? Impossible to imagine. Perhaps Brock was using
"editorial
planning session" as an amusing euphemism.
But he almost certainly wasn't. Which is part of the reason the
entire
"sordid plot" theory is so ridiculously improbable. Bob Tyrrell
was
never at the center of a powerful conspiracy. He was a buffoon.
The
Arkansas Project never came close to bringing down the president.
The
"investigation" didn't even produce a credible magazine story.
Indeed,
the Arkansas Project -- wasteful, misguided, and
credibility-sapping --
is one of the main reasons The American Spectator no longer
exists in
recognizable form. It's now a business magazine. The Arkansas
Project
didn't destroy Clinton. It destroyed The American Spectator.
So, was Ted Olson, as a member of the board of a small
conservative
magazine, a threat to American democracy? Even Pat Leahy must
know
better. David Brock certainly does.
Brock, or course, is no longer a right-wing muckraker. After
finding
fame with his book The Real Anita Hill, Brock went to The
American
Spectator. There he wrote a 17,000-word story accusing Bill
Clinton of
using Arkansas state troopers to procure women. The story,
salacious as
it was, held up. Brock got a huge raise, and $1 million advance
for his
next book, the definitive hit job on Hillary Clinton.
The book came out in 1996. It was a clip job. It bombed. Brock
became
a liberal.
I knew Brock throughout this period and talked to him regularly,
at
parties, at lunch, and at his house. He never seemed
particularly
ideological to me. (On the other hand, I learned several years
later
that Brock had reported things I'd told him in confidence to his
new
friend at the White House, Sidney Blumenthal.)
Most of the time, he talked about money.
In the summer of 1997, an editor at Slate asked Brock and me to
write an
online "dialogue" on the state of conservative journalism. I
wrote the
first installment, as a letter to Brock. I pointed out the irony
of
Brock's criticizing the right as monolithic and intolerant even
as he
still drew an enormous salary from The American Spectator. The
letter
was fairly nasty. Brock replied with an even nastier one. I was
about
to hit back when Brock called me. Before you start typing, he
said, you
should know that I meant nothing personally. I don't take any of
this
seriously, he explained. I'm only doing it "for the publicity."
I was reminded of Brock's comment the other day when I read his
name in
the Washington Post. David Brock, I thought -- there's a name I
haven't
heard in a while. I wonder why he's involved in Olson's
confirmation?
Then, days later, I read that Brock's book, an attack memoir
originally
due out a few years ago, was to be published in November.
Coincidence? I'm no Salon.com, but I wouldn't doubt a
conspiracy.
>From the May 28, 2001 issue of New York Magazine.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer*
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To
Friends
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