Sidney Blumenthal Interview on BuzzFlash

BLUMENTHAL: Clinton was hated because he represented the 60's to the right. He represented all the social movements. He represented shaking up all the old rules. His wife was the first professional woman to be a First Lady. She was an equal. He represented the women's movement that shook up the idea that women should have a subservient, secondary role. And he was also for women's rights, abortion rights and gay rights.

Now the truth is that Bill Clinton, as a political figure, was trying to curb the excesses of the 60's that had tarred the Democratic Party and move it towards the center. Yet to the right, he represented those very excesses. And their cultural war -- their culture war, as Henry Hyde called it -- their symbolic battle against Clinton -- blinded them and took precedence over the fact that there were never any crimes committed.

BUZZFLASH: And Paul Begala, whom we interviewed, mentioned that of all recent administrations, the Clinton administration actually had far fewer convictions of administration members than recent Republican administrations.

BLUMENTHAL: I'll just read you something. If you look at page 791 of the book, you'll see what I say about that. In fact, there wasn't a single top official of the Clinton administration convicted of any crime involving public conduct in office. And, you know, the only official ever convicted of anything was the chief of staff to the Secretary of Agriculture, who was convicted of lying under oath in a failed prosecution that cost $21 million by an independent counsel. By contrast, 27 officials of the Nixon administration were convicted in Watergate, and 32 members of the Reagan administration convicted of crimes committed in Iran Contra and other scandals. So that's quite a contrast. And everything that Clinton was accused of in terms of crimes turned out to be bogus.