A L S O+.T O D A Y

The Funnies
Reviewed by Alexander Chee
A new novel ferrets out the torment behind the funny little drawings in a family comic strip

T A B L E+T A L K

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Remembering Andre Dubus
By Richard Ravin
A friend recalls the generosity of a big writer and a big man
(03/18/99)

The case of the brokenhearted father
By David Bowman
The real-life tragedy that haunted Ross Macdonald
(03/16/99)

The big baby
Reviewed by Joan Walsh
Forget "The Death of Outrage." If the right really wants to win the Culture War, it should pass out copies of "Monica's Story"
(03/12/99)

Monica's nightmare
Reviewed by Charles Taylor
There's nothing balanced or objective about Andrew Morton's book. That's why it rings so true
(03/12/99)

Starring Monica Lewinsky, as herself
Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
She was universally reviled -- until the public got a chance to hear her speak and, now, to read her version of events
(03/12/99)

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SPURIOUS GEORGE: A GEEK TRAGEDY | PAGE 1, 2
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Stephanopoulos writes some pretty shallow prose for a Rhodes Scholar. He leans on show-biz analogies, alluding at various points to "The Sting," "Dr. No," "Dragnet," "The Graduate," "Gone With the Wind," "Deliverance," "The Odd Couple," "Rain Man" and the Life cereal commercial featuring Mikey. Just because he's dark doesn't mean he's deep. He seems completely unaware, for instance, that Clinton didn't just give him the opportunity of a lifetime -- he made him. You could pave the streets with former high-ranking congressional staffers; it was Clinton's ill-conceived dedication to Stephanopoulos that got him the "power and celebrity" he so lusted after. (The same goes for James Carville, Mandy Grunwald, Paul Begala and Dee Dee Myers, of course, except that none of them have betrayed the man who plucked them from obscurity.)

It's tough to figure out why, with all the former Clintonistas left for dead in the president's wake, Stephanopoulos survived -- especially given the many examples he cites of his incompetence, his White House-damaging egotism and his political tone-deafness. As he falls asleep at the wheel while Travelgate unfolds, supplies Woodward with dirt for his book "The Agenda," complains to a Treasury Department aide about the appointment of a conservative judge to investigate Whitewater -- I could go on -- you can't help wondering why he wasn't fired years ago.

His dark efficiency -- or plain brutality -- is what must have helped him retain his job. In an attempt at complexity, he points to the "two George Stephanopouloses -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." He recalls a '92 incident when a former campaign driver tried to get back at then-Gov. Clinton after Stephanopoulos "forgot about" a promise he'd made the driver to help out a local charity: "While the driver had a final word with the [Nashua Telegraph] editorial board, his daughter -- who couldn't have been older than eight or nine -- waited for him in the lobby ... Frayed from a month of crises, I approached the driver's daughter on our way out: 'Your father,' I said, looking at her as if she were to blame for all our troubles, 'is a really bad man.' I felt ashamed the second the words escaped my mouth, but it was too late. The girl just stared back at the brutal zealot I'd become, and I couldn't argue with her, or change the subject, or even spin myself."

Here Stephanopoulos owns up to the Mr. Hyde that his dedication to Clinton and his own ego had turned him into. But he lets himself off too easy. Telling an 8-year-old that her daddy (whom Stephanopoulos had lied to about helping out a charity, no less) is a "really bad man" doesn't make him a "brutal zealot"; it makes him a bullying asshole. I hope he doesn't think his therapy is complete.

Insofar as Stephanopoulos reaches for redemption through self-criticism, "All Too Human" is galling in its insincerity. Before he concludes Chapter 2, he has already made it clear that by 1992 he'd accepted the necessity of setting aside his liberal values and his altar-boy morality to get a Democrat into the White House and himself into power. Since he compromised his own values seven years ago, his incessant whining about Clinton's character now -- "if only this good president had been a better man," the book concludes -- comes across as wussish, immature and disingenuous. Only 53 pages into the book, it hit me that the point of "All Too Human" isn't "a political education" or personal disillusionment or even treachery and tragedy. It's money and marketing. Stephanopoulos, with his reported $2.75 million book contract, is exploiting the country's disgust and disappointment in our president as a career move.

As opportunistic, exploitative and phony as Clinton can be at his lip-biting, tear-faking worst, at least he's managed to enact some effective policies. Stephanopoulos is just trying to make money. The title "All Too Human" is purposely ambiguous: Does it refer to Clinton or Stephanopoulos? Either one of them has some nerve lumping himself in with the rest of us higher primates. "Better than a fly on the wall," Little Brown's promotional materials promise, attempting to whet our appetite for Stephanopoulos' dish. I don't know about the "better," but the insect part sounds about right.
SALON | March 19, 1999

Jake Tapper is Salon's new Washington correspondent. St. Martin's will publish his first book, "Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story," in April.

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