ICYMI: “The Residence”
In case you missed it, there was a new book out this week about the White House from the perspective of the staff, and it sounds fantastic. Kate Anderson Brower worked for four years a Bloomberg News’ White House Correspondent and she has now wrote The Residence by speaking on the record to employees of the White House from as far back as the John F. Kennedy Administration. That being said, the best write-up, and the best juicy details have come from the Politico article written by Ms. Brower.
The main focus of the article is of course on the Clinton White House. There are so many interesting stories about how Hillary and Bill were so vicious towards each other during the Lewinsky Scandal. Apparently at one point it got so bad the former First Lady assaulted the President.
White House Florist Ronn Payne remembers one day in 1998, after President Clinton had publicly admitted to his affair with a former White House intern, when he was coming up the service elevator with a cart to pick up old floral arrangements and saw two butlers gathered outside the West Sitting Hall listening in as the Clintons argued viciously with each other. The butlers motioned him over and put their fingers to their lips, telling him to be quiet. All of a sudden he heard the first lady bellow “godd**n bastard!” at the president—and then he heard someone throw a heavy object across the room. The rumor among the staff was that she threw a lamp. The butlers, Payne said, were told to clean up the mess.
It’s then mentioned in the CNN video here that the item was a book. And apparently the Former Secretary of State socked him so hard he bled.
There are many tales in the book that seem to be interesting not only on a gossip level but on a real substantive level. According to the Politico article, Chelsea Clinton apparently referred to the Secret Service as pigs, and that there were also staff that knew about the Monica Lewinsky situation before anyone knew about it.
I’m surprised to see that the Clinton’s have not commented yet, because Ms. Brower’s horror stories seem to be a recurring theme. Those of you familiar with Ronald Kessler’s Inside the Secret Service collaborate the part of Ms. Brower’s story about the White House staff just liking the Bushes better than the Clinton’s. In Mr. Kessler’s book, he talks about how Secret Service Agents were punished by being put on First Lady Hillary Clinton’s detail. In Ms. Brower’s article with Politico:
But at least one former colleague of Emery’s disputes his claims. This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Clintons were right to be paranoid about the residence workers, many of whom had served Republican presidents for 12 years. According to this source, “Everybody in the Usher’s Office was upset when President Bush 41 was not reelected … and they showed it in front of the Clintons.” Emery, in particular, was a “Republican from the top of his head to the tips of his toes,” according to this source, and Emery himself says that he would have gone to California with the Reagans after they left office if they’d asked him.
The book sounds like a great read. I am getting a copy on my Kindle now. Here’s a link to Ms. Brower’s book on Amazon.
