Christopher Hitchens on Bill Clinton: No One Left to Lie To (1999)

April 30, 1999 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... More Hitchens: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/search/label/Christopher%20Hitchens

English-American author, journalist, and literary critic Christopher Hitchens (born 1949) is noted for his scathing critiques of public figures. Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa were the targets of Hitchens' book-length studies No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice respectively. Hitchens has also written biographical essays about those he greatly admires, namely Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson: Author of America), George Orwell (Why Orwell Matters) and Thomas Paine (Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography). However, the vast majority of Hitchens' noteworthy critiques take the form of relatively short opinion pieces. His 1993 collection "For the Sake of Argument" included a section called "Rogues' Gallery", in an interview Hitchens explained: "For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn't be doing one's job if one didn't itch to prick."

Over the years, Hitchens has become famous for his scathing critiques of public figures. Three figures — Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa — were the targets of three separate full length texts, No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. Hitchens has also written book-length biographical essays about Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson: Author of America), George Orwell (Why Orwell Matters) and Thomas Paine (Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography).

However, the majority of Hitchens's critiques take the form of short opinion pieces, some of the more notable being his critiques of: Jerry Falwell, George Galloway, Mel Gibson, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, Michael Moore, Daniel Pipes, Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, and Cindy Sheehan.

George Stephanopoulos (born February 10, 1961) is an American television journalist and a former political adviser.

He is the chief political correspondent for ABC News — the news division of the broadcast television network ABC — and a co-anchor of ABC News's morning news program, Good Morning America (GMA). He was previously the host of This Week, ABC News's Sunday morning news program. He is the primary substitute anchor for ABC News's flagship news program, World News with Diane Sawyer.

In recent years he has co-hosted ABC News's special live coverage of political events with Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, and has appeared regularly on GMA, World News, and launched "George's Bottom Line", an ABCNews.com blog.

Prior to joining ABC News, he was a senior political adviser to the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and later became the White House Communications Director for two years, before being replaced by David Gergen after political fallout from the historic mid-term election of 1994, in which the Republican party took over the U.S. House and Senate.

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[pugay69]

@youngbuck189 Hitchens is anything but an "establishment liberal".

[antihostile]

It's hard to read "No One Left..." and not come away with the opinion that Clinton was a mendacious rapist. Excellent book.

[zackhanscom]

morgan freeman called and got cut off at 33:10

[wasteofspace20]

Hitchens had what few ever manage to develop side by side, objectivity, courage and integrity.

[jimmbo13]

I like how he admires both Buckley and Vidal, two brilliant figures who loathed each other.

[mvies77]

@jdk209 It is also the attitude that has brought our nation to the brink if not there, of disaster. It is evidenced by the present president who had little experience but that everyone felt"spoke well".Hardly a reason to be chosen as president.We are told that things are better but the evidence with family, friends, neighbors,my city and state is screaming the contrary.It will be or is too late to repair the nightmare, but our gvt keeps on with business as usual and more and more gvt intrusion.

[LiNGiE]

Hitch's reaction to the caller at about 19:00 is hilarious.

[jdk209]

@mvies77 Some people would always vote for democrats no matter what. These alcoholic people tend to be insanely jealous of successful people and like to blame others. They would fall for Clinton and his every man act of jogging and going to McDonald's and playing the sax on Arsenio.

[mvies77]

He is totally correct and truthful in every single word on Clinton and wife. What always dumbfounded me was the way the American people and the Democrat's worshipped this evil man. How blind can you be.

[Hirnlego999]

Why do so many know-nothings bother to call? (I'm not against it, but there are rarely any interesting questions)

[john84753]

@pokemon111990 You're right. Very good! I Googled it too after I already piped in and read the same thing. I was just always taught that in school.

[pokemon111990]

@john84753 it's not grammatically incorrect; the only time you can't end a sentence with a preposition is when the sentence would mean the same thing without it. the "at" in "where are you at" is superfluous because "where are you" means the same thing.