FACT-CHECKING COULTER

Since Clinton was impeached, liberals have been trapped in a time warp. They just can't seem to "move on." Books retelling Clinton's side of impeachment -- only since the decadent buffoon left office -- include: ... Joe Eszterhas' "American Rhapsody," Joe Klein's "The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton" ...

--Ann Coulter column released tonight

Eszterhas feels betrayed by Clinton, precisely because he once believed in him.... So this is a long yell of protest from a professional hedonist who, faced with the ugliness of professionalized hedonism in the White House, doesn't care for the refraction of the mirror.

--Christopher Hitchens, review of Joe Eszterhas's American Rhapsody, New York Times, 7/30/00

Much of the drama in this volume can be found in tracing vacillations in Mr. Klein's views of Mr. Clinton, from his sense of ideological kinship, as a New Democrat, with the president, to his disappointment with the man's failure to make the most of his talents and opportunities.... this volume suggests that "moral turpitude" and the distractions caused by the president's personal behavior cast a long shadow over his presidency.

--Michiko Kakutani, review of Joe Klein's The Natural, New York Times, 3/12/02

*****

As far as I know, conservatives have produced one book touching on Bill Clinton's impeachment in this time: In 2003, National Review's Rich Lowry decided it was finally safe to attack Clinton and thereupon produced the only Regnery book with Bill Clinton's mug on the cover that did not make the New York Times' best-sellers list. That's how obsessed the Clinton-haters are.

--Coulter

Sell Out: The Inside Story of President Clinton's Impeachment by David P. Schippers (Regnery; published August 21, 2000)

Mission: Impeachable by K. Alan Snyder (Allegiance; published May 1, 2001. "Mission: Impeachable reveals the truth about the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Told from the perspective of the House Managers, the author uncovers the brave and courageous actions of the Republicans who lead the cause to impeach the President.")

The Wizard of "IS": The Short, Ugly Story of the Impeachment of Billy Jeff Clinton and His Trailer Park Presidency by Jerry Mander (J. Mander Press; published June 1, 1999)

(Though, to be honest, the bigger names in conservatism have avoided the subject of impeachment, preferring instead to write books such as Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror, Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Endangered America's Long-Term National Security, and The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House.)

*****

Most presidential memoirs get right to the president part....

--Coulter

I was born in the house my father built.

--first sentence of Richard Nixon's presidential memoir RN

If I'd gotten the job I wanted at Montgomery Ward, I suppose I would never have left Illinois.

--first sentence of Ronald Reagan's presidential memoir An American Life