Blow-By-Blow Account

‘TONY Blair obviously does not lie, but not all his friends are so poorly acquainted with noble and ancient art.

”Is that a cigar in your pocket, Mr President, or are you just pleased to see me?”

President Clinton was as likely to tell a porkie as he was to undo his zipper in front of one.

And who should know better than his wife Hilary, who describes what happened when her husband finally owned up about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

”I could hardly breathe,” she says. ”Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him, ‘What do you mean? What are you saying? Why did you lie to me?”’

”I was furious and getting more so by the second. He just stood there saying over and over again, ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was trying to protect you and Chelsea’.”

Hilary’s account, which is contained in her forthcoming memoirs, Living History, is reproduced in this morning’s Telegraph after the Associated Press somehow got hold of a copy.

Given that the secrecy surrounding the book was almost on a par with the new Harry Potter adventure, there was amazement in media circles at the AP coup.

”The American news agency is not the obvious first port of call for an opportunistic printer wanting to make a fast buck from a stolen manuscript hot off the press,” says the Telegraph.

Publisher Simon & Schuster paid £5m for the rights to the book and ”the leak will certainly deflate the carefully orchestrated publicity campaign”.

Somehow, however, it seems fitting that there should be such a leak for a book by the wife of such an incontinent president.

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Posted: 5th, June 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink