Sidney Blumenthal

Sid Blumenthal
Senior Advisor to the President
In office
August 19, 1997 – January 20, 2001
President Bill Clinton
Preceded by George Stephanopoulos
Succeeded by Karl Rove
Personal details
Born Sidney Stone Blumenthal
(1948-11-06) November 6, 1948
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s)

Jacqueline Jordan

(m. 1976)
Children 2 (including Max)
Education Brandeis University (BA)

Sidney Stone Blumenthal (/ˈbluːmənθɔːl/; born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist, activist, writer, and political aide.

He is a former aide to President Bill Clinton; a long-time confidant[1] of Hillary Clinton, formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation;[2] and a journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy. Blumenthal is also the author of a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Two books of the planned four-volume series are available now: A Self-Made Man and Wrestling With His Angel. Subsequent volumes are planned for 2018 and 2019.[3]

Blumenthal has written for several publications, including the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker, and was Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Salon.com, for which he has written over 1800 pieces online. He is a regular contributor to openDemocracy.net and was a regular columnist for The Guardian.[4] After 2000, he published several essays critical of the administration of President George W. Bush.[5][6][7][8]

Early life and career

Blumenthal was born in Chicago, to Jewish parents, Claire (née Stone) and Hyman V. Blumenthal.[9] He earned a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969, and started his career in Boston as a journalist who wrote for the Boston Phoenix and the Real Paper, Quad Monthly-issued publications.[10]

Blumenthal popularized the phrase "permanent campaign", in a book of the same name, in 1980. The term describes officials campaigning for re-election throughout the electoral cycle, leaving no time when they can focus exclusively on governing.[11]

In 1983, Blumenthal became a national political correspondent for the New Republic, covering the 1984 Presidential campaign.[10] Soon after, Blumenthal began working for the Washington Post before returning to the New Republic.[12]

In 1993, Blumenthal became a Washington correspondent for The New Yorker before joining the Clinton Administration in the summer of 1997.[10]

The Clinton Administration years

Blumenthal (right) briefs President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office in 1998.

Blumenthal served as assistant and senior advisor to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001. His roles included advising the President on communications and public policy as well as researching information in the general media about the White House. He became a major figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton. While working for Clinton, Blumenthal was known for this loyalty to the Clintons and his attacks on their adversaries, which is one reason Rahm Emanuel, the first chief of staff for President Obama, barred Blumenthal from holding a position in the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State.[10]

During the investigations by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Blumenthal was called to the grand jury to testify on matters related to what Clinton had told both Blumenthal and his senior staff in regard to Monica Lewinsky. It was on this occasion that Blumenthal was accused by the independent counsel of seeking to discredit the office of the counsel by passing stories to the media about Starr and his aides. The leadership of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives felt enough evidence existed in regard to the Paula Jones case and Lewinsky for impeachment proceedings to begin in December 1998.

After the House Judiciary Committee and the United States House of Representatives impeached Clinton on December 19, the matter then passed to the United States Senate. Blumenthal was one of four witnesses called to testify before the Senate. No live witnesses were called; the four were interviewed on videotape. His testimony addressed the key "lie": that Clinton was allegedly pressuring Betty Currie and Blumenthal himself to attest that it was Lewinsky who initially pursued Clinton, not vice versa. Lewinsky stated she was the one who instigated the relationship. The Senate acquitted Clinton of perjury, and the impeachment proceedings ended.

Blumenthal v. Drudge

In 1997, Blumenthal filed a $30 million libel lawsuit against the Internet blogger Matt Drudge (and AOL, which had hired Drudge), stemming from a false claim Drudge had made of spousal abuse attributed to "top GOP sources". Drudge retracted the story later, saying he had been given bad information. In Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F. Supp. 44 (D.D.C. 1998), the court refused to dismiss Blumenthal's case for lack of personal jurisdiction. Drudge later publicly apologized to the Blumenthals. Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit and eventually reached a settlement involving a payment to Drudge over having missed a deposition. In his book The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal claimed he was forced to settle because he could no longer financially afford the suit.[13][14]

Post–Clinton Administration years

Published works and memoirs

After the Clinton presidency, Blumenthal wrote The Clinton Wars, which was published in 2003. Janet Maslin wrote, in a review of the book in the New York Times: "Beyond his intention to set the record straight on controversies that plagued the Clinton presidency, Mr. Blumenthal has a more personal agenda. Barely mentioning others close to the Clintons, and illustrating this memoir with smiling, convivial photographs of himself in their company ... Blumenthal sends a clear message to his administration colleagues: Mom liked me best."[15]

Reviewing the book in the New York Review of Books, Joseph Lelyveld, the former executive editor of the New York Times, wrote that Blumenthal came across as more like "courtier" than "the bright campaign reporter he once was ... When it comes to the Clintons, there is not a single line of comparable acuity or detachment in the whole of The Clinton Wars. What you get instead are passages that would have been regarded as above par but hardly fresh if they had appeared in a news magazine cover story ten years ago."[16]

Andrew Sullivan has characterized Blumenthal as "the most pro-Clinton writer on the planet."[17] In Salon.com, Dwight Garner wrote that Blumenthal's pieces as Washington correspondent of The New Yorker "were so unabashedly pro-Clinton that they quickly became the butt of countless jokes."[18]

In addition to The Clinton Wars (2003), Blumenthal's books include The Permanent Campaign (1980), The Rise of the Counter-Establishment (1986), Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War (1990), and How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime (2006).

Return to journalism

During the 2004 election, Blumenthal was the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Salon.[10] He also was a regular columnist for The Guardian from August 2003 until November 2007.[4]

Blumenthal–Hitchens feud

The British-American journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, under subpoena, submitted an affidavit to the trial managers of the Republican Party during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. In the affidavit, Hitchens swore that then-friend Blumenthal had described Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. This allegation contradicted Blumenthal's own sworn deposition in the trial,[19] which resulted in a hostile exchange of words between the two. Following the publication of The Clinton Wars, Hitchens wrote several pieces in which he accused Blumenthal of manipulating facts.[19][20]

Film work

Blumenthal was a political consultant for the Emmy-award-winning HBO series Tanner '88, written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman; he appears as himself in one episode. He was the executive producer of the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary of 2007. He was an associate producer of the 2002 film Max.[21]

Relationship to Hillary Clinton and post–2007 employment

Blumenthal joined the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign as a "senior advisor" in November 2007.[22] While on a trip to advise Clinton on her presidential campaign, Blumenthal was arrested for driving while intoxicated in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 7, 2008. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DWI charge.[23]

After her January 2009 appointment as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton wanted to hire Blumenthal. However, Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, blocked his selection due to lingering anger among President Barack Obama's aides over Blumenthal's role in promoting negative stories about Obama during the Democratic primary.[24] According to a report in the New York Times, "Emanuel talked with Mrs. Clinton ... and explained that bringing Mr. Blumenthal on board was a no-go. The bad blood among his colleagues was too deep, and the last thing the administration needed, he concluded, was dissension and drama in the ranks. In short, Mr. Blumenthal was out."[24]

Blumenthal was a full-time employee of the Clinton Foundation from 2009 until 2013 and served as a consultant for the foundation from 2013 until 2015, earning about $10,000 per month.[25][26] Critics charge that Blumenthal's work at the foundation was inappropriately politically motivated and that during his time at the foundation, he blurred the lines between the foundation and Secretary Clinton's role as Secretary of State.[27][28]

During the 2011 uprising in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi, Blumenthal prepared, from public and other sources, about 25 memos which he sent as emails to Clinton in 2011 and 2012, which she shared through her aide, Jake Sullivan, with senior State Department personnel. In the form of intelligence briefings, the memos sometimes touted his business associates and, at times contained inaccurate information.[29][30]

The United States House Select Committee on Benghazi, headed by Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, subpoenaed Blumenthal in May 2015.[31][32] Blumenthal gave testimony in a closed-door session the following month.[33]

Blumenthal's name came up during the October 22, 2015 full committee public questioning of Hillary Clinton regarding the Benghazi incident, as one of the alleged sources of Clinton's intelligence. During this hearing Democratic members asked that Blumenthal's deposition transcript be made public so that comments regarding his involvement could be placed in context. The motion was defeated by a party-line vote.[34]

Blumenthal currently serves as a consultant to the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America, the pro-Democratic Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century and the pro-Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record.[35]

Personal life

Blumenthal currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Jacqueline (née Jordan).[36] The couple were married in 1976.[36] The Blumenthals have two sons, one of whom is author and journalist Max Blumenthal.[37]

References

  1. ↑ Poynter.org, James Warren, Chief Media Writer,. "The Hillary Confidant You Can't Escape".
  2. ↑ "Report: Clinton Foundation Paid Sidney Blumenthal $10,000 a Month". 28 May 2015 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  3. ↑ Hahn, Steven (2016-05-13). "'A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849,' by Sidney Blumenthal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  4. 1 2 "Sidney Blumenthal".
  5. ↑ Blumenthal, Sidney (March 22, 2007). "The Godfather White House". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  6. ↑ Blumenthal, Sidney (January 23, 2007). "The Republican Revolt". The Guardian. London, UK. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  7. ↑ What Bush is hiding, Salon.com; March 22, 2007; accessed May 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ Blumenthal, Sidney (December 21, 2006). "Delusions of Victory". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Blumenthal, Hyman V." Chicago Tribune. January 21, 2003.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Poynter.org, James Warren. "The Hillary Confidant You Can't Escape".
  11. ↑ The Permanent Campaign. google.com, 1980 (1st ed.). Beacon Press. ISBN 0807032085. 2nd ed, 1982. Touchstone Books. ISBN 0671453416.
  12. ↑ "Who Is Clinton Confidant Sidney Blumenthal?".
  13. ↑ "Should Libel Law Be Strengthened to Protect Plaintiffs?", FindLaw.com, August 23, 2001.
  14. ↑ "Is AOL Responsible for Its Hip Shooter's Bullets?" Archived 2006-10-02 at the Wayback Machine.. Columbia Journalism Review, November 1997. Accessed May 21, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Clinton's Good Soldier Explains All Those Messes". nytimes.com, May 15, 2003.
  16. ↑ "In Clinton's Court". nybooks.com, May 29, 2003.
  17. ↑ "Wall Street Journal". Archived from the original on 2016-08-18 – via Wall treet Journal.
  18. ↑ http://www.salon.com/1997/06/26/tina970625/
  19. 1 2 "Stalking Sidney Blumenthal". Salon.com. February 9, 1999. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  20. ↑ "Thinking Like an Apparatchik". The Atlantic, July/August 2003. Accessed May 21, 2015.
  21. ↑ Sidney Blumenthal on IMDb
  22. ↑ Berezin, Jacob (November 19, 2007). "Sidney Blumenthal Joins Hillary Campaign". Huffington Post.
  23. ↑ Wolfe, Andrew (April 15, 2008). "Clinton aide, Blumenthal, accepts deal in DWI case". Nashua Telegraph. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  24. 1 2 Baker, Peter (August 15, 2009). "Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-28.
  25. ↑ "Clinton Foundation paid Blumenthal $10K per month while he advised on Libya".
  26. ↑ Mathis-Lilley, Ben (28 May 2015). "Clinton Foundation Paid Blumenthal $10,000 a Month While He Gave Hillary Libya Advice" – via Slate.
  27. ↑ "The Clintonian Gaslighting Never Ends".
  28. ↑ "Blumenthal: 'I had a real job at the Clinton Foundation'".
  29. ↑ Schmidt, Michael S. (May 18, 2015). "What Sidney Blumenthal's Memos to Hillary Clinton Said, and How They Were Handled". New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015. In 2011 and 2012, Hillary Rodham Clinton received at least 25 memos about Libya from Sidney Blumenthal, a friend and confidant who at the time was employed by the Clinton Foundation.
  30. ↑ Confessore, Nicholas; Schmidt, Michael S. (May 18, 2015). "Clinton Friend's Memos on Libya Draw Scrutiny to Politics and Business". New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015. Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal's advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal's assessments were often unreliable.
  31. ↑ Hosenball, Mark. Exclusive: House Benghazi Panel Subpoenas Former Clinton White House Aide. Reuters, May 20, 2015.
  32. ↑ Ho, Catherine. Clinton Confidant Blumenthal to Be Deposed on Benghazi; Senate Looks to Wrap Up NDAA. Washington Post, June 16, 2015.
  33. ↑ Levine, Sam; Stein, Sam. Sidney Blumenthal’s Benghazi Testimony Focuses More on Domestic Politics Than the Attack. Huffington Post, June 18, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Hillary Clinton Testimony at House Select Committee on Benghazi, Part 2". C-SPAN. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  35. ↑ Mathis-Lilley, Ben (28 June 2016). "Democrats Accidentally Reveal How Much Top Clinton Crony Gets Paid for Being Top Clinton Crony". Slate.com.
  36. 1 2 "Sidney Blumenthal." Contemporary Authors Online. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2017. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, October 9, 2017.
  37. ↑ Baker, Peter (September 1, 2015). "Emails Show How Hillary Clinton Valued Input From Sidney Blumenthal". nytimes.com. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
Political offices
Preceded by
George Stephanopoulos		 Senior Advisor to the President
1997–2001
Served alongside: Rahm Emanuel, Doug Sosnik, Joel Johnson		 Succeeded by
Karl Rove
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