U.S. Politics & Government - 20th Century, U.S. Politics & Government - 1992-2001, United States History - Politics & Government, Mass Media & Politics, Presidents of the United States - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
As President Bill Clinton's chief spokesman for handling "scandal matters," Lanny Davis had the unenviable job of briefing reporters and answering their pointed questions on the most embarrassing allegations against the president and his aides, from charges of renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to stories of selling plots in Arlington Cemetery, from irregular campaign fundraising to sexual improprieties. He was the White House's first line of defense against the press corps and the reporters' first point of entry to an increasingly reticent administration. His delicate task was to remain credible to both sides while surviving the inevitable crossfire. Upon entering the White House, Davis discovered that he was never going to be able to turn bad news into good news, but he could place the bad news in its proper context and work with reporters to present a fuller picture. While some in the White House grew increasingly leery of helping a press corps that they regarded as hostile, Davis moved in the opposite direction, pitching unfavorable stories to reporters and helping them garner the facts to write those stories accurrately. Most surprisingly of all, he realized that to do his job properly, he sometimes had to turn himself into a reporter within the White House, interviewing his colleagues and ferreting out information. Along the way, he learned the true lessons of why politicians, lawyers, and reporters so often act at cross-purposes and gained some remarkable and counterintuitive insights into why this need not be the case. Searching out the facts wherever he could find them, even if he had to proceed covertly, Davis discovered that he could simultaneously help the reporters do their jobs and not put the president in legal or political jeopardy.Editorials
Dick Morris
...[P]resents a curiously Janus-faced image....[H]ow are we to reconcile the two Lannys — Book Lanny and TV Lanny?....[W]e are left with the big question, What role did Bill Clinton play in his administration's many cover-ups? We don't know, precisely. Does either Lanny?— National Review
John W. Dean
...[T]hose looking for...soap opera will not be interested....a book for people curious about the machinery of the Presidency, the ways of politics and what takes place behind the headlines...— The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
Less ballyhooed than Stephanopoulos or Mortons Monica, Davis, the Washington lawyer who served for 14 months as the Clinton White Houses chief spinmeister, simultaneously offers a stinging critique of scandalmongering politics and an education in the instrumentalif not downright cynicalcraft of spin control. Davis, who served as special counsel to the president until January 1998 (he left just 10 days after the Monica Lewinsky story broke), staunchly defends Clinton as the leader of a new, centrist Democratic Party. He presents himself as a man of integrity doing a high-wire balancing act between his desire to tell the whole truth and his loyalty to his boss. Dealing primarily with the campaign-finance scandal, Davis is most persuasive when debunking the story that the White House sold burial plots in Arlington Cemetery to civilians in exchange for campaign donations and when deflating the import of Al Gores mix of Buddhism and fund-raising. Hes less convincing when attempting to dismiss the charges of influence-peddling swirling around fundraiser John Huang. In an epilogue, Davis re-creates an August 1998 phone conversation with Clinton in which he urged the president to get everything out to the public concerning Lewinsky. Following the rules of proactive disclosure might well have enabled Clinton to avoid impeachment, Davis speculates. Depending on what their definition of is is, readers may view this memoir either as an unwittingly embarrassing peek into the Clinton propaganda machine or as an informal handbook on the art of damage control. Its actually both. Agent, Arthur Kaminsky. (May)Dick Morris
...[P]resents a curiously Janus-faced image....[H]ow are we to reconcile the two Lannys — Book Lanny and TV Lanny?....[W]e are left with the big question, What role did Bill Clinton play in his administration's many cover-ups? We don't know, precisely. Does either Lanny?— National Review
John W. Dean
...[T]hose looking for...soap opera will not be interested....a book for people curious about the machinery of the Presidency, the ways of politics and what takes place behind the headlines...— The New York Times Book Review
Mimi Hall
His book may be the last thing the public needs: another in a series of tomes from former Clinton administration insiders like George Stephanopoulos on what it's really like inside the White House. But Davis' book is far more detailed, and in some ways that makes it more interesting...And while the book is primarily about strategy, Davis also entertains with amusing anecdotes.— USA Today
Book Details
Published
October 5, 1999
Publisher
New York : Free Press, c1999.
Pages
284
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780684862781