In his daily journal, Joe Conason recently raised doubts about Dick Morris' claims that he was once nearly beaten up by Bill Clinton. Morris wrote to Conason and Salon:
Dear Joe,
Your concern that I made up the story about Clinton should be assuaged by the fact that David Maraniss, on page 455 of "First In His Class," published in 1995 says "as Hillary and Cabe stood by, Clinton suddenly lost control, according to Cabe, and slugged Morris sending him reeling." The source, Gloria Cabe, was Clinton's campaign manager.
In my own book, published in January of 1997, I was doing what you usually do -- covering for the Clintons.
Yours, Dick Morris
Conason responds:
Dear Dick,
I challenge you to find one example where I changed (or invented) a fact because I was "covering for the Clintons." That's an interesting euphemism, in any case. Do you mean to say you lied in your 1997 book? Were you lying about Hillary's kindness to your mother as well? What parts of the book were true? The Maraniss quote now makes three different versions of the same story: Clinton punches you (Maraniss 1995); Clinton tackles but doesn't punch you (Morris 1997); Clinton cocks his arm but doesn't punch you (Morris 2003). Very few people are likely to change their opinion of him (or you) either way.
Best, Joe
Shares