She Stoops to Conquer

From The New York Times:

Hillary_3 Edward Klein’s new book, ”The Truth About Hillary,” is not a biography, to be evaluated in terms of how well or poorly it relates to real events or a real person; it is something much more revealing — a kind of cultural dreamwork, like that in 18th-century penny ballads that linked real political figures to folklore, giving them supernatural traits. In the stories that Klein tells, we can clearly see the collective unconscious of our culture at work, throwing up vivid, even lurid fantasies that emerge out of the shifting balance of power between women and men.

It is in his subtext about lesbianism that Klein’s id-projections veer into truly illuminating hysteria: he sees a lesbian under every bed. One of Clinton’s advisers ”looked like the Marlboro man in drag.” Another is a ”dominatrix.” ”Melanie” — actually Melanne — Verveer is called ”her dark-haired mannish-looking chief of staff.” (All of these women are heterosexuals, but never mind.) Klein quotes rumors about Donna Shalala and Janet Reno’s sexuality — ”their orientations are shrouded in deep ambiguity.” Twice, he manages to assign lesbianism to Hillary while never claiming she is attracted to or involved with women: ”To Arkansans, she walked like a lesbian, talked like a lesbian and looked like a lesbian. Ergo, she was a lesbian,” he writes.

More here.