Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries

by James B. Stewart

Ranging from the Ozarks to the Oval Office, and from newsrooms on both coasts to the offices of special prosecutors, this book sheds startling new light on the scandals of the Clinton administration and their impact on the Clintons themselves, their supporters and adversaries, the White House, and the nation at large. B&W photos.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, American History, Journalism, Audiobook, Political Science

434 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

James Bennett Stewart is an American lawyer, journalist, and author.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stewart gives a reasonably in-depth examination of Whitewater and Vince Foster's suicide, and skitters over the surface of "Travelgate" (the firing of the White House travel office), which frankly is more information than I had about Travelgate to this point. His story begins with the friendship of the Clintons and the McDougals dating back to the late 70s and continues through to the initial filing of Paula Jones's sexual harrassment lawsuit. At the book's conclusion, Clinton has been reelected and the independent counsel Robert Fiske has been replaced with Kenneth Starr. Monica Lewinsky still lies in the future.

I would probably call Stewart's treatment of these topics balanced, which is not necessarily a compliment. If you're an ordinary person, not a journalist, what you usually want is truth, not balance. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're desperate to know more about Whitewater, but if you do read it, it should be in conjunction with Gene Lyons' Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater, given that Lyons is never concerned with balance, and always with truth.

[Nancee Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

12 years after its publication, Blood Sport reveals the Clinton mentality as users of people who surround them. Stewart traces the history of Whitewater, Jim and Susan McDougal with their accompanying cast of characters, Arkansas politicians who influenced and modeled behavior for Clinton, and the White House years. Stewart's jumping off point, the suicide of Vince Foster, in medias res, grabs attention and raises red flags.

The Clinton White House, while Stewart's information presents a clear case for suicide, acted as though the administration had something to hide relative to Foster's death. Following the White Water history, the Travel Office incident, Kimba Wood, and Secret Service controversy, the administration intended to hide documents that Foster had. Bernard Nussbaum, the administration's Cassandra, unwittingly dividied up documents from Foster's office, at the request of the administration before the federal police could review the documents.

Unfortunately for the Clintons, Nussbaum's advice was ignored largely out of pigheaded ignorance. Believing that the Clinton White House was in fact a reincarnation of the Clinton's gubernatorial administration where Southern politics ruled and secrets would be kept secret out of decorum the Clintons continued their efforts to act as "trustee" type rulers. In the philosophy applied by the Clintons, voters, media and everyone else should simply trust their word and acts without any sort of oversight or explanation from the decision makers. Hillary Clinton basically launched her Healthcare Initiative study without any public input or suggestion.

And perhaps, that is the point for me. Now Senator Clinton sees herself as a trustee who knows what is good for America and expects everyone to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, Senator Clinton lacks the charisma and Southern charm that her husband exudes. Somehow, her ivy league education overshadows whatever human nature and compassion she might actually possess.

The nature of the administration, fear of the wrath of the elected and his wife, lead individuals to forget their ethical duties and investigative duties. Investigative referrals from the S&L investigative body swept under the rug by Clinton sycophants resulted in an investigation of a relatively small failed S&L when efforts could have been better spent elsewhere. But the cover-up created intrigue where none would otherwise have caught fire.

Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton accepted all monetary assistance offered by those seeking favor with them. The pair asked few questions and paid little attention to the ramifications of their actions until their blind acceptance of assistance became a liability: Hillary Clinton's investment in commodities based on insider information and the Whitewater investment largely financed by the McDougals.

The Clintons sought to remove the Travel Office staff and the Secret Service because they could not rely on them to cover for the Clintons and could not be used to benefit the family. The Clintons used their weight in government offering jobs to and threatening jobs of the State Troopers who felt compelled to clear the air about Bill Clinton's extra-marital relationships. As with the McDougals, the Clintons sapped all the usefulness from anyone around them. At one point, Governor Clinton asked Jim McDougal to give some work to Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law Firm, which led to the ethical problems raised by the Rose Law Firm billing records.

Foster's unfortunate death marked the end of the line for a man who could no longer cover for his "client" (Hillary Clinton), who could not reconcile his role and duties as representative for Clinton and ethical obligations as a lawyers and a person. The Clintons' shotgun approach to government weighed heavily on Foster. Foster lacked the capacity to contradict or correct the ethically challenged Clintons. When faced with a valid ethical issue, Hillary Clinton's representation of Jim McDougal's S&L before the Arkansas banking commission, commission who reported to then Governor Clinton, Hillary Clinton reported that "she" had little or nothing to do with the representation. The reality of the situation, documentary proof, establishes that she wrote and signed documents sent to the Commission. Then, the billing records went missing: the famed Rose Law Firm billing records.

This book should be read by anyone considering voting for Senator Clinton and who cares about how government is run and delivered. No one is perfect and I do not expect Senator Clinton to be perfect. Senator Clinton, however, refuses to acknowledge clear and abiding ethic mistakes and judgment mistakes that led to the death of her law partner, friend, and best representative.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is misleading: it should have been called Whitewater. While there were a few surprising tidbits of the Clinton's behind-the-scenes, they were few and far between. You have to wade through banking transactions, land transactions, and more. This was too factual, too clinical, too dry. I was looking forward to reading this book but ended up flipping and scanning pages to get through it. This was a disappointment and a sad way to remember Vince Foster.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

An abridged narrative of Clinton financial shenanigans leading up to the suicide of Vince Foster.

[Jerome Noto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that are more factual than judgmental…and I think James Stewart nails the right balance in this book about various episodes that involved the Clintons

[GoalBGBet365 · Rating 5 out of 5]

На какви спортове залагате най-много?

Светът около нас е пълен с безброй възможности и разнообразни възможности за забавление. Със сигурност човек залага на различни спортове. Можете дори да правите залози от телефона си, като за целта трябва само да се регистрирате в онлайн букмейкър. Вижте тук за повече информация как да намерите букмейкъри.

В следващите редове обаче решихме да споделим с вас на кои спортове се залага най-често. Всички те са налични в лицензирани български казино платформи и всеки може да опита късмета си. Но да не се отклоняваме и да продължим директно към същността на темата, защото тя със сигурност е интригуваща.

Кои са спортовете, на които играчите залагат най-много?

В близкото минало спортовете, на които можехме да залагаме, бяха доста ограничени. Освен това залаганията можеха да се правят само във физически магазини, а онлайн хазартът беше мираж. Сега обаче времената са съвсем различни и има безброй възможности. На почти всеки спорт, за който се сетите, можете да залагате, ако решите да опитате късмета си в него.

Може би единственият недостатък на голямото разнообразие е, че е трудно да решиш кой спорт да избереш. Но винаги е възможно да превключвате между няколко спорта и рано или късно късметът ще ни се усмихне.

Тук само вмъкваме, че в някои страни някои спортове са значително предпочитани пред други. В САЩ например предпочитат да залагат на бейзбол и американски футбол (NFL), докато в Канада акцентът е върху хокея на лед. А сега да видим кои са най-популярните спортове от гледна точка на залагане сред играчите.

Футбол

Няма съмнение, че футболът е кралят на всички спортове или поне е в по-голямата част от света. Пазарите, предлагани от футболните залагания, са по-разнообразни.

Можем да залагаме на краен победител, отбелязани голове в мача, ъгли на полувремето, точен резултат и какво ли още не. Залозите за този спорт валят във всеки момент, особено по време на големи турнири като Шампионска лига, Лига Европа и Световното първенство по футбол.

Баскетбол

Друг спорт, който не страда от липса на внимание, са залаганията. Тук отново наличните палатки са огромни и ще отнеме много време да ги изброим всички.

Отново можете да залагате на краен победител, точки за мач, играч на мача, голмайстор и други. Една от най-популярните лиги в баскетбола със сигурност е Националната баскетболна асоциация (NBA), която събира милиони зрители и не малко залагат, докато гледат мачовете.

Тенис

Още един спорт, който ви напомпва, особено в големи турнири. Те включват Australian или US Open, ATP Series срещи, Уимбълдън и много други.

Освен печалбите от залозите, голямо зрелище за нас са и гладиаторските сблъсъци на големите имена в тениса. Мачовете в спорта могат да бъдат много интересни, особено когато един срещу друг се изправят топ 10 тенисисти в света.

Формула 1

Бързи коли, бързо изпреварване и адреналин – това е само част от описанието на състезанията от Формула 1. Ето защо изобщо не е изненадващо, че залаганията на този спорт са толкова популярни.

Много от нас се събраха с наши приятели, за да гледат заедно поредното зрелищно състезание. Тук също не липсват възможни залози, просто трябва да изберем тези, които ни харесват най-много, след което трябва да се надяваме, че късметът е на наша страна.

Крикет

Тук бяхме изненадани, нали? Да, крикетът е непознат за доста хора по света, но със сигурност има фенове, които обичат да залагат на него.

Известно е, че индийците например обичат да залагат на крикет и са големи фенове на спорта. Ние отваряме всеки лицензиран бългасрски сайт за залагания и винаги можем да видим крикет на една от водещите позиции в спортните секции.

Бокс

Стигнахме до може би най-мъжкия спорт от изброените дотук. Боксьорите са истински машини, които водят изтощителни мачове помежду си. Всеки боксов мач е пълен с мощни удари, блокиране и огромно желание за победа.

Онлайн казината със сигурност знаят това и предлагат голямо разнообразие от пазари за спортни залагания за тези, които го искат. Най-популярните са за крайния победител, дали печели по точки или с нокаут, кой рунд се провежда с нокаут и др.

Единственият недостатък за нас, българите, е, че например големите мачове за световното първенство обикновено са след полунощ и едвам не спим, докато започнат.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stewart does a commendable work on a time in American politics that was infested with lies, corruption, and withholding key evidence. Always somewhat leary on political writings in regards to openness and fair play, his work and background brought forth at least an honest saga based on fact. Politics has no winners for the politicians that has to be decided by the masses that put them into office.

[Karen S. Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely detailed and mind blowing

Would Bill Clinton be elected in today's political arena? This book details the world of small minded Arkansas and the Clintons ' cohorts during Bill and Hillary's climb into the national political spotlight. Intrigue, suspicion, ignorance, lies, this book has it all. Shocked though the Lewinsky debacle isn't mentioned.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels really incomplete to a 2021 audience. Even a few more years would have helped. I know it was written just a few years after the events in the book, but that also left us hanging. The promise of the title kind of remained unfulfilled.

[Monzenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

High three stars. The reportage is there, it's just a little too insider / US political for my tastes. Eventually did not do enough to keep me interested about a scandal that ultimately did not sink the Clinton administration, though of course there are still lessons here.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously well researched. Solid 4!
I went ahead and gave it 5... But mostly because my uncle is IN the book. Lol.

[Darin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly revealing. Well sourced. A behind the scenes look at what it takes to achieve power.

[Megan Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight to why middle class loses confidence in presidential power and stewardship

[David Jenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, great

[Kaloyan K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well-written book on a subject that might have been interesting in 1992 and nowadays is just ... meh. Anyway, Stewart does not disappoint.

[Graham Seibert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yep. That's the Clintons all over. Haven't changed these 20 years.

Rereading "primary colors" after 20 years 'more experience with the Clintons leaves me with a collection of impressions.

First, how cheap these people are. The Whitewater loan the got them in trouble was only somewhere in the five digits. Most of the smarmy financial transactions executed by their friends in the banks, savings and loans, and real estate business were likewise small change. How petty!

Secondly, how readily they lied. Even when the truth would not have been all that terrible, they instinctively chose to lie. There is a quote about New York times reporter Gerth concerning Hillary denying that she had been had outside help making her fantastic, 10,000% return on a commodity investment. "Some weeks later, Gerth asked a White House official involved why he’d been given such a preposterous explanation in the first place. The official paused. “The first instinct from everybody from Arkansas,” he said, “is to lie.”

A third impression is how the Clintons managed to irritate even the New York Times and the Washington Post, to publications that really should have supported them. The times in the post were competing to dig out the Whitewater story. So much for the claim of a "great right-wing conspiracy." And it raises the question of what has happened to the objectivity of these two publications themselves in the intervening 20 years. I do not observe any such a zeal in pursuing Obama's tall tales, or Benghazi.

James Stewart seems to bend over backwards to be fair. He describes the media's reluctance to get involved in Bill Clinton's notorious sex life. Everybody knew about it, but they had also known about FDR's, Kennedy's, and Johnson's infidelities. Stewart discusses how they agonized over the decision of when such activity truly interfered with the president's performance in office. Bill and Hillary bought people's silence through job offers and sweetheart loans from friends, and coerced it via threats. That activity went over the line.

I recommend this book as a primer when reading the spate of books about Hillary Clinton in 2016. It is the same person. The amounts of money involved are vastly larger – in the 90s she could never have dreamed of $225,000 per speech – but the lack of any moral inhibition is totally the same.

[Ira friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stewart's books are nothing if not superb and excellently researched and reported. In the past what I have really been impressed with, is Stewart's ability to take subjects that are not easily explainable or approachable as they are filled with highly nuanced facts and many actors while being based in corporate America and making them not just understandable but fascinating. His narratives whether about the Disney corporation or the junk bond scandal are pages turners and Blood Sport is no different.

In Blood Sport, Stewart unfolds the various transactions and the background of all the players in Arkansas that eventually led to the Whitewater Scandal as well as the facts of both Travelgate and Troopergate. This is no easy task as Whitewater's hallmark was that it was too confusing to understand even while the scandal was in full throttle but Stewart puts it all together for the reader. The result is an understanding of what went on while Clinton was in AK politics and how the scandal played out while he was president (mainly though Hillary is the actor most involved throughout the scandal and as a result, the book). More important, perhaps. is the account provided of how the Clinton's approach scandals as well as their detractors and the mindset they bring to the table when dealing with both. Reading this right after Hillary's failed bid for the presidency reinforced that many of her characteristics as seen in the above scandals have not dissipated in the slightest which made the book all the more relevant.

[Jeremiah Salyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An fascinating read about the details of many of the Clinton's early scandals. How they survived an obstruction of justice charge may relate to Congress not being in Republican hands till 1994. Also, this book clarifies that Paula Jones was credible and not the whore she was made out to be by her photos appearing against her will in Penthouse magazine. I found the book to a bit slow in terms of it's flow though the giant pile of details may be the reason. I wonder how this book will tie into Fiske's own memoir, the original Special Prosecutor, who claims before he was replaced by the three judge panel, was on his way to issuing indictments. If you needed yet another reason to conclude Hilary is one of the most unethical and crooked people to have ever graced public office, this book is just more fuel for the fire.

[Justin Tapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stewart was a reporter brought on by the Clinton White House to independently investigate Whitewater. The story starts with the mysterious suicide of White House counsel and rumoured Hillary lover Vince Foster.
Stewart goes step-by-step through the Clintons' political career, the constant womanizing of Bill Clinton, the failed land deal of Whitewater, the friends Hillary made involved in insider commodities trading (not illegal), and the first run for the White House. The book ends about the time the Paula Jones scandal was gaining ground.

It's an interesting look at the advisors to the Clintons, their recklessness, their paranoia about the media, and just how sometimes they ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. I found it useful to hear Whitewater explained completely, including all of its weirdness and shadiness.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first third of this book is a well-drawn recap of the rather dull and uncomplicated Whitewater investment (and slightly more intriguing commodities trades) that put the Clintons into such hot water during Bill's first term. The second talks primarily about their inner circle in Washington and how the old Arkansas hands were affected by the tragic suicide of Vince Foster. But it starts going downhill from there. There are too many characters to follow, and the combination of Whitewater and Foster -- who was only tenuously connected to the investment and the resultant scandal -- seems a little arbitrary. By the time I hit the last segment, which covered the special investigation and the media outcry, I was bored silly.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected a pat on the back and an easy time for the Clintons. After all, the author was recruited by their friend Susan Thomases, a Manhattan attorney. Not the case. Author James B. Stewart, a Pulitzer Prize winner does a first class job interviewing sources and unearthing information I had not seen elsewhere.

Although old news in that this happened during the Clinton's time in Arkansas and in the White House, I believe the core of character of a person does not change and this gave me new insights into a family that still plays a part in the political world.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's unique about this book is that the author was a liberal and was invited into the Clinton White House to get the "truth out". Once james was given access to internal documentation, he began to unravel the real scandal. The Clinton's then shut him out but he continued to expose the truth. An alarming view of the internal machinations of the Clinton era.

I heard James speak and got his autograph. Unfortunately, he has begun to "revise" his opinion years after the fact. I suspect he may be trying to get back into the good graces of his liberal friends..!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revealing look at how the Clinton Administration reacted to the early scandals including Vince Foster, travelgate, "bimbo eruptions", and of course Whitewater. Stewart frames his story through the testimony of James and Susan McDougall, and the reporting of NYTimes's Jeff Gerth, whose reporting has been questioned. Still the proof is in the subsequent history (Lewinsky etc.) Just because there was a vast right-wing conspiracy doesn't mean the Clintons didn't do aLOT of covering up.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

A meticulous account of the scandal-filled Clinton campaign and similarly sketchy first term as president. Boring, but it is your homework as the supposedly knowledgeable 2008 American voter.
Hillary's kind of a bitch, but really smart. Bill's just a friendly, horny guy who makes some dumb choices.

[Greg Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned, don't run for any type of office. Things will be dug up on you that are so insignificant but are made into mountains. As most of us know the Office of the President of the United States which used to be sacred is a target for trashing whoever holds the office. With that being said I don't care for either the Republicans or the Democrats.

[Hasan Qureshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love them or hate them, the book tells the story of the lover of Lewinsky, the bitter bride of less than bashful Bill, and the offspring of their union.

[Toesnorth's mom]

Clinton era politics, proven wrong after _________

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the overall style of the book (and love this author) but got a little board in the middle and decided to move on to another book.

[Naga Sravika Bodapati · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most boring book ever..one starts to wonder if it is about the clintons or the mcdougal family a quarter way into the book. A complete bore. Left it at that.

[Lorene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, maybe it's not a biography, but it's an account of the White Water shenanigans. Interesting.