Rating: 
Summary: The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk
Review: The writing in this book is lucid and devoid of exaggeration or self-pity. It is honest and sane, while covering a truly dishonest and insane period of American history. Through the painful experiences of author, Susan McDougal, Whitewater is revealed to have been a shameful witch-hunt, a ruthless attempt to bring down a popular American president. Susan describes her life with Jim McDougal, her early friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton, the uncomplicated facts of the Whitewater land deal, and her ensuing persecution by the Independent Council, Kenneth Starr. Her descriptions of life in prison are disturbing, yet there is light and hope on every page in this book. Susan is a woman who has been "stoned in the square" for refusing to bear false witness against another human being, yet she has retained her decency, softness, intelligence, and even her sense of humor. Read this book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting human insight into the Whitewater trial
Review: This book is an autobiography of McDougal, tracing her family life, her 8-year marriage at 20 to then 35-year-old Jim McDougal, her divorce, her ongoing conflict with the Office of the Independent Council in the investigation of Whitewater, her time in jail, her trial in California for theft from Zubin and Nancy Mehta, and the brief aftermath of her court- and jail-oriented life.
Whatever the reader believes McDougal's guilt to be in Whitewater, Madison Guaranty and the Mehta cases, she seems to have a bigger problem of attaching herself to people who need her, but don't care about her. Her husband, an untreated manic-depressive for his adult life, was an entrepreneur, mostly, it seems, because he couldn't keep his attention on anything long enough to settle into a long-term endeavour. He was constantly starting up businesses, real estate deals and companies, banks and financial institutions, losing interest and committing himself to something else just when it was crunch time. Leaving Susan in charge against her will, and apparently against her natural abilities, the businesses would fail due to lack of attention and follow-through. According to the book, the Clinton investment in Whitewater, was a partnership in just such an undertaking. The $300,000 small business loan she signed for from David Hale, she writes, was another example of what she usually did: she did what Jim McDougal told her to do and believed it was the right thing to do. With Nancy Mehta, she writes, she again attached herself to someone needy and mercurial, and who would, when it suited her, turn on and betray the author out of spite and malice.
The book traces the Whitewater investigation in some detail and Jim McDougal's part in the issues at hand, and I am not going to do that here. Where this book resonates is in how she seemed to be maliciously prosecuted by Starr and the OIC. They insisted that she offer them information on the Clintons, and if she did, they would give her "blanket immunity," which included the Mehta charges in California. Though she considered giving them what they wanted to hear, others had and had been paid "walking around money," etc., and had many of their crimes forgiven, a friend told her, "Susan, if you do this, you will be lying for the rest of your life." And that's why she went to jail for civil contempt for 18 months and then withstood a trial on criminal contempt after the impeachment trial of Clinton was over.
The interesting thing about this book was highlighted to me when I told a friend about what I was reading, and he said, "Why would she testify against her friends?" People seem to have an idea that she was staunchly protecting the Clintons, who were her close friends, but that is not the case, according to her book. She knew them through Jim McDougal, who'd been an Arkansas political operative, but she was not close to either Bill or Hillary. She does not maintain contact with them after her marriage, and, frankly, never got along that well with Hillary, whom she found to be withdrawn and perhaps cold at times. She heard about her presidential pardon for the Whitewater guilty verdicts on television. She refused to testify, not to help them but because she felt it would be wrong for her to lie to the OIC to save herself, because she didn't know anything that the Clintons had done wrong, and because she had seen what the OIC did to people who didn't testify in the way that they wanted (perjury charges, etc.).
The time that McDougal spent in jail is well detailed and focuses on the women in jail and their sad situations. She found most of the women to have come from violent and sexually abusive situations, where they had left home or been taken from their homes and had become a kind of detritus of humanity. She writes movingly of the sad case of an Arkansas woman who was convicted of killing her children and was executed, presenting a human and loving picture of the mother, that reminded me of Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking.
This is all an underlying theme to McDougal's book, her religious beliefs based on love and charity, rather than heavy "justice" and judgment. The religious hypocrisy of the OIC attorneys and associates sickens her, as they make "the walkin' around folks'" lives miserable and then speak in press interviews about how they pray whilst jogging, etc. Whatever you think of McDougal, that she was a serial grifter, that she hooked on too hard to people who weren't worthy of trust and was manipulated, that she is "spinning" her own part in all these issues, a lively and compelling portrait of a woman who cares for "the least among us" surfaces in this book in an amazing way.
Because I live in Arkansas, I found the book to be loaded with "local color" and information. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: This book should be compulsory reading
Review: This book is one of the most important books I've read in years and I urge everyone to read it. What Susan McDougal tells us about the right wing zealots who threw her in jail because she refused to lie about Bill Clinton is truly a story that needs to be heard loud and clear throughout our land. Surely there is a special section of hell reserved for Ken Starr and his henchmen and women. McDougal's voice rings true and clear, and she is laugh-out-loud funny. Clearly, her sense of strong humor was one of the many great character traits that helped her survive in the various prisons that the Office of the Independent Council dragged her through in their quest to make her tell lies to suit their own self interests. And the stories she shares of the women she met while encarcerated are truly heart-rending and equally deserving of your attention. Most of all, this is the story of a woman who finds her own strength in the most harrowing of circumstances. Even if you're not interested in politics one way or the other, you should read this book
Rating:
Summary: Political Prisoner Turns the Tables on Her Tormenters
Review: Very bad things can happen to good people when the power of the U.S. government is arrayed against them in court. Ms. Susan McDougal (of "Whitewater" fame) tells a cautionary tale about what happened to her and others who found themselves at odds with overzealous prosecutors. Reading her story reminded me of the show trials in the U.S.S.R. during Stalin's reign in which prisoners were broken and used to implicate others who were in turn broken and used to implicate still others. If you want to get past the right and left wing propaganda concerning the Whitewater investigation, The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk is a great source. Briefly, Ms. McDougal was brought up in a large family with strict rules . . . which she followed. At a strict college, she met an out-of-control professor who successfully persuaded him to become his wife . . . and found that he was soon off prowling for other young women. Jim McDougal was a manic-depressive who was usually in his manic phase. He was also obsessed with being in control, and made all decisions in their marriage and business activities. You'll be sure to believe that after you read the story about the "home" he bought and decorated for them. Along the way, he dreamed of making an area where political movers and shakers would fly into for weekends in Arkansas. He found a beautiful stretch of land, and recruited as his co-investors Bill and Hillary Clinton. The project failed. Later, McDougal founded and rapidly expanded a savings-and-loan to help pursue his land development deals. With little experience in the business and driven by his psychological problems, the business failed after a spectacular temporary rise. Shortly before the marriage collapsed, McDougal arrange for a loan to his wife to be used for a new investment project. She picked up the check, and he used the money for other purposes. She left for California, they divorced, and she started up a new life with former co-worker, Pat Harris (who assisted in the writing of this book). In the new life, she eventually found herself living a claustrophobic existence as the 24/7 assistant and bookkeeper to Ms. Nancy Mehta, wife of conductor Zubin Mehta. The stories she tells make Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous seem modest by comparison. At the end of this experience, she is falsely accused of embezzling $150,000. At the same time, Kenneth Starr took over the investigation into possible wrongdoing by President and Mrs. Clinton. The "investigation" turned into a witch hunt in which potential witnesses were offered blanket immunity if they could provide the "goods" on the Clintons. The prosecutors knew what story they wanted, and would settle for nothing else. After David Hale and Jim McDougal decided to play ball, their testimony veered into misstatements about Ms. McDougal. Soon, she found herself facing a two-year prison term. Immediately thereafter, she was subpoenaed to testify before the Grand Jury. She realized that if she told the truth, she would be contradicting Hale and McDougal, and would probably be prosecuted for perjury. So she refused to testify. Normally, such a witness would be kept in jail for a few weeks or months on such a refusal. Ms. McDougal served the full maximum of 18 months. Then, she began serving her two-year term. She was released early due to extreme problems with her spine that could not be properly treated while in jail. Kenneth Starr's minions then attempted to get a criminal contempt of court conviction by asking her again to testify to the same Grand Jury. She again refused. At the same time, she won her case in California. President Clinton then pardoned her for the original Federal conviction. I was particularly impressed by her story of her experiences in jail. She took a lot with good humor and grace. I particularly enjoyed the ways she used to get her story out and to help the other women prisoners. Based on my knowledge of the criminal justice system, it looks like she was being persecuted for political reasons while in jail. She bore up well under it all, except that her health suffered. Anyone who wants this to be a free country owes her a debt of gratitude for what she did in standing up for the truth and herself. I also enjoyed the many places in the book where she exposed false statements by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr. If anyone should suffer for perjury, he is a good candidate. Fans of Diane Sawyer will probably be dismayed to read about the tawdry role that she played in rigging a misleading television interview involving Ms. McDougal. She also does a good job of debunking the popular theories about why she didn't testify at the time. The logic of her arguments made sense to me. See what you think. As I finished the book, I realized that our concern for good government can turn into a vice. Let's keep things in balance.
|
