Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

Template:TOCnestleft William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton (born August 19, 1946) was the 42^nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He is married to the former Secretary of State and failed 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Early Life

President Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in a traffic accident. When he was four years old, his mother wed Roger Clinton, of Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, he took the family name.

He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once considered becoming a professional musician. As a delegate to Boys Nation while in high school, he met President John Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden. The encounter led him to enter a life of public service.

Clinton was graduated from Georgetown University and in 1968 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1973, and entered politics in Arkansas.

Bill's radical friends

Hillary Clinton also took advantage of Bill Clinton’s radical connections, many developed in his trips abroad. Strobe Talbott and Bill Clinton had been Rhodes Scholars in England together, for example, and Talbott and his wife, Brooke Shearer, “became friends of mine,” she writes. Brooke’s brother, Derek Shearer, another Yale graduate, became a friend of Bill and pro-Marxist economic advisor to Bill Clinton.

Shearer connection

Bill Clinton nominated his friend and adviser Derek Shearer to an ambassadorship after Shearer told Bill and Hillary he was owed a "political debt."

Private letters sent to the Clintons reveal how Shearer worked with longtime Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal behind the scenes to "attack [their] enemies" during the 1992 campaign.

The letters were among Shearer’s collection of papers at Brown University. In August 1993, following a short stint in the Commerce Department, Shearer pleaded with the Clintons for an ambassadorial appointment to—in order of preference—Singapore, New Zealand, or Finland.

He was nominated to be ambassador to Finland six months later.

Shearer, a professor at Occidental College, also forwarded the Clintons an 8-page memo outlining his work on the family’s first White House run.

"Given all that I did in the campaign, I’ve never understood why I wasn’t offered a serious position in the government after you won," Shearer wrote to Hillary in a letter dated August 26, 1993. "I was one of your longest standing supporter [sic] but I wasn’t an FOB hanger on; I’m a smart and talented person who contributed to winning–and I was with you in the trenches in the darkest days."

In the memo meant "only for you and Bill," Shearer described how he worked to dig up dirt on Clinton’s political opponents Jerry Brown, Paul Tsongas, and Ross Perot, as well as Gennifer Flowers, who came forward about her affair with Bill Clinton just before the New Hampshire primary.

After the election Shearer joined the Clinton administration as an official in the Commerce Department, but was unhappy with his role. He said Commerce Secretary Ron Brown "treated me badly," and left the position after his wife Ruth became ill.

Shearer still longed for a role in the administration and asked the Clintons directly for an ambassadorship.

"I believe in political debts as well as in friendship," Shearer wrote in the memo. "Below is as objective a listing as I can give of the ways in which I contributed to your winning Presidential effort."

One of the first reasons listed is that he and his wife maxed out as donors to Clinton’s campaign.

"Ruth and I immediately donated the maximum to you, and I raised early money for you from my parents, my friends, and my colleagues," he said.

Shearer described how he worked with George Stephanopoulos, who was then Clinton’s communications director, on drafts of speeches. He touted his work with Sidney Blumenthal and his brother Cody Shearer, a longtime Clinton operative who was at the center of the "spy network" collecting private intelligence while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

"I also began working behind-the-scenes with Cody and with Sid Blumenthal to promote your candidacy, to defend you and to attack your enemies," Shearer said.

Shearer said he worked with "Sid on his attack piece on Tsongas" and helped prepare a defense against Flowers, who claimed she had a 12-year-long affair with Clinton. Bill Clinton denied the claim for years, but eventually admitted to the affair in 1998.

"As you know, Cody was with you in Boston when the Flowers story broke," Shearer said. "I spoke almost everyday of the campaign with Cody, and with Sid, as well as with Susan T. [Thomases], to work on defense tactics on this issue."

Shearer bragged about leaking "uncomplimentary material" to the press about his former boss, California Gov. Jerry Brown, and said he was involved in attacks against Ross Perot "behind the scenes."

"I was very successfull [sic] in working with Cody and Sid on the Perot problem," he said. "I coordinated their investigative work on Perot, and I know that our work played a crucial role in getting Perot to drop out of the race in July. It’s a long story, but the bottom line is that we unearthed the info about his investigation of his daughter’s boyfriend, the assistant prof. at Vanderbilt, and Sid and Cody got the story out. We were on the offensive against Perot when most of the campaign hierarchy was defensive!"

The story alleged that Perot hired a private investigator to discredit his daughter’s fiancé. Blumenthal wrote in the New Republic that Perot investigated his future son-in-law because Perot was anti-Semitic, telling friends "You don't think I'd let my daughter marry a Jew."

"It made a big difference that Perot dropped out when he did, and that he never traced the press stories to us," Shearer said. "You or Hillary can ask Sid or Cody sometime about it, if you want the full stroy [sic]."

Shearer also took credit for bringing Betsey Wright onto the campaign, writing that "having her inside the operation made a substantial difference." Wright played a prominent role in the campaign, acting in an "intimidating" way toward the press and working to stamp out rumors of Bill Clinton’s sexual exploits, famously dubbing new accusations against him as "bimbo eruptions."

Shearer even made sure Clinton knew that he wrote a line in an environmental speech that "got a chuckle."

"Ruth and [I] still want to find a way to be part of the administration," he wrote to Hillary. "The best choice for us, at this stage of the game, is for me to be named an ambassador. There are still countries available–Sinapore [sic], New Zealand, Finland–where I would like to go and where I could do a good job."

"I know that I have the ability to be a good ambassador–and I know that in the future, I will be a valuable friend and advisor to you, perhaps back in Washington," Shearer said in his letter to Bill. "And frankly, in addition to our friendship of more than twenty years, I feel strongly that there’s a political debt here that is owed."

Clinton nominated Shearer to be ambassador to Finland on February 23, 1994, and Shearer served in that role until 1997. He went on to serve as a foreign policy adviser to Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign and an adviser to Hillary Clinton during the 2008 democratic primary.

Prague visit

Jan Kopold was not home when Bill Clinton visited Prague . Like many Czechs studying abroad after the invasion, he was afraid to return home until he had completed his studies.

'My friend Bill Clinton will come to Prague. If he cannot find an affordable hotel, he may stay with you,' Jan wrote his parents from Turkey, where he died a few months later in a fall from an abandoned house near Smyrna.

'He has a wide knowledge of political systems and will come from Moscow,' Jan wrote, in a letter his parents proudly read aloud.

For six days Clinton stayed with the Kopolds, walking through the winding cobbled streeets of the old city, visiting museums and tourist attractions, and returning home every night for dinner with the family, they recalled.

Jirina and her husband Bedrich called him a 'very nice and friendly young man,' intensely interested in the Prague Spring reforms and how to help Czechoslovakia throw off the oppressive boot of the occupying Soviet Army.

The Kopolds' daughter Bedricha spent some time accompanying Clinton. And on his last day in Prague, Jirina's mother Marie Svermova took young Bill for a stroll.

'I went with Bill to the Strahov library and the Loretta (monastery),' Mrs. Svermova wrote in her diary.

From 1945 to 1951 she was a member of the politburo of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. In the show trials of the 1950s, she was purged from the party and spent six years in Communist prisons.

In fact, the Kopolds rank among the grand old families of Czechoslovak communism.

Jirina's father was a former editor-in-chief of the Communist Party daily Rude Pravo, and a top member of the Moscow-based Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership during World War II. He died in the Tatra mountains, fighting alongside the Soviets to free Czechoslovakia from Nazi rule.

But the family was Jewish and had spent time abroad. In 1951, when the Stalinist purges of the Czechoslovak party leadership began, Marie Svermova and Bedrich Kopold were expelled from the party and sent to prison.

Marie Svermova served six years in a Communist jail, and became one of Dubcek's most prominent supporters in the Prague Spring.

Later, she was one of the first to sign the Charter 77 human rights document, along with such dissidents as Vaclav Havel, who in 1989 led the 'velvet revolution' that overthrew Czechoslovakia's communist rulers.

Even in 1970, Clinton seemed to be considering a career in politics: 'We often discussed how to help Czechoslovakia out of its terrible situation,' Bedrich Kopold recalled.

'One day we walked past the American Embassy and I said to Bill, 'Some day you will come back as ambassador or cultural attache,' and I laughed. Bill looked at me very seriously and said he well might,' Kopold continued.

Sitting in their living room, with the works of Marx and Lenin on the bookshelf in front of them, the Kopolds say they never recognized Clinton on television. They said unless they had been asked about their nearly forgotten American guest, they never would have known he had stayed in their home.

Looking at the thank-you notes Clinton and his mother Virginia had written the Kopolds, Jirina said: 'I hope Bill Clinton wins. He was such a fine young man.'

Czech reunion

Years later, when Clinton was President, he again flew to Moscow, this time on Air Force One, to meet Boris Yeltsin. Then, on his return flight he had the plane stop in Prague.

A night of fun - and a surprise arranged by Vaclav Havel - were on tap for Bill Clinton when he visited the Golden Tiger, a Prague pub. The Czech President had arranged a reunion between the US President and the parents of a now-deceased Oxford classmate. The frail, white-haired woman across the table from Mr Clinton at the pub on Tuesday night was Jirina Kopold, who met her son Jan Kopold's American friend when he visited Prague after a visit to the Soviet Union in 1970.

For a week in January 1970, the bearded Arkansan, unable to find a cheap hotel, stayed in Jirina and Bedrich Kopold's flat. Jirina's mother, Marie Svernoa, a founder of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia, gave young Bill a tour of the city. 'Twenty-four years ago today - you can't beat it]' a beaming Mr Clinton said in the pub, where he ate schnitzel and sipped beer with the Kopolds, Mr Havel and Madeleine Albright, the Czech-born UN ambassador. 'I've had two pilsners tonight, and that's my limit,' he said.

Governor of Arkansas

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1973, Clinton became a professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974 he ran for the House of Representatives for Arakansas, but was defeated by the incumbent, John Paul Hammerschmidt. In 1976, he was elected Arkansas Attorney General. In 1978 Clinton ran for governor of Arkansas, defeating Lynn Lowe and becoming the youngest governor in the country at age thirty-two. He served as governor until 1992.

Bernard Rapoport connection

Bernard Rapoport, Bill Clinton

As Texas swung from a Democratic stronghold to an increasingly Republican and conservative state, marxist leaning businessman Bernard Rapoport continued to support liberal Democrats and their causes, both with his money and his extensive national political connections. His contributions to George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign put Mr. Rapoport on one of President Richard M. Nixon’s enemies lists; contributions to the presidential campaigns of both Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton helped nourish a 40-year friendship. Mr. Clinton was scheduled to deliver a eulogy at a memorial service in May 2012, in Washington DC.

From 1974 onward, Rapoport donated to every one of Bill Clinton's campaigns and served as fundraiser for both presidential bids.

Presidential appointment

On March 18 1994 President Clinton appointed Susan Hammer, Fu Tong-Hsu, Bernard Rapoport, Jack Sheinkman and Paula Stern to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.

Sheinbaum connection

Betty Sheinbaum and Stanley Sheinbaum are as close as the progressive Westside comes to a first couple. (She’s Jack Warner’s daughter, and he’s a former economics professor turned anti-Vietnam War and civil liberties activist.) Their light-filled Brentwood Park living room has hosted generations of liberal Democratic politicians and progressive foreign leaders. Some of Bill Clinton's first introductions to Hollywood occurred there.”

Bill Clinton to this day will recall that Sheinbaum was among the first who leant support to his fledgling run for the presidency.

Presidential appointment

On March 23 1994 President Clinton appointed Stanley Sheinbaum, Roger Hilsman and Robert Shamansky to the National Security Education Board.

President of the USA

Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.0% of the vote) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist Ross Perot, who ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote) on a platform focusing on domestic issues. He was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993.

Guinier controversy

In April 1993, President Clinton nominated legal scholar and civil rights attorney Lani Guinier to the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Professor Guinier was also a personal and long-time friend of the Clinton’s. Their friendship dated back to law school at Yale University. The Clintons even attended Guinier’s wedding in the 1980s.

By June 1993, President Clinton withdrew Guinier’s nomination after a Republican-led attack successfully shattered her credibility enough to quash her appointment to the critical justice and civil rights post.

Impeachment

In 1995, 22-year-old Monica Lewinsky was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term, and began a personal relationship with him, the details of which she later confided to her friend and Defense department co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.

On Jan. 26, 1998, Clinton made a public statement regarding his alleged relationship with Lewinsky, during which he stated:

"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."

However on August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted in a taped grand jury testimony that he had had an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting his relationship with Lewinsky which was "not appropriate".

Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, and acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. The two charges passed in the House (largely on the basis of Republican support but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Monica Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit (later dismissed, appealed and settled for $850,000) by Lewinsky's former colleague, Linda Tripp.

The Senate concluded a twenty-one day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an office holder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty. Some Republicans voted not guilty for both charges. On the perjury charge, fifty-five senators voted to acquit, including ten Republicans, and forty-five voted to convict; on the obstruction charge the Senate voted 50-50.

Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi connection

New Democrat Coalition

The New Democrat Coalition was founded in 1997 by Representatives Cal Dooley (California), James P. Moran (Virginia) and Timothy Roemer (Indiana) as a congressional affiliate of the avowedly centrist Democratic Leadership Council, whose members, including former President Bill Clinton, call themselves "New Democrats." In November 2012, the New Democrat Coalition announced the election of its new leadership team. New Dems elected Rep. Ron Kind (WI-03) as the Chair and re-elected Reps. Jim Himes (CT-04), Rick Larsen (WA-02), and Allyson Schwartz (PA-13) as Vice Chairs and added Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA-11) as a Vice Chair.

Radical deputy chief of staff

Bill Clinton, Maria Echaveste

From 1998 to 2001, Maria Echaveste served as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. In this capacity, Echaveste managed domestic policy initiatives that focused on education, civil rights, immigration and bankruptcy reform. She also developed communications, legislative and public outreach strategies. In another area, she coordinated relief efforts within the White House for foreign and domestic disasters, and specialized in international issues related to Latin America. She was previously the administrator of the labor department's Wage and Hour Division from 1993 to 1997.

Arafat connection

Iran lobby

Kirsten Gillibrand had also picked up money from the Iran Lobby’s Hassan Nemazee. Namazee was Hillary Clinton’s national campaign finance director who had raised a fortune for both her and John Kerry before pleading guilty to a fraud scheme encompassing hundreds of millions of dollars. Nemazee had been an Iranian American Political Action Committee trustee and had helped set up the organization.

Bill Clinton had nominated Hassan Nemazee as the US ambassador to Argentina when he had only been a citizen for two years. A "spoilsport Senate" didn’t allow Clinton to make a member of the Iran Lobby into a US ambassador, but Nemazee remained a steady presence on the Democrat fundraising circuit.

Nemazee had donated to Gillibrand and had also kicked in money to help the Al Franken Recount Fund "scour all the cemeteries for freshly dead votes", as well as to Barbara Boxer, who also came out for the Iran nuke deal. Boxer had also received money more directly from IAPAC.

Campus Progress Conference

Emira Woods, Matthew Yglesias, Fellow, Center for American Progress, Reuben Brigety, Director, Sustainable Security Program, Center for American Progress, Jamie Fly, Executive Director, The Foreign Policy Initiative and Heather Hurlburt, Executive Director, National Security Network were speakers on the Threat Assessment: How the U.S. and the global community should deal with terrorism, rogue states, and nuclear proliferation panel at the Campus Progress Conference held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., July 8, 2009.

Other speakers at the conference included President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Van Jones, former Special Advisor for Green Jobs, White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Conference on Progressive Governance for the 21st Century

President Clinton delivered remarks at a dinner for the conference on Progressive Governance for the 21st Century, in Florence Italy, November 1999.

The summit began on former U.S. President Bill Clinton's initiative in 1999.

Progressive Governance Conference, 2008

Romano Prodi, David Miliband, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former U.S. President Bill Clinton sit down for the first working session of the Progressive Governance Summit on April 5, 2008 in Hertfordshire, England. The summit will this year address globalisation, climate change and poverty with over 300 delegates attending.

President Bill Clinton at GPF Brussels 2009

Bill Clinton addresses the Forum

Progressives from all over the world are getting together in Brussels on April 2-3, 2009 at the Global Progressive Forum to discuss how to create a better globalization for people.

The Global Progressive Forum brings together politicians, trade unions, NGOs and progressive representatives of international organizations. Participants confirmed to date include President Bill Clinton, Pascal Lamy, Howard Dean, Barney Frank, Helen Clark, [Antonio Guterres], Vandana Shiva, Salima Ghezali, Susan George, Zwelinzima Vavi, Aminata Traore, Chico Whitaker and many more. The challenges are finding new answers to the global crisis – including economic and financial crisis, food crisis and climate and energy crisis – and stepping up efforts to work together to reshape globalization.

Key moments include

• Opening event at 15.00 on Thursday 2 April with President Bill Clinton
• Workshop 1: Progressive politics in Globalization at 16.00 on Thursday 2 April with Howard Dean
• Workshop 10: A New direction for capitalism at 9.00 on Friday 3 April with Pascal Lamy and Barney Frank
• ‘Time for a Global New Deal’ at 12.00 on Friday 3 April: Signing of declaration for a better globalization with high level politicians, trade unionists and NGO representatives and outstanding international personalities.

The Global Progressive Forum is timed to coincide with the G20 meeting in London and the NATO anniversary events in Strasbourg.

Some 2,000 participants are expected over the two days including many PES activists and young progressives from all over Europe as well as trade unionists, NGOs and students.

15.00-16.15 Opening Event (Hemicycle)

• President Bill Clinton, President of the US, Chair of the Global Clinton Initiative and Clinton Foundation
• Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the PES, former Prime Minister of Denmark
• Josep Borrell, Chair of the Global Progressive Forum, Chair of the Development committee of the European Parliament
• Martin Schulz, President of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament
• Sharan Burrow, ITUC President, Australia

Party of European Socialists

PES Homepage

In the wake of the economic crisis, the PES joined Europeans for Financial Reform (EFFR), a coalition of NGOs, foundations and civil society actors that demand a stronger regulation of financial markets. In order to push for such a regulation world-wide, EFFR cooperates with its US partner Americans for Financial Reform.

The PES also maintains regular contact with US Democrats and over the years we have worked together in the fields of Nuclear nonproliferation, climate change and globalization. Former US President Bill Clinton was one of the key speakers in the 3rd World Conference of the Global Progressive Forum (GPF, a common initiative by the PES, the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies to address the negative aspects of globalization).

Philanthropy

Upon completing his second term as President of the USA, Clinton dedicated himself to philanthropy and continued public service, particularly through the William J. Clinton Foundation.

William J. Clinton Foundation

Clinton is the founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation which promotes and provides for a number of humanitarian causes. The foundation has focused on supporting AIDS awareness campaigns and making treatment for HIV/AIDS more affordable. Receiving funding from a number of foreign governments, the foundation also seeks to address such problems as global public health, climate change, poverty alleviations and religious and ethnic conflict.

Humanitarian Action

In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton joined with former President Bush to help with relief and recovery following the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and to lead a nationwide fundraising effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also served as U.N. Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery from 2005 to 2007.

National Domestic Workers Alliance

Palak Shah June 10, 2015 near Denver, CO ·

President Clinton just announced National Domestic Workers Alliance's groundbreaking partnership with @caredotcom the #FairCarePledge — with Ai-jen Poo, Sheila Marcelo and Avra Siegel.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

In November 20113, Bill Clinton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Anniversary of King march

A march and rally marking the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March on Washington on Capitol Hill, beginning a day of events recalling the historic 1963 civil-rights demonstration.

The march along a 1.6-mile route downtown will pass several buildings with significance for the civil-rights era, including the Justice Department, U.S. Courthouse, Department of Labor and Washington Monument. The procession, to be led by a restored 1960s-era bus like that used by civil-rights activists the Freedom Riders, is expected to draw upward of 100,000 participants. The original march, which demanded jobs and equal rights for blacks, drew about 250,000.

The route ends about midday at the Lincoln Memorial, where President Barack Obama will speak while standing in the same spot on the memorial steps where Rev. King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, a stirring vision of equality, exactly five decades ago. Mr. Obama will cap two hours of official speeches between 1 and 3 p.m.

Wednesday's speakers include former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as civil-rights protest hero Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the only surviving speaker from the original 1963 event. D.C.

Mayor Vincent Gray also will speak. Other congressional speakers include Reps. Joaquin Castro (D., Texas), Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio), Donna Edwards (D., Md.) and Angus King (I., Maine).

Jose La Luz connection

Jose La Luz, Bill Clinton.

Jose La Luz, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton.

External links

• Clinton's biography with the White House
• William J. Clinton Foundation website

References

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