Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [546]
President Bill Clinton first agreed to sit down with me to be interviewed for this book project in 2004. Weeks later, he underwent open-heart surgery. Yet he remained true to his promise: We met in Philadelphia to talk about the events of Whitewater, then met twice at his home in Chappaqua, New York, to discuss the Paula Jones lawsuit, the explosion of the Lewinsky affair in the media, and the draining congressional impeachment proceedings. President Clinton was charming, hospitable, and surprisingly candid when it came to reflecting on the scandal that nearly ruined his presidency. As I drove back to the airport, crossing the Hudson River on that sunny day after my final interview session with the former president, I knew I had a book unlike any other.
There are many other players in this drama who contributed to the finished story. The editors of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette gave me complete access to that paper’s archives, a treasure trove of news stories. Susan McDougal turned over boxes of original documents relating to Whitewater, allowing me to use them without limitation. As well, even though it was still difficult for her to revisit the past, she took me to the grave of her former husband, Jim McDougal, so that I could climb the hill and describe that scene in the final chapter of the book. The McDougals’ close friend and vigilant guardian, Claudia Riley, provided a place for this author to eat and sleep during trips to Arkadelphia, even opening the doors of the little cottage at the foot of her driveway where Jim McDougal lived before going to prison. Claudia Riley also introduced me to Dr. Richard Clark, the thoughtful psychologist who treated Jim McDougal at the Fort Worth prison and who made available (with permission of the executor) never-before-released psychological records that chronicled McDougal’s tragic death in the “hole” of that federal institution.
Paula Jones’s first lawyer, Danny Traylor, welcomed me into his office in Little Rock and took me on a memorable boat ride on the Arkansas River, recounting the story of how a small-time real estate lawyer found himself in the midst of the most politically charged lawsuit in the United States. Greg Kitterman, another Jones attorney, helped to arrange an interview with Paula and her friend Debra Ballentine at a cozy Italian restaurant in North Little Rock; this meeting was instrumental in allowing me to understand what made Ms. Jones tick and why she felt compelled to sue the president. Ms. Jones’s Virginia lawyers, Gil Davis and Joe Cammarata, were consummate professionals who provided much assistance. Davis permitted me to review file cabinets filled with documents relating to the Jones case in the basement of his Virginia law office—a researcher’s gold mine. Two of Ms. Jones’s Dallas lawyers, Jim Fisher and Wes Holmes, told their side of the story with fairness and balance. Bob Bennett, who represented President Clinton in the lawsuit, pointed me in the direction of material that shed new light on key events. And the clerk’s office of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas scanned thousands of pieces of correspondence from the public records of Judge Susan Webber Wright—relating to the Jones case—in order to assist in this historical undertaking.
Monica Lewinsky overcame her understandable skepticism of writers to sit down with this author for dozens of hours of interviews. Even though the process was clearly painful for her, she maintained