Posted: 3:19 am
August 20, 2008
IT'S political publishing season. Except for maybe Mr. Potatoe Head Dan Quayle, there's some book about every could be/should be/would be/ used to be politician coming out. Ask me what's the next one. Ask. Just ask.
Ready?
Don't ask.
It's "In Search of Bill Clinton." The St. Martin's job says Bill Blythe, the man Bill always believed is his father, isn't.
Like I said, don't ask.
Author's John D. Gartner, Ph.D. A Johns Hopkins University psychologist who sort of writes books and who sort of (pardon the phrase) lays Bubba out on the couch to explain him. Per this doc:
* William Jefferson Clinton's true pa was actually George Wright, a doctor from Hope, Ark., for whom mama Virginia once worked. Friends recall her bragging about him.
* Page 78 is a high school yearbook photo of Bill and his look-alike "probable" (says the author) half brother Larry Wright.
* Previous biographers, claims this therapist, "accepted Virginia's version of her life at face value, relying on her memoir," but "clinical instincts" told him "there was more."
Could be this shrink needs a shrink. Why he's interviewed everybody in the state of Arkansas to write this instead of spending time conducting therapy sessions, who knows. But for reasons totally obscure, he's fascinated with Bill Clinton's persona.
Pages 71-83 is his talk with George Wright Jr., who, aware of this story about his father, tells the author: "I've always wanted to say to Bill: Hey, all this crap about us being half brothers, is there anything to that?"
Then, on the subject of DNA: "I wouldn't do anything like that. I mean, not behind Bill's back. But if he were willing . . . I would like to find out. I would like to do that DNA deal. It would be nice to know."
Gartner puts together the genes of George Wright and Bill Clinton. Calls both "workaholics . . . explosive . . . intellectually gifted . . . self-made" and adds Bill Blythe - "drifter, high school dropout" - did not share those genes.
He then goes on to tell us:
* Bill is still dealing with Mommy and Daddy issues.
* Colorful Virginia Kelley would leave any child with much to handle.
