SHADOW.

• Author: Levine, Art
• Position: Review

SHADOW By Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster $27.50

In Shadow, presidential aides and lawyers look outer themselves, not the president

BOB WOODWARD HAS BEEN GETTING A bum rap for his latest book, Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate. There's something about this best-selling investigative legend offering yet another inside Washington narrative--complete with dialogue-laden confidential meetings based on "anonymous" sources--that inflames critics. Unfortunately, most of them are missing the deeper scandal that lies at the heart of Woodward's book and the larger significance of his body of work. Maybe it's just that they're jealous that 25 years after changing American politics and journalism with his reporting on Watergate (with Carl "Where are they now?" Bernstein), Woodward is still raking in millions and working as hard as ever--while many of them can't get Vernon Jordan to return their phone calls, let alone spend hours with them reconstructing the minutiae of meetings.

Much of the criticism has a familiar ring. There was Steve Brill picking apart Woodward as an irresponsible fabricator who doesn't let facts or contradictory stories get in the way of a good tale, or Frank Rich in The New York Times Magazine deriding Woodward as an elitist prig protecting Washington's Clinton-hating permanent establishment. In addition, others piled on with more Woodward-bashing over questionable sourcing and plodding writing style, and Woodward's work also faced a relatively novel critique (for him): Where are the big bombshells? In this view, with so much of the Monica Lewinsky scandal already aired in our 24-hour news culture, what's the big deal if, say, Rep. Henry Hyde secretly tried to arrange a censure deal? As Fortune magazine headlined its review: "Excuse Us, Bob, But This Dirt's Been Dug" Somehow, despite all these supposed weaknesses, the book has become a best-seller.

In truth, Woodward's book offers shocking, riveting evidence of duplicity, hypocrisy, and improprieties. I'm not referring to the behavior of post-Watergate Presidents and their top aides, though, but the willingness of President Clinton's attorneys, associates, and trusted advisers to spill their guts to the Svengali-like Woodward, all in the hopes of burnishing their own reputations and distancing themselves from the cover-ups they helped perpetuate. The irony of it all is that these same aides and attorneys, particularly David Kendall and Bob Bennett, fought tooth and nail--including mounting largely failed Supreme Court appeals--to "protect" the president from making disclosures in every scandal from Whitewater through Lewinsky: whether it involved facing disruptive civil lawsuits, disclosing confidential discussions with White House aides and counsels, or responding to intimate, humiliating questions from his legal enemies. The result was that Clinton's not-so-loyal soldiers spent millions of dollars and years of the public's time stonewalling Ken Starr and Paula Jones' attorneys as long as possible and stupidly triggering federal court decisions that effectively rob any president of the right to hold confidential meetings; all the while mouthing platitudes about the dignity of the office and the need to preserve the ability of the president to do the nation's business.

Then they turn around and offer Woodward juicy morsels about the president's blood tests and penis. Here's Detective Woodward's report on the president giving a blood sample to see if his DNA matched that on the notorious blue Gap dress:

"At 10:10 p.m., Clinton, Kendall, White House Physician Dr. Connie Mariano, [Starr deputy Bob] Bittman and an FBI agent met in the White House Map Room, where President Franklin Roosevelt monitored the course of World War II. Kendall made a weak joke about having always wanted one of his clients to give blood. Clinton shot him a look that could freeze water. The president rolled up his right sleeve and Dr. Mariano extracted approximately 4 milliliters of blood. It was a painful invasion of Clinton's privacy. The president showed his unhappiness."

Bill Clinton--and the book's readers--no doubt appreciate the tender solicitude Woodward and his sources show for the President's privacy. Equal sensitivity is shown by Bob Bennett, who graciously shares his up-close-and-personal insights about the state of the President's...