Larry Elder’s Oct. 5 syndicated column (reprinted at WorldNetDaily) rehashes a pair of questionable racism claims about the Clintons, presenting them as factual and unchallenged. In fact, the accusations — popular among Clinton-haters in the 1990s — are factually dubious given the political motivations, credibility problems and conflicting claims made by the accusers.
Elder wrote:
According to Clinton’s bodyguard, Arkansas State Trooper Larry Patterson, Clinton frequently used the “N” word, using it to describe Reverend Jesse Jackson, as well as a local black civil rights leader. Said Patterson, “When [Bill Clinton] had black political leaders in the state and he disagreed with them, he would frequently use the ‘N’ word.”
What about former First Lady and current Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton [D-NY]? She allegedly called Clinton’s congressional campaign adviser, who failed to secure her then-boyfriend’s 1974 election to Congress, a “f***ing Jew bastard.” Not only did Paul Fray — the target — go public, so did his wife, as well as campaign aide and businessman Neil McDonald.
Elder fails to note that, regarding the Bill Clinton accusation, Larry Patterson was a political enemy of Clinton who cashed in on his Clinton-hate among right-wingers. As we’ve noted, NewsMax sold tapes of Patterson making lurid claims against the Clintons.
In their book “The Hunting of the President,” Gene Lyons and Joe Conason point out that Patterson “was said to harbor a grudge” against Clinton “for going to Washington without setting [him and a fellow state trooper] up in federal jobs” and because he didn’t push a bill funding a state police lobbying group Patterson had helped to found through mandatory dues from state troopers’ paychecks. Lyons and Conason also quote Patterson’s former supervisor as saying Patterson’s “mentality and objective in life was to sleep with as many women as he could. You could not have a conversation with Larry Patterson more than five minutes that sex didn’t enter into it and whose britches he was trying to get in. … If Bill Clinton had a meeting with a woman behind closed doors, Larry assumed it was for the purpose of sex, because that’s what it would have been if he had been there.”
Regarding the accusation against Hillary Clinton, Elder fails to note that Fray has serious credibility problems. As we’ve detailed, Fray lost his law license after admitting he was paid to alter a court document. Additionally, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that led to seizures, addiction to prescription pain killers, erratic behavior and memory loss, according to court records. he wrote a letter to Clinton begging her forgiveness for saying things about her “without factual foundation.”
While Elder also claims that “campaign aide and businessman Neil McDonald” corroborated the account, author Gail Sheehy reported that McDonald “told me he didn’t hear it,” according to the New York Daily News.