81 Quotes by Joe Klein

A lot of it was purely fictional, speculation on my part, ... I figured the reaction from the White House was that whoever wrote this thing had no idea what the Clintons were all about. Then, shockingly, people in the White House started accusing each other of having written it. That reaction was what really set if off.

There's a basic law, Klein's second, or third, or fourth law of politics in the TV age, which is warm always beats cold, with the exception of Richard Nixon. The nicer guy usually wins.

It will make sure players have best spots available for playing time. It will better allow communication with the major leagues and, for the agents, it's almost like one-stop shopping.

I invented the psychological histories and the relationship between Jack and Susan Stanton. I didn't know anything about the Clintons. I don't know more about the Clintons' marriage than you do.

I'm honored that Ambassador John Bolton would agree to read a copy of my book. Ambassador Bolton understands that the United Nations is an institution desperately in need of reform, and I hope that he and the UN employees who have read my book will be able to continue bringing about change within the organization.

I haven't heard from him. I think he is mulling over other opportunities, but there is no way of knowing. It's a timing thing, really.

In 2012 there was a megafoolish, if well-funded, effort by a group called Americans Elect to raise an independent Cincinnatus to run for president via an Internet draft. It flopped, spectacularly.

If there was one fact that sent me hurtling off to write 'Politics Lost,' it was when I learned that John Kerry had focus-grouped Abu Ghraib. We knew about the Justice Department memo in June of 2004, and Kerry didn't raise that in any one of his three debates with George Bush.

If he'd been negotiating Obamacare, Lincoln would have made the infamous 'Cornhusker Kickback' deal - $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska to secure a Senator's vote - in a heartbeat, even if the press howled as it did when Barack Obama agreed to it, forcing its cancellation.