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No One Left to Lie to: The Values of the Worst Family
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In No One Left to Lie To, Christopher Hitchens portrays President Bill Clinton as one of the most ideologically skewed and morally negligent politicians of recent times. In a blistering polemic which shows that Clinton was at once philanderer and philistine, crooked and corrupt, Hitchens challenges perceptions - of liberals and conservatives alike - of this highly divisive
...more
Paperback, 150 pages
Published
July 17th 2000
by Verso
(first published 1999)
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Michael Kocher
That was a republication sometime after Hitchens passed away
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Christopher Hitchens was not what you would call a team player. His refusal to be pinned down as aligning neatly to the Left or Right of the political spectrum is a source of repeated consternation for his supporters, many of whom still cannot reconcile their admiration of the man himself with his support of neoconservative policies like the Iraq War. He was a self-confessed contrarian, but more importantly he possessed an unwavering moral compass which compelled him (with seeming indifference t
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Nov 19, 2017
Margitte
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2017-read,
american-author,
american-history,
british-author,
history,
nonfiction,
reviewed
'Your heart on fire and your brain on ice ~ Vladimir Lenin
“Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal, the open mind against the credulous” - Christopher Hitchens.
THE BLURB
In No One Left to Lie To, Christopher Hitchens portrays President Bill Clinton as one of the most ideologically skewed and morally negligent politicians of recent times. In a blistering polemic which shows that Clinton was at once philanderer and philistine, crooked and corrupt, Hitchens challenges perceptions - of li ...more
“Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal, the open mind against the credulous” - Christopher Hitchens.
THE BLURB
In No One Left to Lie To, Christopher Hitchens portrays President Bill Clinton as one of the most ideologically skewed and morally negligent politicians of recent times. In a blistering polemic which shows that Clinton was at once philanderer and philistine, crooked and corrupt, Hitchens challenges perceptions - of li ...more

Jul 30, 2008
Josh
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone curious about having their mind expertly changed
Recommended to Josh by:
Marc Emert-Hutner
Bill Clinton took the highest office when I was 10, left when I was 18, and I always looked on him as the sly, cool dude Prez, who, in the glowing aura of Dubya's historical shitheap of a Presidency, I've many times said how "cool" it'd be to get him back. Suffice it to say, I don't anymore.
Christopher Hitchens is perhaps best known for his recent best-seller, God Is Not Great, which you may or may not be interested in, and which I haven't read, but he's merely a journalist & polemicist & ...more
Christopher Hitchens is perhaps best known for his recent best-seller, God Is Not Great, which you may or may not be interested in, and which I haven't read, but he's merely a journalist & polemicist & ...more

It is quite rare to see Bill Clinton's name appearing in any 'worst' President lists, certainly when compared with the likes of Nixon and W. This despite the impeachment proceedings brought against him over the Lewinsky affair. This is no doubt due largely to the period of economic prosperity associated with his Presidency.
Hitchens contention in this book is that Clinton was a serial liar, guilty of treating appallingly a great number of women. Clinton is accused of (amongst other things) rape, ...more
Hitchens contention in this book is that Clinton was a serial liar, guilty of treating appallingly a great number of women. Clinton is accused of (amongst other things) rape, ...more

For the last 10 years I've been saying that I wish Clinton could be president again. After reading this book I'm now saying "Oh, HELL no!"
I didn't reach voting age until after Clinton got re-elected. I wasn't following politics at the time. Since then, I did read Ann Coulter's diatribe against Clinton, but the deranged rantings about how the Clintons murdered Vince Foster and so on immediately negated credibility (and that it was Ann Coulter!). Delusional fantasy like that is where Hitchens refu ...more
I didn't reach voting age until after Clinton got re-elected. I wasn't following politics at the time. Since then, I did read Ann Coulter's diatribe against Clinton, but the deranged rantings about how the Clintons murdered Vince Foster and so on immediately negated credibility (and that it was Ann Coulter!). Delusional fantasy like that is where Hitchens refu ...more

In a fit of contrarianism--a trait which this author surely cannot hold against me--in the twilight of George W. Bush's eight years in the White House I elected to read Christopher Hitchens's polemical retrospective on the Clinton presidency. The author's preface does exactly what it should do, and cuts to the chase in the first two sentences: "This little book...is offered in the most cheerful and open polemical spirit, as an attack on a crooked president and a reactionary administration." I do
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Interesting interview with the over-matched Charlie Rose when the book had just come out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrM0...
I belong to no party, but it turns out Bill and Hillary were just two peas in a pod....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77...
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/op...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlrM0...
I belong to no party, but it turns out Bill and Hillary were just two peas in a pod....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77...
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/op...

The late Christopher Hitchens was irreverent, gifted, iconoclastic and brave. No target too big, no challenge too great. Anyone who can take aim at Kissinger, Mother Theresa, Radical Islamists and who would volunteer to stand alongside and take a bullet for Salman Rushdie after the fatwa was handed down by Ayatollah, well, he either knows a good defamation attorney, has a good home security system or simply has no fears. So it is not surprising he takes on Bilary in this entertaining, savaging t
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This might be the first book I've read knowing there was an agenda behind it (I tend towards straight history). But since it was written by Hitchens and I've read quite a few books about Clinton, it seemed appropriate to "round out the knowledge" so to speak. Plus, Hitchens, of all writers, is above all a trustworthy narrator. The book obviously takes aim at the Clintons with evidence both real and circumstantial but Hitchens always admits as much. And that typical Hitchens humor is found in gre
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Given the title and tagline, a legitimate question is "Why read this book?" Is it merely provocative? A work to be shared by the community of Clinton haters? Come for the Clinton bashing, stay for the wonderful and witty prose. Is there any journalistic value to reading this book as the other half of the "Worst Family" is running for president?
My opinion on Bill Clinton prior to reading this book was consistent with the party line/myth: up from poverty, extremely intelligent, battled a hostile c ...more
My opinion on Bill Clinton prior to reading this book was consistent with the party line/myth: up from poverty, extremely intelligent, battled a hostile c ...more

Dec 14, 2013
Greg Brozeit
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
politics-and-policy
Bill Clinton understood, as Huey Long did before him, that “the essence of American politics…when distilled, consists of the manipulation of populism by elitism.” In this short, readably dense volume written at the end of the Clinton administration, Hitchens lays out the case of how the American public was blinded and manipulated to buy a myth. Unfortunately, Hitchens is no longer with us. I’m sure he would have recognized a reprise of sorts in Hillary Clinton’s current campaign for the presiden
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It is a pity that this is not more widely read on the Left, or what's left of it (I suppose Hitchens' ill-considered support for the Iraq War destroyed his reputation as a man of the Left, and rendered it invisible to the younger set). The short version is that the Clintons seduced the Democratic Party into abandoning not only all of its principles, but all principle whatsoever. And Hillary was there from the beginning, and as our future first female president in training, earned her chops by co
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I was not impressed with this book. None of Hitchen's arguments ever surpass the threshold of mere gossip-mongering, providing instead a swath of conspiracy through which the reader must wade to reach a rather incongruent conclusion. Perhaps the best argument comes late in the book, when Hitchen details the dubious case of the Al-Shifa factory bombing and its related cover-up, but even then the connection between premise and conclusion is string-thin at best. Hitchens does a wonderful job charac
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Essential Hitchslapping of a man (and now, a legacy) who liberals/the left have been far too quick to forgive. It's also required reading for anyone who would claim to be "Ready for Hillary" in 2016 (a prospect which Hitchens would be terrified about, and that I can't now exactly psych myself up for, either).

Read this one shortly after venting my frustrations with all things Clinton to a friend. No one does a take-down quite like Hitchens (for whom I have complicated feelings, possessing a brilliant mind that turned ugly in later years [partly due perhaps to years of alcoholism, but that's a separate issue]) but his vitriol gets the better of him on this one, often obscuring his very valid points about Clinton's war crimes, sex crimes, false promises, and disgusting tactics. Hitchens at certain poin
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Hitchens' work is probably the first I would give someone asking "why should I be concerned about another Clinton presidency?" or someone who espouses Clinton as one of our greatest Presidents. Presidents always see approval ratings rise after they leave office and the cognitive dissonance is amazing. Hitchens writes his book not as part of the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" but an aggrieved liberal living in Washington, D.C. and being friends with many connected to the Administration, with the a
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I went to a luncheon presentation recently by the author and was quite taken by his perception and wit. Then I looked at the broad range of his published books. Having said some rather provocative comments about the president at lunch, I figured this book was a good place to start and I was not disappointed. Completed in the last days of the Clinton presidential administration and just before the start of Hillary's stint as N.Y. Senator, Hitchens catalogues Clinton abuses dating back well before
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a friend made me borrow this after we drank 6 beers each and watched a bunch of hilarious clips on youtube of hitchens being a dick.
very fun vitriol, though comes across as if it were written at the same speed at which i breezed through it. so heat-of-the-moment that it suffers now for lack of background and context on some of the people/events mentioned. had to do a bit of side-googling to refresh my memory on some things. and i am 100% sure counterexample upon counterexample were conveniently ...more
very fun vitriol, though comes across as if it were written at the same speed at which i breezed through it. so heat-of-the-moment that it suffers now for lack of background and context on some of the people/events mentioned. had to do a bit of side-googling to refresh my memory on some things. and i am 100% sure counterexample upon counterexample were conveniently ...more

It's impossible not to read this short, angry shriek of a book without thinking of Christopher Hitchens' later career as the cheerleader for George Bush's Middle Eastern adventures. It's also hard to avoid concluding that his frothing Clinton-hatred provided a gateway to right wing insanity. Watching Hitch treat Clinton's August 1998 cruise missile strike in Sudan, which claimed a single civilian life, as a war crime worthy of Nuremberg is beyond disgusting given Hitchens' bloodthirsty advocacy
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In lieu of a review, I offer the following piece of correspondence sent on the eve of the California primary to B---:
You will, I hope, forgive my extended silence. As a rule, I use the internet only when being paid to do other things (so never at home) and the source of my remuneration has required of me a much more vigorous output due to a recent string of quittings. Here I am though with a quarter hour to while away in your fine company, discussing our present predicament which I have decided ...more
You will, I hope, forgive my extended silence. As a rule, I use the internet only when being paid to do other things (so never at home) and the source of my remuneration has required of me a much more vigorous output due to a recent string of quittings. Here I am though with a quarter hour to while away in your fine company, discussing our present predicament which I have decided ...more

One of the problems with general snarkyness (or is that snarkiness?) is that, when it is written, it’s sometimes difficult to interpret. I’m sure all of us have encountered such an experience on the web when we wrote something that was intended to be a bit of a joke; someone read it and misinterpreted it poorly; and we’re left trying to explain ourselves, which usually boils down to a quick aside like, “dude, I was j-o-k-i-n-g.” Having to point out that you made a joke essentially ruins the joke
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As the election approaches some regard Hillary Clinton as a lesser evil. That will be a hard view to maintain if one reads this book. Is it a full revelation of the facts? How could it be when 121 of the special witnesses called to testify against Clinton's corruption either pled the fifth amendment to avoid incriminating themselves or out right fled the country? In the absence of their honest testimony, the reader is presented with the evidence that does exist, and invited to bring their common
...more

After reading this book I feel embarrassed to have ever had favorable opinions of this vile man's Presidency. I never really looked into his Presidency in a serious way, I had just heard the general chatter about the low unemployment, the budget surplus, and how "Bill Clinton the great speaker" would boost the Democratic poll numbers after his speech at the DNC when his wife was nominated as the Democratic Presidential candidate. I knew about DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Ac
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Feb 19, 2016
Stephen
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
anyone who thinks that Bill Clinton should be removed from the list of best presidents
Recommended to Stephen by:
not sure where I read it, but in an anti-hillary blog and I am anti-Hillary
Well, do I have egg on my face. I was the consummate Bill Clinton lover. The man could do no wrong. The man was charismatic and the leader we needed. He cared about the poor and downtrodden. BULLSHIT!
The man was a fucking liar. A fucking liar. It is all out there if you are willing to dig, but you don't have to thanks to Mr. Hitchens. I am sorry the author has died; I wish the same thing were to happen to both Bill & Hill. She is the last thing this country needs. Like Jeb!, enough of the fu ...more
The man was a fucking liar. A fucking liar. It is all out there if you are willing to dig, but you don't have to thanks to Mr. Hitchens. I am sorry the author has died; I wish the same thing were to happen to both Bill & Hill. She is the last thing this country needs. Like Jeb!, enough of the fu ...more

Still miss Hitchens. Had to bone up on the evils of the Clinton political machine before the November elections. Hillary is just as culpable and grotesquely power hungry as Bill. I don't envy America's upcoming choices. Nuts, nuts, greasy politicians, and evil careerist politicians are the four choices left. Great book. Learned a load about Clinton's term in office that was swept under the rug back in the '90s and even about his sleaze in the '70s. Hitch slap!

Music to the ears of those who find America's love affair with the Clinton Crime Family a symptom of hopeless decline. Christopher Hitchens lowers his head and charges,painting a vivid picture of a clique of toadies and lapdogs led by a vain and empty pair of egomaniacs. He doesnt attack the liberalism of the Clintons but their absolute insincerity and dishonesty. He does it with consummate humor and style.A must read for all Americans.

Over the course of the past decade, I've gotten real tired of the Clintons & this only reinforced that feeling. Wish they'd just go away & take all their baggage with them. I will say that Billary's conduct in the primaries for 2008 is rather less surprising when viewed in the light of what Hitchens asserts here.
Most likely she'll be the nominee for 2016. The party elite apparatus has already decided. Most unenthusiastic vote I may ever cast.
Most likely she'll be the nominee for 2016. The party elite apparatus has already decided. Most unenthusiastic vote I may ever cast.
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Christopher Eric Hitchens was an English-born American author, journalist, and literary critic. He was a contributor to Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Slate, Free Inquiry and a variety of other media outlets. Hitchens was also a political observer, whose best-selling books — the most famous being God Is Not Great — made him a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. He was
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“Some years ago, after the disappearance of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwirner in Mississippi, some friends of mine were dragging the rivers for their bodies. This one wasn’t Schwirner. This one wasn’t Goodman. This one wasn’t Chaney. Then, as Dave Dennis tells it, “It suddenly struck us—what difference did it make that it wasn’t them? What are these bodies doing in the river?” That was nineteen years ago. The questions has not been answered, and I dare you to go digging in the bayou. —James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, 1985”
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“Instead, the polling business gives the patricians an idea of what the mob is thinking, and of how that thinking might be changed or, shall we say, “shaped.” It is the essential weapon in the mastery of populism by the elite.”
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