What Bill Clinton Said
The first bill I signed into law as President was the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. Carolyn Maloney voted for it.
What Bill Clinton Really Said
Carolyn Maloney is someone who will fall in line. She is a pretty reliable
Democrat. She is a checkbox Democrat. She is no leader, if that is what you are looking for, but she is not one of those who give you a hard time voting for what the rest of the party is very willing to vote for. That is an A on reliability.
What Bill Clinton Said
(S)he recently introduced a bill that would expand this act to include LGBT employees and their partners. That is how you effect real change— by figuring out how to build upon the progress we've made as a nation.
What Bill Clinton Really Said
Carolyn Maloney has not done dazzling work on gender. There is no pre-Maloney, post-Maloney thing on gender. She has been unremarkable, pretty much. But I don't think this is a quest to demolish Maloney and put in her place
Reshma Saujani. If Reshma Saujani wins, she is going to have to build on some of the good work Maloney and others like Maloney have done. These early women have laid down the foundations. Women in future will have to build upon that. Reshma Saujani's quest is more to become the successor to Maloney, rather than to displace Maloney.
What Bill Clinton Said
(Maloney) passed anti-rape legislation .... (Maloney) succeeded in getting mammograms covered by Medicare
What Bill Clinton Really Said
See, I told you. Maloney has done some work for women. Women in future are going to have to build upon Maloney's work. What Maloney has done is not the total package, it is not a complete package, it is rather piecemeal and haphazard, but it is what it is.
What Bill Clinton Said
with all the work she's done on financial issues.
What Bill Clinton Really Said
Look, both you and I know Maloney will bite the arm if you will give her a finger. She has been trying to take credit for all the financial reform work that has been done by two chambers of
Congress these past few months, but this is election season, and she is facing a tough primary fight. I think she is entitled to take a little more credit than is due hers. What the heck, politicians do that all the time. Don't fault the woman for what is pretty mainstream behavior.
What Bill Clinton Said
As a father, I want what's best for my child and someday, her children. Decades from now, we will all still be reaping the benefits of Carolyn's extraordinary work.
What Bill Clinton Really Said
My daughter has never heard of Carolyn Maloney. But then she likes rap music too. It might be generational. I asked her, and she was wondering if Carolyn Maloney was one of our family friends from back in Arkansas. Carolyn does have a North Carolina accent, but that is not why Chelsea asked.
If you ask me, Carolyn Maloney is "maxed out" like the New York Daily News said, or was it the Observer? It is hard to keep track of New York newspapers, there are so many of them. I am from Arkansas. We like to keep it simple, one newspaper per town.
I was going to stay neutral. Reshma Saujani did raise a lot of money for Hillary 08. But Maloney kept bugging me. So I finally relented, and asked my staff in Harlem to prepare a little something. I said email. You know I don't send out emails. That just is not who I am. I am a robocall guy. So if Maloney is telling you I sent out an email on her behalf, she could not be telling the truth.
But what the heck. She reminds me of Clinton 92, and that is just the sweetest memory. And so I asked my staff to prepare a little something for her. With all the insurgency that is going on, she will likely not win, but September 15 is another day. You bet I will be placing a call to Reshma Saujani first chance I get. I am going to start the talk by saying thank you for all you did for Hillary. Yeah, I know. I read that power shoes story in the New York Times. These women are from a different planet. They speak a different language. It is code to guys like me.
Chelsea wants to come out for Saujani. And I am trying my best to not let that happen. How will that look? Father is for one candidate, the daughter for another? So far so good.
Just between you and me, Chelsea does NOT relate to Maloney. At all. So for anyone, even me, to say Chelsea's children might connect any dots going back to Maloney, I don't see that happening. But this is election season. The emphasis is not on accuracy, at least not for my and Carolyn's generation. We peaked out politically in the 1990s. Bush was an anomaly.
Chelsea and Hillary have both been ganging up on me. Hillary says if she were not Secretary of State, she would outright endorse Reshma Saujani. But since it is not legal for her to endorse, she did the shoe thing.
My mother, though, if she had been around, I think she would have sided with me. It is a South thing. Maloney has just the accent. But truth be told, I am not for Maloney either. Sitting and former presidents don't have the luxury to not endorse an incumbent. I mean look at my man Barack. He kept Maloney dangling on the 9/11 health bill. He is feeling like Maloney is taking too much credit for finance reform. So he left her dangling. But he did endorse her first, back in April. It is not like he had the option to not endorse her. But then now he has gone and undercut her. He has pulled the rug. I understand politics speak. By now Barack is neutral, if not tilting Saujani.
And if you watched Reshma Saujani on NY1, I am neutral too. But it takes some political sophistication to be able to read that. (
Bill Clinton Just Endorsed Reshma Saujani)
Barack is pissed Maloney is taking too much credit for finance reform. Hillary is pissed Maloney is taking too much credit for the work on the health of the 9/11 first responders. My man Charlie Schumer is pissed Maloney is taking too much credit for the Second Avenue subway line. Now that is one trick I would like to learn from Maloney. How do you take credit for something that does not even exist? I am pissed Maloney has tried to take too much credit for my Family Leave Act. "We all worked together," Maloney says to me about my Family Leave Act.
So far Maloney has not taken credit for anything Bloomberg has done. How does Bloomberg do that? Barack, Hillary, Schumer and me, we would all like to know how.
What Bill Clinton Said
Carolyn is what I call a "how" politician
What Bill Clinton Really Said
All my grey hair aside, I am still a politician. Don't you call me no philanthropist! I feel like I am entitled to at least one lie in one email. And this is my lie. The truth is Carolyn Maloney has no clue how Congress works. Look at the woman's record. She says she has authored 70 bills. We all know what that means. Her staff authored those 70 bills. It is not like Maloney went to Yale Law School like me, and Hillary and Reshma Saujani. She does not know how to author bills. Of those 70 bills, three passed. If you can't connect the dots there, let me tell you in plain English. That is NOT good. That is NOT a good record.
When I say Carolyn Maloney is a HOW politician, that is an inside joke in Clintonland. Once Carolyn Maloney was overheard saying on the Hill: "People keep passing bill after bill. How?" That is when James Carville decided on that nickname for her, that Maloney is a HOW politician.
