She really did stand by her man.
As a sex scandal threatened Bill Clinton’s presidency, Hillary Clinton defended him despite his tryst with Monica Lewinsky — blaming the young intern, the President’s enemies and herself, according to the writings of a late friend.
The friend, Diane Blair, described Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the way her husband handled the Lewinsky affair: “It was a lapse, but she says to his credit he tried to manage someone who was clearly a ‘narcissistic loony toon,’ but it was beyond control,” she wrote in notes reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website.
After Bill owned up to the affair, Hillary faulted herself for not being attuned to the stress he was under because of his adversaries.
“She thinks she was not smart enough, not sensitive enough, not free enough of her own concerns and struggles to realize the price he was paying.” Blair wrote.
Blair, whom Hillary Clinton once described as her “closest friend,” died at 61 in 2000. Her husband donated her personal papers to the University of Arkansas.
Blair tended to share Hillary’s “complex, pragmatic view of politics and men,” said David Maraniss, who wrote a biography of Bill Clinton.
The writings show Hillary Clinton apparently took a dim view of women who accuse politicians of caddish behavior.
Discussing harassment charges against then-Sen. Bob Packwood — whose help Hillary Clinton sought for her health care plan — Blair wrote in 1993 that Hillary was “tired of all these whiny women.”
The papers include a polling memo from Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, stating that voters admired the couple, but adding: “What voters find slick in Bill Clinton, they find ruthless in Hillary.”
Blair’s notes cover a “hellacious” first year for Hillary in Washington, where her health care reform hit resistance on Capitol Hill.
Blair wrote that in 1993 Hillary Clinton was “dumbfounded by people who look her in the eye and lie to her” and frustrated by the White House’s failure to fight back.
"HC still in despair that nobody in WH tough and mean enough,” Blair wrote.