Joe Klein rewrites his role in the 1990s

Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com

(updated below - Update II)

In labelling Bill Clinton a "messy spouse on the campaign trail," here's what Time's Joe Klein claimed today about his own personal role in the Whitewater and Lewinsky "scandals":

Now, yes, [Bill Clinton] has a lot to be resentful about--the Republican berserkers, with a strong assist from the press, tried to derail democracy during his Administration, perhaps the most disgraceful performances by a political party--and by my colleagues--that I've ever witnessed. (For those who were not born yet, I defended Clinton through Whitewater and Lewinsky, although I was occasionally critical--as were more than a few members of the White House staff--of the First Lady's reluctance to be more forthcoming on Whitewater and of the Big Guy's prevarication on Lewinsky. Still, I didn't think these, or the other scandalettes, were very serious).

Klein infamously made false claims about his role in the pre-Iraq war debate, explicitly claiming (once the war was widely recognized as a disaster) that he opposed it even though he went on "Meet the Press" a month before it began and advocated the invasion. Has he done that again here? Let's let his own words speak for themselves.

(Continued here.)