An excerpt released from the coming book, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, details the absurd lengths Hillary Clinton and her team went to document all those who they perceived wronged her in the 2008 campaign.
Clinton actually went so far as to keep two staff members on her payroll after the campaign was over in order to create a revenge score card that ranked their enemies on a scale from 1-7 (no you haven’t accidentally slipped into a rejected House of Cards script).
Among those who received the dreaded 7 was her successor at the State Department, John Kerry, which must especially grate on Clinton given he’s already received substantially more accolades than she did for his performance in a shorter time span.
Some other highlights in vindictiveness from a Clinton camp that in this excerpt comes off as borderline deranged in their pettiness.
- Almost six years later most Clinton aides can still rattle off the names of traitors and the favors that had been done for them, then provide details of just how each of the guilty had gone on to betray the Clintons—as if it all had happened just a few hours before. The data project ensured that the acts of the sinners and saints would never be forgotten.
- After winning the seat, {Obama endorsee, Claire McCaskill} was terrified of running into Hillary Clinton in the Capitol. “I really don’t want to be in an elevator alone with her,” McCaskill confided to the friend.
- Still, Clinton aides exulted in schadenfreude when their enemies faltered. Years later they would joke about the fates of folks who they felt had betrayed them. “Bill Richardson: investigated; John Edwards: disgraced by scandal; Chris Dodd: stepped down,” one said to another. “Ted Kennedy,” the aide continued, lowering his voice to a whisper for the punch line, “dead.”
- Balderston and Elrod recorded them all, good and bad, one by one, for history—and for Doug Band, Bill Clinton’s tall, balding, post-presidency aide-de-camp. “I wouldn’t, of course, call it an enemies list,” said one Clintonworld source. “I don’t want to make her sound like Nixon in a pantsuit.” (AR Ed note: Too late)