3601. The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House, by Barbara Olson (read 13 July 2002) Reading this proves that I sometimes read what is written by people who think differently from what I do. I read Six Crises, by Nixon, on 20 Jan 1963, and The Death of Outrage, by Bill Bennett on 20 Aug 1999. Some of what Barbara Olson, who died on Sept 11, 2001, says in this book is true, though she says it shrilly and without concealing her didactic purpose. I kind of got a kick out of how galling to people like her were the Clintons' electoral successes. ( )

"Stroke of a pen, law of the land"
- Bill Clinton

This was the attitude of the Clintons during their final days in office. They had absolute control over monuments, land grabs, and pardons.

Barbara Olson does a masterful job detailing the things done by the Clintons (usually Bill) in the last few days of his administration. What impressed me the most is the level of detail that is presented on each topic. This was something that I had not been presented with from the standard media outlets.

Olson explains the pardon process and why this president's pardons were so unusual. He bypassed or ignored the Justice Department. He submitted numerous pardons the morning of the inaguration guaranteeing they wouldn't be looked into with any great detail, if at all.

He pardoned drug smugglers. It's hard to be tough on the drug world when we release their kingpins back onto the streets.

Olson went into great depth on who Marc Rich was, what his businesses were, why he was in trouble, and why it was such a travesty to pardon him. You just don't pardon people who haven't even had a trial yet.
There was an enormous amount of land that was commandeered by the Federal Government without anyone getting a say on it.

The Clinton family gets in on the party also. Roger Clinton and Hugh Rodham take up a couple of chapters.

Finally, we see quotes from a lot of Clinton apologists and Democratic big-wigs displaying their disappointment and outright anger at the President for getting around the system. It was obvious that since Bill was no longer president, they didn't need to stick up for him anymore.

There was also much analysis done on the op-ed piece that Bill wrote expaining the pardons. This was truly a spinmeister work of art. As one columnist put it, "Four excuses, eight lies."

I enjoyed reading this book. Not because it bashed the Clintons, yet again. But it explained in great detail why people inside the Beltway were so appalled and upset at what was done by the Clintons during their final days in power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in one of the few things the President of the United States has absolute authority over with no veto possible. ( )