BUBBA BUMBLING TO FINISH BOOK: REPORT By DAN MANGAN
The publisher of Bill Clinton's forthcoming memoir is "despairing" that the ex-president hasn't churned out enough pages - and that the book is too full of self-justification and blaming of others, a new report claims.
Clinton has procrastinated writing "My Life" - for which Random House's Alfred A. Knopf imprint paid a reported $12 million - to such an extent that only within recent weeks did he begin jotting down memories of 1998, when he faced impeachment over of his affair with Monica Lewinsky, Vanity Fair says in its new issue.
Clinton's slow going prompted famed editor Robert Gottlieb to start sleeping overnight at the former president's home in Chappaqua as he helps the much-distracted Clinton finish the tome.
"Yeah," said Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards, when asked if Gottlieb has been bringing his pajamas to Westchester County. "The president and Mr. Gottlieb have in fact been spending a lot of time together."
Clinton is "tweaking" the manuscript for the book, which is due out in late June with a massive 1.5 million first printing, Bogaards told The Post.
The article reports that Knopf is "despairing" because while Clinton's "prose is fine; there's just not enough of it. And what has been composed, says an editor who's been briefed on the manuscript, veers too often into trademark blame and self-justification."
Bogaards denied that, saying Knopf is "ecstatic" about the memoir and insisting the ex-president's writing was "very strong."
"There's big pent-up demand for this book, and Vanity Fair is going to feed that maw," Bogaards said.
Clinton is quoted as saying that writing the book "is hard, man . . . I am literally hardly sleeping. I am working around-the-clock . . . I am killing myself . . . because I want it done."
"Hard enough to live my life the first time. The second time has really been tough," he told Vanity Fair with a laugh.
But a Clinton friend says, "He does not act like he has anything to be ashamed about . . . He really believes this was some right-wing conspiracy and he didn't do anything wrong. Maybe he misbehaved in his marriage, but so has every other president in the last 50 or 100 years. He does not go around with his head down in shame."
Clinton also apparently is loath to take any responsibility for having failed to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, saying, "How did this happen, I don't remember," according to a former top aide quoted by the magazine.
Other details of Clinton's post-presidential life also are revealed, including his befuddlement with everyday technology such as Palm Pilots, portable phones and ATMs.
"I know there's a million dollars in there," Clinton is reported as having said one day when trying to get cash from a Chappaqua ATM, unaware that he needed to punch in his PIN number.
The former president is described as desperate for companionship: hitting a local bar to drink near-beer with a blue-collar crowd, dropping by an elementary school to watch a play, and inviting two middle-school students to his home, where he talked "about the impact of technology on everyday life."
Although he speaks to his wife six times per day on the telephone when he is traveling, Clinton reportedly only occasionally sees Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Distance does not make the heart grow fonder," Clinton has told friends, according to the article.