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Sidney Blumenthal Biography & Facts

Sidney Stone Blumenthal (born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist, political operative, and Lincoln scholar. A former aide to President Bill Clinton, he is a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton and was formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation. As a journalist, Blumenthal wrote about American politics and foreign policy. He is also the author of a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Three books of the planned five-volume series have already been published: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel, and All the Powers of Earth. Subsequent volumes were planned for later. Blumenthal has written for publications such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, for whom he served for a time as the magazine's Washington correspondent, and, was, briefly, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Salon. He is a regular contributor to the openDemocracy website and is a regular columnist for The Guardian. After 2000, he wrote several essays critical of the administration of George W. Bush. Over time, Blumenthal began to be viewed as an archetype of a new type of journalist who has eroded the divide between the fading boundaries between independent journalism and partisan journalism: "As the connection between journalists and politicians is umbilical in Washington, Blumenthal's political problem, in part, is journalistic," reporter Michael Powell wrote of him in a profile in The Washington Post: "His is a type found far more often on the right in Washington, a partisan warrior who takes a critically sympathetic stance not just toward his issues but his chosen political party as well. Even as a writer at The Washington Post, where Blumenthal passed some time in the 1980s, he placed a porous membrane between his political views and his writing. It is the sort of partisan, if also intellectual, engagement that makes mainstream journalists, even those of liberal politics, deeply uncomfortable." Early life and career Blumenthal was born in Chicago to Claire (née Stone) and Hyman V. Blumenthal. His father was Jewish and mother Protestant Christian . He became involved in politics at the age of 12 as a courier for a local Democratic party election precinct captain. Hearing John F. Kennedy reference The New York Times during a campaign rally Blumenthal attended prompted him to begin reading that paper regularly. He earned a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969. While there he joined the Students for a Democratic Society. After graduation, Blumenthal began his career in Boston as a journalist who wrote for the underground paper Boston Phoenix and the Real Paper. Blumenthal was part of a generation of New Left journalists who eschewed objectivity in favor of taking sides. He blamed journalistic detachment for Ronald Reagan's presidential victory. Geraldine Baum wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "In Blumenthal’s writings, Democrats stood for goodness and progress, Republicans for darkness and defeat." 1984 political coverage In 1983, Blumenthal became the chief national political correspondent for The New Republic, covering the 1984 Presidential campaign. Soon after, Blumenthal began working as a political reporter for The Washington Post before then returning to The New Republic. Blumenthal played a major role in Gary Hart's bid for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. Although Hart's bid was ultimately unsuccessful, Blumenthal wrote a speech that was considered a positive "turning point" that established Hart's viability, and he wrote a cover story on Hart in The New Republic. Discomfort with Blumenthal's political involvement contributed to The Washington Post reassigning Blumenthal to their "Style" section. Tenure as chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker In 1993, Blumenthal became the chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker before joining the Clinton Administration in the summer of 1997. Not too long into the job, Blumenthal was replaced as The New Yorker's chief Washington correspondent by Michael Kelly, although Blumenthal was allowed to stay on as a part-time writer: "Kelly ordered Blumenthal to stay away from the magazine's downtown office," the Post's Kurtz wrote. Kelly himself explained to the newspaper: "I did not trust [Blumenthal]. I felt his relationship . . . with the president and first lady was such that I was not sure I wanted him around the office as I was working on stories. He was serving two masters, and I was not comfortable with that. . . . I had reason to believe that he wanted a job with the White House." According to Kelly, "He took a column that had a well-deserved reputation and turned it into a vehicle for the Clintons and for denouncing their enemies." Over time, Blumenthal was eased out of his job: "The New Yorker assignments dwindled," Kurtz wrote, and Blumenthal not long after officially went to work for the Clinton White House. Clinton administration years Blumenthal served as assistant and senior advisor to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001. His roles included advising the President on communications and public policy as well as serving as a liaison between the White House and former colleagues in the Washington press corps. He later became a central figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton. While working for Clinton, Blumenthal was known for his loyalty to the Clintons. He was also known for his often baseless attacks on her political adversaries, including Barack Obama when he and Hillary Clinton ran against each other to be the 2008 Democratic nominee to be president. This was the primary reason Rahm Emanuel, the first chief of staff for President Barack Obama, barred Blumenthal from holding a position in the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State. Perjury before congress In 1998, Christopher Hitchens submitted an affidavit which contradicted Blumenthal's testimony in which he had stated that he never referred to Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. Lawmakers called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Blumenthal for perjury. Arlen Specter even filed a motion to investigate possible perjury by Blumenthal. However Hitchens promised to withdraw his affidavit and nothing came of the matter. Clinton impeachment trial During the investigations by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Blumenthal was called to the grand jury to testify on matters related to what Clinton had told both Blumenthal and his senior staff in regard to Monica Lewinsky. The leadership of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives felt enough evidence existed in regard to the Paula Jones case and Lewinsky for impeachment proceedings to begin in December 1998. After the House Judiciary Committee and the United States House of Representatives impeached Clinton on December 19, the matter then passed to the United States Senate. Blumenthal was one of only four witnes.... Discover the Sidney Blumenthal popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sidney Blumenthal books.