Explosive Vanity Fair article hints strongly that Bill Clinton still engages in ‘extracurricular activities’

Very lengthy, but well worth the read. It’s written by Todd Purdum, a guy who has covered Bill Clinton since 1992 – who also happens to be married to former Clinton press. sec. Dee Dee Myers, who he says was not a source for the article.

In it, you’ll find no actual evidence of extramarital dalliances – but plenty of anonymous sources who were once or who are close to Bubba, who back up the insinuation that he has a serious narcissism problem, primarily because there’s no one in his inner circle who will say “no” to him. Here’s an excerpt:

Over the last few years, aides have winced at repeated tabloid reports about Clinton’s episodic friendship and occasional dinners out with Belinda Stronach, a twice-divorced billionaire auto-parts heiress and member of the Canadian Parliament 20 years his junior, or at more recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip that Clinton has been seen visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California. There has been talk of a female friend in Chappaqua, a woman in a bar at a meeting of the Aspen Institute, and a public sighting of Clinton, Bing, and a ravishing entourage in a New York elevator that, a former Clinton aide told me, led a business leader who saw them to say: I don’t know what the guy was doing, but it was so clear that it was just no good.

None of these wisps of smoke have produced a public fire. But four former Clinton aides told me that, about 18 months ago, one of the president’s former assistants, who still advises him on political matters, had heard so many complaints about such reports from Clinton supporters around the country that he felt compelled to try to conduct what one of these aides called an “intervention” because, the aide believed, “Clinton was apparently seeing a lot of women on the road.” The would-be intercessor was rebuffed by people around Clinton before ever getting an audience with the former president, and another aide told me that the effort was not well received by either Bill or Hillary Clinton and that some Hillarylanders, in particular, were in denial about the continuing political risks that Bill’s behavior might pose.

Here’s the link to the printer-friendly version. Make sure to read the whole thing.

Bill Clinton’s office has issued a six-page memo slamming the article. You can read it here.