Opinion: For $10-million, it better be good

For $10-million, it better be good

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN

Bill Clinton's $10-million-plus book deal -- the largest advance ever for what at least ostensibly will be a work of non-fiction -- is turning heads in the worlds of publishing and politics. Will the book be worth the money? It depends on how you measure such things. Compared with the $8-million advance for the memoirs of Hillary Clinton? Sure. Compared with the pope's $8.5-million advance? Maybe not. Compared with Alex Rodriguez's contract with the Texas Rangers or Julia Roberts' latest movie deal? The mind can't easily grasp all the zeroes.

If the former president were to use his book as a vehicle for candor and self-reflection, he might actually earn his money. Tabloid addicts would rush out to read about how he went one-on-one with Monica. Connoisseurs of Machiavellian politics would want to read about how he went one-on-one with Newt. In that case, Alfred A. Knopf might wind up making a profit on the deal.

But even Clinton's remaining confidants say he isn't big on candor and self-reflection. Rage and self-pity, maybe, but those emotions alone can't sustain a fat book. In any case, Clinton promises to bang out his own manuscript, without the help of a ghostwriter. Respected editor Robert Gottlieb, who will guide the project, has an excellent track record, so we'll withhold judgment on whether Bubba will do $10-million worth of unburdening.

If nothing else, the Clintons' lucrative book deals should prevent the former president from having to resort to even more dubious money-making schemes -- Big Brother host? professional wrestler? -- to pay off the family's staggering legal bills.

Even before the Clintons had unpacked from the White House, fallout from last-minute pardons, stories of executive-branch vandalism (which turned out to be mostly overblown) and other vestigial scandals had all but destroyed any faint hopes that Clinton would settle into a dignified ex-presidency. There is no established code of behavior for former presidents. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush cashed-in in ways that raised more serious ethical questions than Clinton's book deal does. Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford didn't take post-White House vows of penury, but they have devoted much of their time and effort to worthy causes that have served the nation's interests and enhanced their reputations. Clinton hasn't yet shown any inclination to follow their example, but he's young and barely getting reoriented. Even Richard Nixon had some success in recasting himself as an elder statesman after being run out of the White House in disgrace.

Clinton may think he can start rehabilitating his reputation merely by writing some bowdlerized political memoir that skips over Monica and lingers over NAFTA. In that case, Knopf will wind up sitting on the biggest pile of unsold inventory this side of the Firestone factory.

-- Robert Friedman is deputy editor of editorials for the Times.