Inside the Clinton White House

Thanks to Patrick Nielsen Hayden, an article by President Clinton’s official joke writer, Mark Katz, in the Washington Monthly. Two lines stand out:

“We need some ground rules here: The national security advisor can kill any joke he likes on the grounds that it compromises national security. But he can’t kill a joke because he doesn’t think it’s funny.”

And the line that made Katz’ reputation, for Clinton’s speech marking a hundred days in office:

“I’m not doing so bad. I mean, at this point in his administration, William Henry Harrison had been dead for sixty-eight days!”

[update: of course, I get in to work and find that a colleague who worked at senior level in the Clinton White House has sent me two chapters of her memoirs to read. I’ve sent her a note asking if she knew Mark Katz…]

One thought on “Inside the Clinton White House

  1. I’m not that impressed by Gaiman as a novellist, I vastly prefer his comics and short story work

    Right. I love his imagination, but the prose often ends up clunky and disappointing.

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