The last time Arthur Finkelstein tangled with a Clinton he lost, big time.
The shadowy, ultra-secretive, and powerful right-wing political strategist—outed as gay and living in liberal Massachusetts with his partner and children in 1996 by Boston Magazine—advised Bob Dole in his 1996 run for the presidency. Finkelstein had been on a winning streak in '80s and early '90s—if that's what you want to call working for people who are trying to destroy your own kind—an architect of the political careers of rabid homophobes, like Republican Senators Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth. Another client, Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, called him 'one of the brightest, cutting-edge political scientists I've ever met.' But with Bob Dole's race for the presidency, Finkelstein seemed to have lost his touch—and perhaps met his match in Bill Clinton.
Dole railed against Clinton with the famous Finkelstein rallying cry—'tax and spend liberal'—but it just bounced off Clinton, who never allowed that label to stick. It seemed that the highly public outing of the previously behind-the-scenes Finkelstein—in 1996 there was only one known photograph of him though he'd been in politics for 20 years —was a very bad omen. In 1998, his buddy Al D'Amato went down too, no matter that the 'liberal, liberal, liberal' charge was thrown at his challenger in the New York Senate race, then House member Chuck Schumer.
Now Finkelstein, who still appears to cringe at the hint of any public attention, is back in the spotlight, the subject of several stories, over just a few days, exposing his grotesque machinations. He's once again messing with a Clinton, and he appears, once again, to be getting burned.
Recently, The New York Times ran a story all about Finkelstein's under-the-radar marriage to his partner of 40 years in Massachusetts back in December, in a private civil ceremony at his home. The Republican Party has been adamantly opposed to marriage equality for gays, but Finkelstein—who seemed to be trying to keep his three-month-old marriage under wraps—wanted the benefits that gay activists have won after years of battle against the Jesse Helmses of the world. Seemingly caught on the spot by a Times reporter who contacted him, Finkelstein said, 'I believe that visitation rights, healthcare benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners.' The contradiction of his working for the very people who fought actively against giving such rights to gay people seemed to be lost on him entirely, confirming that we're dealing with a damaged, selfish cretin—and one who has become dangerous to the rest of us who are gay.
The next day, another story in the Times revealed that Finkelstein is launching a group called 'Stop Her Now,' which will target Hillary Clinton and attempt to eat away at her well before the 2008 election, when she's widely thought to be making a presidential run. The group, it was reported, is based on the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, the assassins who went after John Kerry. Sources said Finkelstein was lining up donors to raise $10 million to finance the hit group.
The timing of the two stories could, perhaps, have been a coincidence, but it all just seemed too brilliant—making Hillary the victim and turning Finkelstein and his hypocrisy into the main topic of discussion. Bill Clinton then came to his wife's defense in a press conference a few days later, held to announce his foundation's $10 million donation to help children with AIDS. Clinton suggested that Finkelstein was 'blinded by self-loathing,' and termed Finkelstein's effort against his wife 'sad,' keeping the focus on the political strategist.
Finkelstein had no comment when reporters tried to reach him, but Republicans close to New York Gov. George Pataki, another of Finkelstein's clients—who's now in his own death spiral in the polls—lashed out.
'It's really beneath a former president to comment on someone's personal life like that,' Michael McKeon, a former Pataki aide and friend Finkelstein's, told the Times. 'After everything he has been through in his own life, you'd think he'd know better.'
Actually, Bill Clinton knows only too well. Throughout the '90s Republicans railed ad nauseum about his and his wife's motives—some literally insinuating they were murderers, a la the Vince Foster case—not to mention that the Clintons were psychoanalyzed beyond belief by right-wing hatchet men. It really rings hollow to hear a Republican now lecturing Clinton's comments about someone's motives against his own wife.
And Clinton said nothing about Finkelstein's 'personal life.' A marriage, after all, is a public record, and if Finkelstein wanted to keep his relationship private, he could have chosen not to marry. But since he has, and since he's a public figure working for prominent politicians, it's all fair game. It's true that Clinton is not the best person to be criticizing others on gay rights, particularly on the issue of same-sex marriage—he of course signed the Defense of Marriage Act, pushed by Republicans in 1996—but the Republicans' vicious attacks on gays are light years worse than any disappointments on the part of either Bill or Hillary Clinton regarding gay rights.
The fact that someone as twisted as Finkelstein believes he can operate in the background, benefit from the hard work of gay activists while trying to destroy them, and not be called on his internalized homophobia is a measure of just how successful hatemongers have been in demonizing gays—and in enlisting some sick and deluded people to work against themselves.
The term 'self-loathing' has been used by gay activists for years to describe individuals like Finkelstein. It's about time it entered into the political vernacular.
Signorile hosts a daily national satellite radio program on Sirius OutQ, 149. He can be reached at www.signorile.com .