James and Susan McDougal tried more than once to cut Bill Clinton free of his ties to an embarrassing Arkansas land deal gone sour, but Hillary Rodham Clinton refused each time, according to a new book on Whitewater.
After an Arkansas newspaper mentioned the Whitewater Development Co. in a list of delinquent taxpayers in 1985, Hillary Clinton hotly refused to sign a blank stock transfer certificate Whitewater partner Susan McDougal set before her, according to excerpts of author James Stewart's "Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries.""No! Jim told me this was going to pay for college for Chelsea," the Clintons' daughter, Stewart quotes Hillary Clinton as saying in excerpts appearing in Time magazine's March 18 issue. "I still expect to do that."
Blood Sport exposes no "smoking gun" in the Whitewater affair, but attempts to make sense of a series of arcane and confusing issues that have been reported in the press.
The book, scheduled for release March 15, also reveals personal information about the Clintons, including Hillary Clinton's early doubts about her marriage.
People close to the Clintons were aware of other women in Clinton's life, Stewart said in the book. "They believed that Bill had been unfaithful to Hillary even during their engagement."
Clinton told Susan McDougal that he loved being governor because of all the female attention it brought.