Hillary Clinton made a startling admission last week on her book tour. The first lady told audiences that she’s been defending herself from bullies — like Whitewater inquisitor Sen. Alfonse D’Amato — since her childhood days on the mean streets of Park Ridge, Illinois, a small, upscale suburb 35 miles north of Chicago.
“The kids in that neighborhood would beat me up every day,” she was quoted as saying. “They’d knock me on the ground, they’d pull the bow out of my hair. And I’d go running in the house every single day. This went on for weeks. Finally, the inevitable occurred. I went out, I was, you know, beaten up, knocked around, run back in. My mother met me at the door and she said, ” There’s no room for cowards in this house. You go back out there and deal with this.'”
Don’t cry for the Little Miss Rodham That Was, though, because according to a 1995 book, she gave as good as she got. The source: her own mother. “When she was old enough to play outdoors by herself, she could beat up on the neighbors” children, but only if she had to. When she did, she’d go out, arms flailing, eyes closed — and whap! She’d get the better of them,” explained Mrs. Rodham in Clinwn Confidential.
No wonder David Watkins was scared of her.
