Unlimited Access, a new book by a retired FBI agent once assigned to the Clinton White House, is out this week from Regnery. Gary Aldrich’s memoir will get widespread attention for the immediately relevant charges it features — that the White House allowed staffers without proper security clearance access to classified documents, among other illegal things. Yet some of the most revealing passages in Unlimited Access have nothing to do with breaking the law, but with crimes against civility, good taste, and personal hygiene.
As Aldrich tells it, members of the Clinton administration were sloppy, had bad phone manners, and indulged a seemingly uncontrollable urge to be rude to the help. Aldrich’s description of the the White House Mess is by itself worth the price of the book. A member of Mrs. Clinton’s Health Care Task Force is seen stealing extra yogurt from the dispenser. Others throw garbage on the floor, toss coffee on the walls, refuse to use the recycling bins, and “double dip” from the drink machines. At one point, Aldrich says, “Craig Livingstone actually had to issue warnings to the Clinton staffers and interns that passing bad checks to the handicapped man who ran the Secret Service gift shop would not be tolerated.” Not everyone got the message. According to Aldrich, despite the prohibition against petty thievery, “we had a major problem with interns walking off with laptop computers.”
When they weren’t making life diffcult for the janitorial staff, Aldrich recalls, many staffers were, in violation of the liberal creed, bringing government into the bedroom or at least the bedroom into government. Two gay men were discovered on a desk by a workman. One amorous lesbian couple monopolized a good part of a communal shower. Another young employee showed up in a short skirt, bending over in sight of Mrs. Clinton. This, apparently, was the limit: The first lady promptly issued an order requiring White House staff to wear undergarments to work.
