However improbable, it grew into the biggest political whodunit, or rather who-is-it, since Deep Throat.
But in the end, the hunt for “Anonymous,” the author of the best-seller “Primary Colors,” devolved into a bizarre journalistic morality play, comprising equal parts of curiosity, envy and hubris.
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If only, some frustrated journalists secretly mused, the current presidential contest was half as lusty, zesty and zany as the semi-fictional version portrayed in the blockbuster political satire of the 1992 Clinton campaign. If only, those same journalists not-so-secretly sighed, they had written the book, projected to earn its author $6 million-plus.
Joe Klein, a political columnist for Newsweek and commentator for CBS News, did. After months of secrecy and outright denials, he confessed at a news conference Wednesday that he was the author–but only after being exposed on the front page of the Washington Post.
And suddenly, what seemed like perfect fluffy fodder for journalism’s summer silly season began to take on a somewhat alarming gravity, setting off an orgy of journalistic self-flagellation.
Commentators began to weigh in with heavy questions: Has the book, an unflattering portrayal of the Clintons, tarnished Klein’s credibility as a political journalist? Or has Klein’s reputation as a political journalist given heightened credibility to the allegedly fictional events in the book?
And what about the morality of Klein’s previous denial of authorship?
Promoting the NBC Nightly News, anchor Tom Brokaw soberly promised a story on “the ethics of whether he should have lied about all this.”
“There are times when I had to lie to protect a source. I put this in that category,” a clearly nervous Klein said Wednesday, noting that others may view it differently.
Some do. A CBS spokesman said, “We are obviously distressed by the fact Joe Klein was not forthcoming with us.”
Long furious with Klein for his harsh treatment of President Clinton, Paul Begala, a former Clinton political adviser and one of those once accused of writing the book, said: “If a politician had lied the way Joe lied, he would be out of a job.”
But, as for the way Klein and his publisher pulled off the ruse, Begala called it “a very conscious manipulation of the hype machine. There’s a small part of me that says, `Congratulations.’ “
Clinton did not seem particularly surprised by Wednesday’s revelation, according to White House press secretary Mike McCurry. He added: “From time to time I read what Joe Klein writes and I say, `Yep, that’s fiction.’ “
Guessing the identity of “Anonymous” became a favorite parlor game in Washington and New York political and journalistic circles after the book came out in January. The clues were frustratingly few and the suspects many.
The Post came up with 35 names in a February story– ranging from cartoonist Garry Trudeau to Chicago investment banker David Wilhelm, former head of the Democratic National Committee–and laid odds 50-1 that it wasn’t Klein.
But the Post narrowed the field and hunted down Klein as if he were the Unabomber.
Post reporters combed through real estate records, checked on the number of cars he owned, ferreted out the size of his mortgage and finally hired an expert to painstakingly match acquired samples of Klein’s handwriting with handwritten scribbles on a copy of the original manuscript.