Felix Gillette of the New York Observer favorably profiled George Stephanopoulos, but the weirdest part came when he tried to suggest that somehow destroying the credibility of any woman claiming an affair with Bill Clinton made him priest-like. Since when does a priest say "forget that sixth commandment, just look away"?
His father was a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church. So too his grandfather. And even years after eschewing the priesthood for politics and media, a sense of emotional reserve befitting a man of the cloth still hangs about him.
Early in his career, that sensibility served him well. In his early 30s, as the communications director for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential run, Mr. Stephanopoulos regularly fought to keep the skeletons in Mr. Clinton’s closet from derailing everything.
One moment, it was Gennifer Flowers popping up on the cover of Star, alleging a long affair with Mr. Clinton. The next, it was Connie Hamzy, the Little Rock groupie. Again and again, Mr. Stephanopoulos deftly diffused the "bimbo eruptions," steering countless reporters away from the temptations of the Clinton bedroom story. There has been a wall between public and private life in American politics, the fresh-faced son of a priest argued, and it should be respected.
But there are no altar boys in morning television, and no real walls. In the coming weeks and months, to succeed in his new job, Mr. Stephanopoulos must pull off the opposite trick. Instead of burying the messy, private details of American public figures (including his own), his task will be to coax those details to light.
It’s also worth noting that according to George’s own memoir All Too Human, his less-than-spiritual advice to Clinton on debating Jerry Brown late in the 1992 primaries as the odor of Whitewater corruption began to emerge: "The minute you hear the word Hillary, rip his head off." (Italics his.)
