45 Facts About Sidney Blumenthal

Sidney Stone Blumenthal was born on November 6,1948 and is an American journalist, political operative, and Lincoln scholar.

Sidney Blumenthal is the author of a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln.

Sidney Blumenthal has written for publications such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, for whom he served for a time as the magazine's Washington correspondent, and was, briefly, the Washington, DC bureau chief for Salon.

Sidney Blumenthal is a regular contributor to the openDemocracy website and is a regular columnist for The Guardian.

Over time, Sidney Blumenthal was viewed as a new type of journalist who eroded the divide between independent journalism and partisan journalism.

Sidney Blumenthal's is a type found far more often on the right in Washington, a partisan warrior who takes a critically sympathetic stance not just toward his issues but his chosen political party as well.

Sidney Blumenthal's father was Jewish, while his mother was Protestant Christian.

Sidney Blumenthal became involved in politics at age 12 as a courier for a local Democratic Party election precinct captain.

Sidney Blumenthal earned a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969.

Sidney Blumenthal was part of a generation of New Left journalists who eschewed objectivity in favor of taking sides.

Sidney Blumenthal blamed journalistic detachment for Ronald Reagan's presidential victory.

In 1983, Sidney Blumenthal became the chief national political correspondent for The New Republic, covering the 1984 United States presidential election.

Sidney Blumenthal played a major role in Gary Hart's bid for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1993, Sidney Blumenthal became the chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker before joining the Clinton Administration in the summer of 1997.

Not too long into the job at The New Yorker, Sidney Blumenthal was replaced by Michael Kelly, although Sidney Blumenthal stayed on as a part-time writer.

Sidney Blumenthal was serving two masters, and I was not comfortable with that.

Sidney Blumenthal served as assistant and senior advisor to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001.

Sidney Blumenthal's roles included advising the President on communications and public policy and serving as liaison between the White House and former colleagues in the Washington press corps.

Sidney Blumenthal later became a central figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton.

Sidney Blumenthal was known for his often baseless attacks on her political adversaries, including Barack Obama when he ran against Hillary Clinton to be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president.

Sidney Blumenthal was one of only four witnesses called to testify before the Senate.

Sidney Blumenthal's testimony addressed a major allegation that Clinton had pressured Betty Currie to falsely attest that it was Lewinsky who initially pursued Clinton, not vice versa; he said that he believed Clinton told him the truth and thus had no reason to think that he was hiding information.

In 1997, Sidney Blumenthal filed a $30 million libel lawsuit against blogger Matt Drudge and AOL, which hired Drudge, stemming from a false claim Drudge made of spousal abuse, attributed only to unnamed "top GOP sources".

Under subpoena, Hitchens submitted an affidavit to the trial managers of the Republican Party in which Hitchens swore under oath that Sidney Blumenthal had described Monica Lewinsky as a stalker.

Hitchens' allegations contradicted Sidney Blumenthal's own sworn deposition during Clinton's impeachment trial that he never said any such thing.

Sidney Blumenthal sends a clear message to his administration colleagues: Mom liked me best.

Sidney Blumenthal came up with the slogan One America, which, he helpfully points out, is 'an updating of E pluribus unum.

Sidney Blumenthal introduced President Clinton to a promising British politician named Tony Blair.

Sidney Blumenthal was a regular columnist for The Guardian from August 2003 until November 2007.

Sidney Blumenthal was a political consultant for the Emmy-award-winning HBO series Tanner '88, written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman; he appeared as himself in one episode.

Sidney Blumenthal was an executive producer of the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary of 2007.

Sidney Blumenthal was an associate producer of the 2002 film Max.

Sidney Blumenthal joined the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign as a "senior advisor" in November 2007.

Sidney Blumenthal's foundation job, which focused on burnishing "the legacy of Clinton's presidency", was viewed by some "officials at the charity [who] questioned his value and grumbled that his hiring was a favor from the Clintons", as reported by Politico.

Sidney Blumenthal gave testimony in a closed-door session the following month.

Sidney Blumenthal's name came up numerous times during the October 22,2015, full committee public questioning of Hillary Clinton regarding the Benghazi incident, as one of the alleged sources of Clinton's intelligence.

In 2016, Sidney Blumenthal served as a consultant to the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters for America, the pro-Democratic Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century and the pro-Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record, for which he is reportedly paid $200,000 per year, for part-time work.

Sidney Blumenthal passed on the notes to Jonathan Winer at the State Department, who had a previous relationship with Christopher Steele.

In September 2016, Sidney Blumenthal discussed Steele's report with Winer and told him that the information was similar to information he had received from Shearer.

Sidney Blumenthal praised Bill Clinton for his work on the Brady Bill and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Sidney Blumenthal gained a reputation for attacking those whom he considered to be enemies of the Clinton administration.

When Sidney Blumenthal was a journalist he would sometimes offer Hillary Clinton political advice.

Sidney Blumenthal attempted to dissuade journalists and reporters from writing negative pieces about the Whitewater controversy, Travelgate, and Bill Clinton's personal character.

Peter Boyer, a New Yorker writer, made allegations claiming Sidney Blumenthal tried to sabotage his story about the Travelgate affair.

Boyer said that he was later told by either Harry Thomason or his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, that Sidney Blumenthal had warned them that Boyer was anti-Clinton and planned to smear them; this led to a series of legal threats against the magazine.