Vice President Biden a fan of skinny dipping says new book
Here's a headline for you: Apparently Vice President Joe Biden likes to swim in the buff. (Via The White House)
ABC reports, "Some agents admitting they'd rather cover their eyes ... or cover someone else ... just hoping that he'll cover himself up."
If you've ever wondered what Secret Service agents get to see that you don't - consider that little tidbit one of them. At least according to journalist Ronald Kessler, who's sharing stories from anonymous Secret Service agents about what it's like to protect current and past political leaders.
Kessler's new book "The First Family Detail" is out next week. The New York Daily News got a first look and relays this unflattering takeaway: "Biden is portrayed as being more interested in coming off as a 'regular Joe' than being potentially responsible for the nation's nuclear codes." At the risk of putting too much stock in Kessler's anonymous sources - agents apparently told him Biden was the second-worst assignment for security detail. No. 1 worst? According to the book, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But it'd be hard to tell this story without alluding to the possibility of politics at play. Vice President Biden and former Secretary of State Clinton are - of course - Democrats. And Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of the conservative blog Newsmax. Which has been a source of criticism against him - with questions over whether Kessler's use of anonymous sources is to protect real people's identities or to allow him to concoct fictitious accounts.
In fact - that's the gist of the left-leaning blog Media Matters' take on the whole thing - calling Kessler a "discredited author" and his book "the next anti-Clinton gossip book." Perhaps Kessler doesn't mind the controversy, though. Although publisher Random House was unable to give us the number of presale orders placed so far, a juicy political tell-all can grab sales. The most famous example is "Game Change," billed as the inside story of how the 2008 presidential election became "blockbuster entertainment."
NPR says Much criticism revolved around the accuracy of then-vice-presidential-hopeful Sarah Palin's depiction. Authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin were criticized, similarly to Kessler, for not revealing sources. But so many copies of the book sold that Crain's New York Business says publisher Penguin Press paid the authors more than $5 million for rights to their book about the 2012 election - in 2010. "Game Change" was also adapted to the big screen. Kessler's "The First Family Detail" goes on sale Aug. 5.
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