Flowers Begins Marketing Tapes of Conversations With Clinton

All Gennifer Flowers wanted Tuesday was to explain why Americans should pay $19.95 to hear 57 minutes of taped phone talk in which Bill Clinton calls her “darlin’ ” and “babe,” but never calls her his lover.

She got that and much more at her news conference.

Flowers got gaped at by delegates to the state Republican Convention, who, coincidentally, were convening one floor below at the Sheraton New York Hotel.

She got pushed into a corner when a fight broke out among television crews trying to follow her.

Flowers is releasing “Setting the Record Straight,” two cassette tapes and a transcript of conversations with Clinton in 1990-91. She says she secretly recorded the calls to protect herself after reporters began asking about her allegations of an affair with Clinton, which she says began in the late ‘70s and ended in 1989.

For those wondering whether the new tapes are worth the money:

* About 12 minutes of them were thoroughly aired during the last presidential campaign;

* Clinton, who went on television at the time and admitted to having had marital problems, never admits on the tapes to an affair with Flowers.

In a commentary that accompanies the tapes, Flowers says to “listen carefully to his phrasing. Not just what he says, but how he says it.”

The tone is decidedly cozy, but the additional 45 minutes of recording do not contain much new; why is she reviving the issue?

In the two years since the publication of her story in a supermarket tabloid, Flowers said, “I have been vilified by the mainstream media” and “felt the burning frustration” of what she calls an attempt by Clinton supporters to cover up her story.