He has been sharply criticized by both Democrats and Republicans. James Carville said of him , "he made collective fools out of about 80 percent of the national press corps." President George Bush urged citizens not to support his campaigns, saying, "We will do whatever we can to stop any filthy campaign tactics" in a newletter to 85,000 Republican contributors. Bush also filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission regarding one TV advertisement.
Bossie was fired in 1998 for releasing edited transcripts of former Clinton administration official Webster Hubbell's prison conversations that created the impression Hillary Clinton was involved in billing irregularities at her law firm. The move was seen as a response to pressure from Speaker Newt Gingrich who said at the time, "I'm embarrassed for you [Rep. Burton], I'm embarrassed for myself, and I'm embarrassed for the [House Republican] conference at the circus that went on at your committee."
He was investigator for a book about Bill Clinton, called Slick Willie in 1992. He is the author of The Many Faces of John Kerry, a critical look at presidential candidate U. S. SenatorJohn Kerry.
Bossie, with help from former Washington DC police officer James Murphy, went so far as to follow Susan's mother to a hospital in Augusta, Georgia, where her husband was seriously ill and recovering from a stroke.
Bossie claimed that Citizens United had fed Whitewater information (much of which turned out to be misleading, incomplete or untrue) to "the top fifty major publications, networks, and editorial boards...
Bossie's dismissal this week was not the first attempt to have him booted from working for the Oversight Committee: in July, 1997, chief counsel John P. Rowley quit in disgust after Chairman Burton overrode his decision to fire Bossie as the committee's chief investigator, following heated arguments over Bossie's conduct with other committee staffers.
Bossie's style during the investigation was to lob scattershot allegations toward an appreciative press corps that rarely seemed upset when the charges he gave them to amplify -- that Whitewater was a criminal enterprise, for instance -- failed to pan out as factual.
The fact that Bossie's name is known and he's achieved a certain celebrity status trumps the fact that he achieved that celebrity status by making shit up and twisting evidence to vilify Democratic politicians.
Bossie joined Citizens United in 1992 as its director of political affairs, which he quickly transformed into a full-time job of hounding the Clintons.
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