In Democracy in America, Tocqueville wrote:
The great men close to the throne of an absolute monarch flatter their master's passions and willingly bow to his caprices ... In absolute monarchies the king may often have great virtues but the courtiers are always vile.
At Politico, Annie Karnie sifts through Clinton emails and finds lots of flattery from the likes of former White House counsel Lanny Davis:
“I hate to email you too much and to ask you for any favors,” his email began. “I feel as if I am taking advantage of a great privilege that you allow me to send you a personal email every so often.” He adds, “Aside from Carolyn, my four children, and my immediate family, I consider you to be the best friend and the best person I have met in my long life.”
A former lower-level staffer, David Helfenbein, who worked for Clinton since his teenage years, wrote to her when he left the State Department: "You are one of a kind — there is no other one like you, and there never will be. I truly believe that the world needs you in whatever capacity that you are in.”The article says that Cheryl Mills was something of an exception -- but even she played the flattery game. Hannah Allam and Anita Kumar report at McClatchy:
And interlaced through all the media correspondence were compliments – reading more like sycophancy in many cases – to let one of the most powerful women in the world know that her reputation as a warrior with a compassionate streak was intact. This came through prominently in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
Clinton received compliment after compliment on how she handled the disaster under intense media scrutiny (“Your idea to focus on the girl rescued from the rubble in Haiti wove it all together,” one diplomat wrote of public remarks). Clinton also dispatched her closest aides, such as chief of staff Cheryl Mills, to handle the press.
Mills shared positive feedback she received about her own performance in an NPR interview on Haiti.
Clinton shot back: “And well-deserved. You’re a rock star!”
“At the foot of the master I learned,” Mills replied.
