But two insider accounts of the week following the attacks on the U.S. show that it was in active use in the White House.
The book, which features a new chapter on the Lewinsky relationship, is "a revealing, highly detailed insider account," Wendy Kaminer wrote here earlier this year.
The book is not a hatchet job or an explosive insider account.
There are also perils inherent in insider accounts - namely, that the average reader often doesn't care about the material as much as the author does.
Her former commanders, stung by her insider account, say they do not remember her fighting with them.
Two new books - among the first "insider" accounts by former Iraq advisers - find the White House guilty of an incompetent occupation.
His view was corroborated by another insider account by former staff member James Graham.
As if to top that tantalizing insider account, the senior official moved on to the visit of Anthony Lake, Mr. Clinton's national security adviser.
Yet another possibility would be for the law to make the insider account for his profits.
He appeared on television talk shows, discussing his book and sharing his insider accounts of how the upper class behaves.
