Is Hillary Addicted To Bill?

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton addicted to her husband?

In the February issue of Vanity Fair, author Gail Sheehy says that's the reason the first lady puts up with the president's infidelities.

Sheehy tells CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Thalia Assuras that she is using the term "addiction" metaphorically.

"I think Bill Clinton was the first person who made Hillary Clinton feel like a woman," says Sheehy. When they first met, she says, "He was a big handsome Southern exotic man with women all around him, and she was a brainÂ… She hadn't really had a boyfriend of any consequence. And then when they found that they shared this passion for public life, and she found he needed her, she actually pursued him"

So how does the first lady deal with her husband's infidelity? "Her mother trained her, as [Mrs. Clinton] told me, never to get into an emotional tizzy," says Sheehy. "She used an [emotional] carpenter's level to tell her, 'Always come back where the bubble is in the middle.' Her father trained her for combat. He was a chief petty officer in the Navy. He would say, 'How are you going to get out of this one?' She has been used to that. She taught Bill Clinton how to fight. She knowsÂ…she's his lifeline."

Is there passion within the marriage? "I think it is a passionate partnership," Sheehy observes. "She always wanted to be sexy for Bill, as well as listened to by him."

Gail Sheehy (CBS)

Sheehy also says that the Clintons have the kind of relationship that probably is understandable to many couples. "They love each other. They hate each other, fight like cats and dogs. They make up. It's wonderful. And it starts all over again."

"She's been holding the safety net for many, many years, and he's been walking the high wire. Now she is removing it."

Can the Clintons survive the crisis with their marriage intact? "I don't think anybody can answer that question," Sheehy replies. "I don't think they are getting therapy. I think it's impossible as long as he's in public office, because people would use it against him.

"He has a sickness," she continues. "She must know thatÂ… He's still in denial. It's quite plain."

Will they stay married after they leave the White House? "I think they may lead parallel lives," says the author. "I don't think she will divorce him."

While speculation has been running high that Mrs. Cliton might run for political office, Sheehy says, "She's not cut out to be a good political candidate. Washington has been a horror for her. She really would be resistant to going back to Washington."

But Mrs. Clinton will remain an important political voice and probably will write her own book, Sheehy adds.

As for Chelsea, Sheehy predicts, "She is not going to do particularly well. No one can, under these circumstances. She idolized her father, and he has betrayed her and her motherÂ… It will be difficult for her to trust men."

The campus at Stanford University, where Chelsea is a sophomore, has been the first daughter's only sanctuary, says Sheehy, and then Caroline Starr, daughter of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, enrolled there as a freshman last fall. Chelsea and Caroline, Sheehy reports, have had "more than one shouting match."

Sheehy is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, for which she has been writing political profiles since 1986. She say she knows Mrs. Clinton pretty well, dating back to 1992, when she first wrote about her after following her around for a week.

She also sees Mrs. Clinton every year at the New Year's Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head, which she says is a good time to "gauge the temperature of things" between the Clintons. This year, says Sheehy, it was "very low."