In DC power circles, flattery will get you everywhere

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Compliments are currency, at least in politics and diplomacy. An email archive shows the way writers, employees and others flattered Hillary Clinton - and sheds light on how things are done in Washington.

"Everyone likes a compliment," Abraham Lincoln once said.

Hillary Clinton certainly does. After reading compliments paid to her while she was serving as Secretary of State, she would often send a note to her aides. "Pls print."

They ended up with reams of them.

Her emails have been released because of a court order issued after authorities discovered that Clinton, who's now a Democratic candidate for president, used a private server while working for the state department.

She's hardly the first to enjoy the attention. For many in the French royal courts, the only way up was through compliments.

"That's my definition of flattery," says Willis Goth Regier, author of In Praise of Flattery. "You praise in order to get something."

The Clinton emails are marked by effusive praise and playful banter. Reading them is like watching someone flirt. It's both familiar and off-putting at the same time.

The pandering is normal, at least by Washington standards. And those who don't kowtow still seem to get what they want. Equally important, there's nothing in Clinton's responses that indicates the flatterers get special attention.

Whether effective or not, though, the rhetoric soars.

In one example, Victoria Nuland, a senior state department official, complimented Clinton's aides in January 2013 about a speech she'd given.

"It's got muscle and heart and brains now (a veritable yellow brick road for the 21st c)," Nuland wrote.

Another Washingtonian, Lanny Davis, a lawyer and a world-class complimenter, was forthcoming about how he uses praise with political leaders and journalists.

In one email, he described Clinton as "a hard worker" who's "gracious", an important quality for a "successful diplomat".

Recently at a Caribbean-themed party, I saw Davis, who once served as a special counsel in the Clinton White House, standing near a bar stocked with sugar-cane rum. I asked him about the role flattery plays in Washington.

"You're beautiful," he said, stepping back like a Wimbledon champion after a serve. "I love the name Tara."

Flattery is disarming, whether lobbed at a party or done in email.

"It's got to be sincere," Davis claims, though it works just as well when it's not.

"Niceness might be completely contrived," says Regier. "But it does serve a purpose."

When Tina Brown was editor of Newsweek, she wrote to Clinton's staffers in December 2010 and asked for an interview - and included nice comments.

"Passion for global women's human rights has been the lodestar of her life," she wrote about Clinton, describing "years she has worked so tirelessly on the part of women she has never really had the right media acknowledgment for it, in my view".

Other emails didn't have a specific goal - but are full of admiration. Jeffrey Feltman, who had served as an assistant secretary of state, told Clinton's aides it was "reassuring to see the Secretary (for whom I'd walk on hot coals barefoot)".

Robert Kagan, a neoconservative historian, wrote a note to Clinton after she spoke at Brookings Institution in 2012.

"It was a fabulous event. Everyone came out glowing and buzzing... and mourning your pending departure."

"This was not me writing fan mail after seeing her at a lunch," he told me in an email. "It was me as host thanking her."

The year before, the Washington Post's David Ignatius wrote a note about another talk Clinton had given for a Brookings audience. "Your boss hit it out of the park," he told one of her aides. "Never seen her rock a room quite like that."

"I've had no problem being critical of Clinton," Ignatius told me. "But this was a particularly good performance."

In December 2012 novelist Erica Jong, of Fear of Flying fame, wrote an email to Clinton under the heading "A Special Message from a Writer who Adores You". She praised "your humour, your brilliance and your tenacity".

After a trip to Africa, Wendy Sherman, a senior state department official, wrote a laudatory email in August 2012 admiring Clinton's "dance moves".

Clinton was also praised for appearances in Washington.

"Way to go, girl!" wrote Derek Shearer, a former US ambassador to Finland, in January 2013 after Clinton testified about Benghazi before the US Senate foreign relations committee.

"Rand Paul is already history...." Shearer added.

Tom Healy, then-chairman of the Fulbright Scholarship Board, wrote "she was incredible," adding, "so, what's the right word? presidential."

Compliments can puff up powerful people, leading to an elevated sense of self (not to mention a presidential bid). Usually, though, flattery is harmless - and can build your vocabulary while you search for new ways to praise.

Finding new formulations can be a challenge, however, for those who flatterer a lot.

"How can I describe what a great friend you are....? " Davis wrote to Clinton at one point.

"I can't.

Best, Lanny."

If nothing else, he sounds sincere.