Flashback: Hillary's divide and conquer strategy; McAuliffe's shout out to her Fox Noise/GOP buddies

Clinton Camp Pushes O-Bomber Links: Ignores Her Own Radical Ties

Clinton, Obama Spar on Ties to Radicals

By JUSTIN ROOD
Feb. 22, 2008

The Hillary Clinton campaign pushed to reporters today stories about Barack Obama and his ties to former members of a radical domestic terrorist group -- but did not note that as president, Clinton's husband pardoned more than a dozen convicted violent radicals, including a member of the same group mentioned in the Obama stories.

"Wonder what the Republicans will do with this issue," mused Clinton spokesman Phil Singer in one e-mail to the media, containing a New York Sun article reporting a $200 contribution from William Ayers, a founding member of the 1970s group Weather Underground, to Obama in 2001.

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And in 1999, President Clinton also pardoned 16 violent Puerto Rican nationalists responsible for more than 100 bombings of U.S. political and military installations, after they promised to renounce violence. The attacks reportedly killed six people and wounded dozens more. In justifying the pardons, President Clinton noted none of the men had been convicted of crimes that resulted in death or injuries.

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Contacted by phone Friday morning, spokesman Singer declined to comment for the record for this article.

"If the Clinton campaign is truly concerned about the exploitation of the Weather Underground issue by the Republican attack machine, perhaps they should focus on the pardon of some of its members in the waning days of the Clinton administration," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

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Would You Pardon Them?

Monday, Feb. 26, 2001

In eight years as President, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton each issued roughly 400 pardons. But in their final days, just 10 trickled out of Reagan's White House, while 177 flooded out of Clinton's. And Marc Rich's pardon isn't the only one that appalled federal prosecutors. While most of the 177 were for minor drug and fraud offenses, roughly a third raise serious questions. A TIME analysis of the pardon fever--the symptoms included well-connected lawyers and pols pulling strings, bypassing the Justice Department and sending petitions directly to the White House, often at the last minute--turned up these eye-popping remissions of sin.

The Big Apple Gang

U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White is furious at Clinton for several New York cases. In 1993 and '94, Harvey Weinig, 53, helped launder at least $19 million for the Cali drug cartel. Justice strongly opposed his petition, but Clinton commuted Weinig's 11-year sentence--cutting it in half--and now he is scheduled to be set free. Last week White released documents showing Weinig was also involved in a kidnapping plot. Former White House aide David Dreyer, a relative of Weinig's, told TIME he asked Clinton chief of staff John Podesta and former White House counsel Beth Nolan for the commutation "as an act of mercy."

Edward Downe Jr., a publishing and financial executive, pleaded guilty to insider trading in 1993. He was sentenced to three years' probation, and paid $11 million in fines. Downe has contributed $21,500 to Democrats since 1991, including $1,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign. His application went straight to Clinton, and White's office learned about it only the night before his pardon.

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The Radicals

White is also upset about the commutation Clinton gave to Susan Rosenberg, who was convicted in 1984 of carrying explosives and weapons for the Weather Underground. One of Rosenberg's guns was bought with fake ID by Linda Sue Evans, who also took part in the 1983 bombing of an empty room at the U.S. Capitol to protest the invasion of Grenada. Clinton's order freed both from prison.

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Clinton and Talk Host Schultz Collide

(be sure to check out the queen been image)

Read the Raw Story piece. It dovetails nicely on my piece last night. More on that story in a minute.

But seriously, this is getting pretty ridiculous very fast. Evidently, Clinton's people believe she can get elected by dissing progressive radio, while simultaneously sticking a finger in small business blogs. Hey, but when you're as big as Hillary you don't need your grass roots peeps. She can do it all by herself... with the help of those right-wing bloggers whose sites she advertised her live web chat.

Ed Schultz isn't taking this malarkey either.


Ed, I feel your annoyance. It's fitting that the above story appears next to Clinton's web chat BlogAd, isn't it? (heh-he.)

I've been writing about this for years. The fact that the DC Democrats just don't understand progressive radio, nor do they care one whit about it. This story about Hillary treating Schultz like "dirt" is emblematic of her campaign so far, but symbolic of DC Democrats. Can you imagine anyone in the Republican Party treating their right-wing hosts like this? Not. Going. To. Happen.

I really had no feelings whatsoever about Hillary one way or the other from the start. I was excited she was the first woman with a chance to win who was actually running. But I have to tell you that after the last few days or so I've moved into the camp that is not impressed at all with Clinton and the team she has around her, who seem not only arrogant, but possessing a queen fetish.

My conversations with someone I always considered an ally didn't help either. Evidently, Hotline was interested in the small business post I did last night and called Clinton's office to check it out. Someone in that office told Hotline that my story was inaccurate. Leaving aside some of the judgments I made in the piece that could be construed as subjective, there is nothing inaccurate about my piece. In fact, Peter Daou, someone whom I have been friendly with and have good relations with because he has been very forthcoming with me and even generous once, said in a conversation I had with him this morning that he didn't care about the criticisms in my post, but that I needed to make a correction about the ad buy part of my post. A correction of what? I asked. That went nowhere. Then he told me in a long explanation that I was included in the ad buy but the ad was rejected because my ad strips were full. Excuse me and with all due respect to Peter, because the ad buy was supposedly placed through someone else in the Clinton camp, but that just isn't credible. However, I am checking it out (see update below).

It's time to move on from this ad buy bs. However, I'm filing it under PROGRESSIVES BEWARE. Radio hosts, fuhghettaboutit.

Call the Clinton camp anytime for a clarification if you need one, I was told. Well, I've got a phone and they can reach out to me as well. But they won't. Ask Ed Schultz. It's the Queen Bee syndrome. The people must go to Hillary's hive. Because she's not coming to us. Clinton's inevitability campaign has already gone to her head.

She added: "Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That's not what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio -- let's have a debate about your tactics."

"Enough about the speeches, and the big rallies, and then using tactics right out of Karl Rove's playbook," she said angrily. "This is wrong and every Democrat should be outraged."

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According to news reports, the Clinton campaign lashed out at the use of the mailer in a conference call with selected reporters, complaining that the mail piece bears a resemblance to the "Harry and Louise" TV spots of 1993 and 1994 (pictured here).

One person on the call emotionally said the Obama mail piece was "outrageous as having Nazis march through Skokie, Illinois." That outburst was quickly disavowed during the call by Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, who said it is "not a comparison that (the campaign) would make." The unpaid health care adviser who made the remark, Len Nichols of the New America Foundation, later apologized. He sent an e-mail to reporters saying, "My passions overwhelmed me. I chose an analogy that was wholly inappropriate."

We agree that there is a resemblance between the photo on the Obama mailer and the TV spots. In those ads actors portraying a white, middle-class couple expressed grave concerns about how the Clinton administration's health care plan would affect them. The ads were part of a $17 million campaign by the insurance industry that was widely credited – rightly or wrongly – with contributing to the defeat of the Clinton plan, and the ads still anger many advocates of broader government efforts to provide health insurance. But so far as we can see, Obama's choice of images in his mailer has nothing whatever to do with the accuracy of the claims it makes, or the accuracy of what "Harry and Louise" said, for that matter.

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The mailers in question say that her health plan would force people to spend money on health coverage even if they can't afford it, and also that she considers NAFTA to be a "boon" to the economy. Recent reports have argued that Hillary actually opposed NAFTA at the time, but could not publicly disagree with her husband's policies.

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February 22, 2008

He’s Rubber She’s Glue

Hillary Clinton was in an unenviable position in last night’s CNN debate from Austin. Beforehand, our cable TV friends were all talking about how she had to come up with a “game-changer,” how Obama would “win” if it was a tie or even if she outpointed him, how she would have to land a “knockout punch,” how she would have to—what, exactly? No one had any actual suggestions for that. Because there was really nothing she could do, apart from hoping Obama would be gallant enough to commit a gargantuan gaffe.

She tried being mean once, with that prepackaged crack about “change you can Xerox.” The crowd booed, and so, I suspect, did the folks at home. But even before the booing she didn’t look happy about what she was saying. If this was the fun part, she wasn’t having fun. She looked a lot more comfortable, even content in a melancholy sort of way, at the end, when she said, “No matter what happens in this contest—and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored,” and the two clasped hands.

That was a game-changer of sorts, but the game it changed was her own. My hunch is that she has recognized that there are no magic formulas that can win this for her, and she has decided that if go out she must she intends to go out with class. Last night she backed away from her recent talk of Obama being unfit to be commander in chief—a very dangerous theme, because (unlike, say, her argument that his health-care plan doesn’t go far enough) it hands McCain a powerful talking point. Clinton will continue to talk about her differences with Obama on questions like an individual mandate for health insurance, the proper balance between conciliation and confrontation with Republicans, and the conditions under which a President should meet with nasty foreign leaders. She’ll talk about her experience and her diligence. This kind of thing hasn’t “worked” for her, but at least it is her. She’ll give it her best shot, not her worst shot, and let the chips fall where it looks like they’re falling.

“Going negative” has been a bust. It could never be anything but a bust, because there is no audience for it in the Democratic Party. Her supporters (almost all of them) like him; his supporters (most of them) like her. The finger-pointing has already begun: she spent too much money on fancy hotel rooms, her husband made too many blunders, she never settled on a theme, and so on ad infinitum. But all that may be beside the point—the point being that Barack Obama is a phenomenon that comes along once in a lifetime. Unfortunately for Hillary, it’s her lifetime; fortunately for the rest of us, it’s ours.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Former Air Force Chief of Staff criticizes Clinton's "McCarthyite" tactics against Obama

by John Aravosis (DC) · 3/22/2008 11:13:00 AM ET · Link

AP would have you believe that General McPeak was just an Obama "aide." In fact, he's the former Chief of Staff for the entire Air Force. Even better, he's a Republican who served for nearly 2 years as Bill Clinton's Air Force Chief of Staff. He's also a co-chair of Obama's presidential campaign, but for AP to refer to him as an "Obama aide" hardly does the man justice. This isn't some kid we're talking about. And McPeak was none too pleased with Bill Clinton's comments last night suggesting that Obama wasn't "patriotic." Then again, the Associated Press did just publish a rather large and embarrassing article about how Hillary was often in the White House while Bill Clinton was asking Monica for oral sex, so it's understandable why the Clinton campaign is now trying to change the subject. I suspect that come the fall, were Hillary our nominee, the Republicans will be talking about Monica and Bill's sex life 24/7. And trying to call John McCain unpatriotic in order to stop the Monica sex talk just isn't going to cut it. The Clintons need to explain to the superdelegates and the country how they're going deal with the Monica problem come the fall. It's not a nice topic, but it's one that's going to come up, early and often, and as Hillary always reminds us, it's better to vet the scandals now so we can see how well our candidates will truly do against the Republicans. So, let's vet.

Ragin’ Carville Compares Richardson Endorsement to Biblical Betrayal

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008



Spirited Clinton adviser tells the New York Times that New Mexican governor’s backing Obama during Holy Week was “appropriate” and “ironic” because it was like Judas selling out Jesus.

The reaction of some of Mr. Clinton’s allies suggests that might have been a wise decision. “An act of betrayal,” said James Carville, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and a friend of Mr. Clinton.

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

Mr. Richardson said he called Mrs. Clinton late on Thursday to inform her that he would be appearing with Mr. Obama on Friday to lend his support.

“It was cordial, but a little heated,” Mr. Richardson said in an interview.

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McClellen's Book Gets Up McAuliffe's Irish

May 30, 2008 9:12 PM

Hillary Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe tells the National Journal's splendiferous Tammy Haddad that he doesn't care for former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellen's scathing memoir.

"I never like it when someone works for someone and then comes out and writes a book trashing them," quoth the Macker. "I don't care if it is politics or life. If he was that upset about everything, he should have quit. Remember, Gerald Ford's press secretary quit when he disagreed with pardoning, Ford pardoning Nixon. If you don't agree, then get out. And I just, I find it abhorrent the way these people come out and write books about their boss. It made 'em money, it made 'em prestige, it gave them all this power, and then they turn around and slap 'em. I just, I gotta tell you, I just uh, I don't care who it is -- Democrat, Republican -- it's wrong."