Bill archenemy Richard Mellon Scaife now has 'admiration' for him. Huh?

Bill Clinton is never at a loss for company. When he's not globe-trotting or charming audiences for as much as $400,000 a speech, he's often schmoozing visitors in his suite of offices in Harlem. Last July, the former president sat down with a billionaire impressed with the William J. Clinton Foundation's campaign against AIDS in Africa. The two men chatted amiably over lunch for more than two hours, and the visitor pledged to write Clinton's foundation a generous check. But there was something unusual, if not plain weird, about the meeting. NEWSWEEK has learned that the billionaire so eager to endear himself to the former president was Richard Mellon Scaife—once the Clintons' archenemy and best-known as the man behind a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" that Hillary Clinton said was out to destroy them.

Scaife was no run-of-the-mill Clinton hater. In the 1990s, the heir to the Mellon banking fortune contributed millions to efforts to dig up dirt on President Clinton. He backed the Clinton-bashing American Spectator magazine, whose muckrakers produced lurid stories about Clinton's alleged financial improprieties and trysts. Scaife also financed a probe called the Arkansas Project that tried, among other things, to show that Clinton, while Arkansas governor, protected drug runners.

The Arkansas Project largely came up empty, and most of the stories were ignored by all but the most avid Clinton antagonists. But one Scaife-backed conspiracy theory got widespread attention. In 1993, White House aide and Clinton friend Vince Foster was found dead of a gunshot wound in a park outside Washington, D.C. Three official investigations concluded the death was a suicide. Yet Scaife dollars helped promote assertions that Foster had been murdered—the not-so-subtle subtext being that the Clintons had something to do with it. Scaife hired Christopher Ruddy, a reporter who doggedly pursued the conspiracy theory in a Scaife newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Though discredited, the story resonated with people who believed Clinton was hiding dark secrets. Scaife and Ruddy later started Newsmax, a Web site and magazine that attacks their enemies and lauds their heroes.

Bill Clinton now finds himself the unlikeliest of Scaife heroes. Last month Ruddy posted a softball interview with Clinton on the Newsmax site (sample question: "What is the best thing about being an ex-president?"). A worshipful cover story followed in the current edition of the magazine. Clinton, it gushed, is "a political and cultural powerhouse" who is "part Merlin and part Midas—a politician with a magical touch."

What is going on here? Scaife declined to comment, but Ruddy tells NEWSWEEK he and Scaife believe Clinton's life since leaving office has been "very laudable," and that he is doing "very important work representing the country when the U.S. is widely resented in the world." He said they never suggested Clinton was involved in Foster's death, and insisted they were not among those hyping alleged Clinton sex scandals, though he acknowledged their work may have encouraged others.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/69545

What gauls me is these two ass holes tried everything to smear this man and came up empty handed...

They lied, cheated and published dozens of dubious books and they have the nerve to say anything, anything about Bill Clinton...

The way they worded the story came out as if they were coming from a higher moral ground than the Ex-PResident...

Fuck these guys...

He's 75 or so, isn't he? Maybe he's in poor health? Rewriting history?

The answer could be in the last paragraph. Maybe the old bastard thinks the Senator has a shot at the WH, and doesn't wanna be put on an Enemies' List, because that's the sort of shit the GOP does!!! Much is made here of the Clinton neutralization efforts, but these things are often a two-way street:

Whatever the reasons for Scaife's change of heart, it's not hard to figure out why the Clintons would embrace a former nemesis. As they prepared for Hillary's presidential run, the Clintons made quiet attempts to disarm, or at least neutralize, some of their most vocal opponents. Last year Hillary accepted an offer from Rupert Murdoch (who always hedges his bets) to host a fund-raiser for her Senate campaign. The New York Times reported that the Clinton camp has also made efforts to open a line of communication to blogger Matt Drudge, who has served as a conduit for anti-Clinton GOP leaks.

When you lose a district, you don't starve it, like our George does, you shower it with goodies so they never think badly of you again.

Since Bill Clinton has never said a bad word about anybody in public (I do so hope he lets loose in private)and always, always searches for something good to say about his worst detractor, it's not hard for him to reach out and forge alliances with the people who tried to destroy him. There are no hard words for him to take back and they never felt the least shame about theirs, anyway.

This is Bill's best quality and he's using it (as well he should after the grief he gave her) in supporting his wife.

When Bill was first running for president, we noticed that if you disagreed with him, he would talk to you, and when he was tired he would send someone else to talk to you, and eventually you would agree to anything to make him stop talking to you. Wait. That's kinda like torture.

But I want someone who will try to find common ground...and I know Hillary's well trained, and smart enough to see that Bill's trick of behaving decently under stress enabled him to survive deliberate and criminal assaults.

I don't believe in the redemption of enemies of the state.

Fuck W.M. Scaife.

I hope his nasty divorce proceedings are published everywhere.

Naively believing that this is even possible. In the process of trying to do so, he annoys and irritates everyone.

I am guessing that he believes that the money will do some good even if it comes
from people that aren't Democrats. Sen. Clinton is similar. She worked with Newt on a Health
Care Project & accepted a fund raiser from Rupert. I guess that is what Triangulation is.

Methinks Scaiffe may finally be having some buyer's remorse. Millions squandered with little to show for it. Not only that, while his money is welcome, he surely isn't inside the current white house. The dude's also going through a messy divorce. Sucks to be him. :rofl:

Scaiffe's money is as green as anyone elses and if he's willing to write a check for Clinton's work, say thank you and take it to the bank.