So everyone's wondering why in the heck the Republicans are dusting off their Lewinsky playbook

[kpete]

The Dirty Tricks strategy in the War on Women. Emphasis on "dirty" - by digby


So everyone's wondering why in the heck the Republicans are dusting off their Lewinsky playbook (perhaps even including a juicy new fairy tale about Barack Obama and Beyonce.)

The reason they are doing this is simple: the War on Women. I think they are hoping to trip Hillary Clinton up in some conservative jiu-jitsu on the current concerns with rape culture, inappropriate workplace intimacy and women's rights, by using Bill Clinton's scandals to throw liberal women off balance and ensure that the more traditional women have some tools to join the battle After all, a lot of younger women don't know the details of those scandals and a lot of people have probably forgotten them. It may have a different kind of salience today than it did then.

....................

I'll say one thing for Paul. He's a clever piece of work. This is a smart, if underhanded and thoroughly dishonest, tactic. It remains to be seen if they will literally do a ratfuck (which is specifically defined as "recruiting conservative members to infiltrate opposition groups and/or misrepresent them through false flag activities in order to undermine the effectiveness of such opposition&quot but perhaps they don't even need to do that in these days of social media. All they have to do is "call out" their rivals for hypocrisy on the issue and they could wreak some serious dirty tricks havoc. (And you can certainly be sure they're going to dredge up every ugly comment any Democrat made about Clinton in 2008 --- and the sexual stuff will probably be prominent.)

The War on Women opens the door for Republicans to do what pleasures them the most --- talk about other people's sex lives in detail even as they condemn it. It arouses them.

more:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-dirty-tricks-strategy-in-war-on.html

[libodem]

1. It arouses them

Yep. Voyeurs.

[ladjf]

2. No. I think your theory about them doing it for the pleasure is not correct. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Bingo

Mr. Plagiarism (he thinks we forgot?) is trying to 3-card Monte the GOP deck. Except there's nothing in there but these types -

[Blue_Tires]

4. Because the GOP can't win on the issues and rely on creating distractions

end of story...

[adirondacker]

39. Between their projection and distraction they have issues. ;)

[cui bono]

5. That is a dangerous notion as it discounts the nefarious reasons they do it. To keep women down.

There is no mistaking the GOP hatred and fear of women. Why would they not want equal pay, not want to stop domestic violence, invade women's privacy in the doctor's office?

It's a lot worse than them getting their jollies.

[Jefferson23]

6. If he goes this route, I think Clinton can manage it quite well..all she needs to do is play the

other card. If they expect to garner points from Bill's sex life with other women and why she stayed;
Clinton can address it for what resonates with the right...she was loyal to her husband..and she was.

She was also a mother who did what she felt was best for her family..they stay together, they work it out.

The more salacious the stories get the lousier Paul looks, imho. He needs Independents, I don't think
'they will in any great measure find this an appealing strategy nor make him look appealing for high office.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Because they have nothing else?

[struggle4progress]

8. "Hey! Let's try this again! It almost worked twenty years ago!"

[Cha]

13. repulblicons are nothing if not insane.

[bettyellen]

9. yep, it totally reminds me of the Mia bashing here...If a woman is tough, it must be because she

is pissed at a man. Never because she is trying to o the right thing.
I learned thisis a widely held belief here.

[madokie]

10. RepubliCONs have nothing

they can't point to anything they've done that would give them a boost so they have to dredge up shit like this. I think most anyone, maybe except the teabillies and fox junkies, will see it for what it is, desperation.

[Cha]

14. republiCONS.. the party of

Smear Fear and Loathing.



Sorry, Margaret Chase Smith.. that didn't change except if you want to count devolution.

[madokie]

22. Nothing more asinine than a working man or woman voting for a republiCON

Add retired, disabled or disillusioned to that

[Cha]

41. You said it madokie.. :(

[adirondacker]

40. Interesting choice Cha. I had to look her up, but talk about a woman with foresight!

Damn!

[Cha]

42. I googled fear-republicans-images and she came up, adirondacker..

I remember reading quite awhile ago on DU that she was an old time moderate republican..

"Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995)[1] was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S Representative (1940-1949) and a U.S. Senator (1949-1973) from Maine.[2] She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either.[3] A moderate Republican, she is perhaps best remembered for her 1950 speech, "Declaration of Conscience," in which she criticized the tactics of McCarthyism.[4]

Smith was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election, but was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention.[2] Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski was sworn in for a fifth term."

This is what her party has become.. she was some of the last of the decent republicans.. I hadn't known that she spoke out against McCarthy though. So, that was interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Chase_Smith

P.S. How's your new job?

[adirondacker]

44. I musta missed the discussion, but I went to the same source:) Amazing how parties can change.

Jobwise, I Just finished signing off the contract on the first, and the prospects are looking great so far. It's putting me back in touch with colleagues that I haven't heard from in years, so that part is going well. I may end up in some "undesirable" locales temporarily, but much of the field work for the year will be in the Champlain and Hudson Valley which I'm certain to enjoy. I'm still waiting on the first paycheck, but the utility companies aren't going to shut me off just yet (I just received shutoff notices last week). I'll probably make it in the nick of time (unlike many of the long term unemployed) :/

Thanks for asking
How's "Winter" on the Old Island?
You missed a chilly one here!

[Cha]

45. Yeah, I stay in touch with my old upstate New York, buddies..

why I sent you the virtual fire placed jammed.

It sounds like in the nick of time for you.. and, it's awful that so many were cut off from unemployment by the repubs. And, the SNAP benefits also taken because of these deadenders..



Winter here is turning out to be colder than last year and I'm liking it. A much needed change from the tropical sweltering summer.

When I said "quite awhile ago on DU" I meant back in the bush-cheney coup error.. so you wouldn't haven't seen it.

Stay warm and enjoy learning the ropes of your new job, adirondacker.

[leftyohiolib]

11. they have nothing else - they have no record to run on, if the talk about what they did in

congress the people will abandon them

[Cha]

12. they're so full of stupid bullshit. And, I won't say a damn word for ayn rand paul.. he

speaks for himself.



I say Bring it.. this is going to backfire in their collective stupidass face.

[AlbertCat]

15. a lot of younger women don't know the details of those scandals ...

.... and a lot of people have probably forgotten them.

Yeah, well harassment, coercion, and intimidation are not really part of the story. Consensual sex, on the other hand....

Details should include the GOP, and no one else, making an issue out of it.

[gollygee]

16. I think they probably think it'll attract women voters

That women voters will be upset about Bill Clinton's cheating ways, and will for no apparent reason blame the woman he cheated on and therefore not vote for her.

But they are completely tone deaf as far as women's issues go. Why would someone vote against Hillary Clinton because her husband cheated on her? It makes no real sense but I still think that's what they're thinking.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

31. women voters were part of the group still VERY supportive of Bill Clinton by 1999 and 2000

when he had high approval ratings

But Tea Taliban is stupid enough to try it....please proceed Morans.

[Mr.Bill]

17. However morally wrong one may think

Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinski was, it was consensual, and Paul is getting away with calling someone in a consensual relationship with another adult a "sexual predator". I seriously doubt it will keep anyone from voting for Hillary, though. It actually may backfire and make some people sympathetic to her.

[madinmaryland]

18. Heh! If they do, the BIG DAWG will just humiliate them once again.

They should just STFU right now.

[napkinz]

19. bring it!

[Dirty Socialist]

20. The Benghazi Plan Didn't Work

Benghazi went limp.

[Volaris]

21. counterattack? Oh, HERE IT IS...

1) Hillary Clinton= tradtional Family Marriage Values AND Christian forgiveness.
2) David FUCKING Vitter.

Yeah, its gonna be MADAM President, and all the haters can go sit in a corner and feel bad about the size of their dicks. Fuck 'em.

[Dawson Leery]

33. Correct. Also,

Clinton had much support from women voters through the Lewinsky nonsense.
Rebel Rand Paul has nothing to offer, so he is going to rile up the mentally deranged Republican party base by bashing Bill Clinton's personal doings.

[Mr.Bill]

48. I wonder what Rand Paul will say next

to further energize the Democratic base.

[NastyRiffraff]

23. They have nothing else

But hatred of women, gays, liberals, blacks, Hispanics. In short, anyone not a white male.

[bonniebgood]

24. What happen to 'leaving the spouse out of campaign"? nt

[unc70]

29. It disappeared with Eleanor Roosevelt.

A pushy woman who did not know her place. Pushing her one world order through the UN, challenging God's order of White male superiority, anti-American, morally lacking, taking from hard working real Americans, to give to lazy promiscuous leeches who everyone else has to support.

(That more or less summed up the opinion of white males in NC from the 1930s through the 1950s. The hatred of her was only matched by that of Justice Earl Warren and of former Senator and former UNC President Dr. Frank Porter Graham.)

[hatrack]

25. Well, they're welome to cut their own throats

If they really think that America is going to respond to rehashing a series of 20-year-old blowjobs that did nothing but lose them house seats back in 1998, then they're even dumber than I think, and I think they're pretty FUCKING DUMB.

Time passes, attitudes change and (most important) angry, self-righteous fearful white voters DIE, and millions and millions of reliably Republican voters who were, shocked, shocked by Bill's hose-wielding 20 FUCKING YEARS AGO are DEAD.

Nobody gave all that much of a shit back then, and they really aren't going to give a shit this time around.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. I don't think they are so good at jiu-jitsu...

[Hekate]

27. I remember that Ms Monica wrote a friend that she was going to get her "presidential kneepads"...

... as soon as she got that internship. The Big Dog may have been a fool to fall for that, but she was a Venus flytrap in bright red lipstick, and she, imo, was the predator.

But hey: IOKYAR. Wasn't Gingrich shtupping his own mistress while leading the charge against Bill Clinton?

The last line quoted is so true: The War on Women opens the door for Republicans to do what pleasures them the most --- talk about other people's sex lives in detail even as they condemn it. It arouses them.

[calimary]

35. Hekate, there was a bunch of 'em shtupping their mistresses while persecuting Bill Clinton.

The guy who would have been newty's replacement when newty was driven from the Speakership - bob livingstone - resigned because it was discovered that he, too, was cheating on his wife. dan burton - who had the nerve to call Bill Clinton a scumbag - not only had shtupped his mistress, he fathered a love child. And henry hyde not only shtupped his mistress, but he broke up her marriage. For all his peccadilloes, Bill Clinton never did either of those things. And yes, I too remember Ms Monica's letter to her friend, boasting that she was going to get her "presidential kneepads" as soon as she got to Washington to take the intern job. Who's the sexual predator, rand?

Btw - I actually saw Monica Lewinsky out shopping with her mom. I was stunned. I knew immediately just by looking at her how he fell for her (especially after she proudly flipped up her skirt at him to show off her thong underwear - and later bragged about THAT, too). She looked like a friction' inflatable sex doll. Literally. Made my eyes pop out.

[DonViejo]

28. I feel badly for Ms Lewinski...

this cannot be a particularly good time for her or her family.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

30. very easy for her to counter. because what they are attempting to do is victimized her and Lewinsky

all over again. She can discuss what SHE has done for women around the world and in the U.S. and what the GOP are doing to destroy them. Pretty damn simple.

[Hekate]

36. +1

[AnnieBW]

32. The return of the MIGHTY CLENIS!!!

The Repukes are running scared. Their Great White Whale... er... Hope is imploding. The Three Stooges (Paul, Rubio, and Cruz) have NO accomplishments between them. They think that they can beat Biden, O'Malley, Cuomo, or any other Dem, but they want to scare Hillary out of the race. So, they're dragging out the Mighty Clenis out of mothballs.

There's really only two responses to this nonsense. Ignore it, or say, "better a blowjob than no job!"

[randome]

50. What did the Clenis know about Benghazi???

[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 10% chance of rain means the same as a 90% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[oldandhappy]

34. And so that reporters

will ask about Lewinsky when Bill comes to campaign for the Dem candidate in the senate race. A distraction. Never ask about issues, ha ha. Very cheap on the part of the t folk, but nothing new.

[Rex]

37. As expected, this will not play well to voters - but hey when did the GOP

ever do anything that was not some failure on an epic scale?

[TheKentuckian]

38. Seems well beyond stupid to me, maybe it is some fucked up compulsive behavior?

Who would these angles pull that they don't already have locked down and how does this really rile up folks to do Jack apple shit?

I think their hatred of women, Democrats, and Clintons is just on overdrive mutating with wacko conspiracy nonsense and pure, uncut stupidity because all it can be is nothing at best and damn likely to be a fuck load of fail.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. That shit about Beyonce is a joke.

No, I don't mean it's beyond ridiculous, I mean it's literal satire.

They really think they can defeat Hillary with recycled Clenis outrage? They couldn't even defeat the Clenis with it. No one fucking cared in 1998. People care even less, now.

This is more chalky, dusty, musty chattering of the shuffleboard generation and the Ken Ham demographic.

[Glitterati]

46. I just wish we Democrats would follow Bill's example

and just IGNORE it.

Has anyone ever noticed how quick the Republicans drop their latest BS when it doesn't get the result they were looking for?

Well, THIS is the result they are looking for on this one.......everyone talking about Bill's behavior decades ago, painting Hilary with the Clenis brush.

We're giving them EXACTLY what they want; helping them achieve their goal.

At some point, we will all remember that Bill Clinton is the Master of political theater. And, he hasn't bothered to give them the time of day.

If we did the same, it would all go away.

[gwheezie]

47. Me and mt friends just got more pissed off at the gop

If they had any sense at all, they would stop trying to talk about women. Clearly, they don't understand us or they wouldn't talk like this.

[randome]

49. Nah, they're just afraid of her. Nothing more than that.

I still don't want her as President but it's good to see the GOP shivering.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[truedelphi]

51. I guess it is only because their

Being against gay marriage, women in general, and Social Security doesn't yet make them totally STOOPID?

Back at the time of the Lewinsky affair, polling showed that women felt very favorably toward Hillary Clinton, and thought she handled the situation with dignity and grace. I can't see how dusting the affair off would help the Republicans.