Hillary plays hardball

[IndianaGreen]

Hillary plays hardball

The first sign of friction in the Obama camp as Mrs Clinton demands - and gets - a purge of her critics before accepting Secretary of State role

By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Sunday, 23 November 2008

Before Hillary Clinton has been formally offered the job as Secretary of State, a purge of Barack Obama's top foreign policy team has begun.

The advisers who helped trash the former First Lady's foreign policy credentials on the campaign trail are being brutally shunted aside, as the price of her accepting the job of being the public face of America to the world. In negotiations with Mr Obama this week before agreeing to take the job, she demanded and received assurances that she alone should appoint staff to the State Department. She also got assurances that she will have direct access to the President and will not have to go through his foreign policy advisers on the National Security Council, which is where many of her critics in the Obama team are expected to end up.

The first victims of Mrs Clinton's anticipated appointment will be those who defended Mr Obama's flanks on the campaign trail. By mocking Mrs Clinton's claims to have landed under sniper fire in Bosnia or pouring scorn on her much-ballyhooed claim to have visited 80 countries as First Lady they successfully deflected the damaging charge that he is a lightweight on international issues.

Foremost among the victims of the purges is her old Yale Law School buddy Greg Craig, a man who more than anyone led the rescue of his presidency starting the very night Kenneth Starr's lurid report into the squalid details of the former president's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky were published on the internet in 1998. Despite his long and loyal friendship with the Clintons, Mr Craig threw his lot in with Mr Obama at an early stage in the presidential election campaign. As if that betrayal to the cause of the Clinton restoration was not enough, Mr Craig did more to undermine Mrs Clinton's claims to be a foreign policy expert than anyone else in the some of the ugliest exchanges of the battle for the Democratic nomination.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hillary-plays-hardball-1031238.html

[Why Syzygy]

1. fuckin great

:sarcasm: I guess Bill Richardson is screwed too. I'm devastated. Again. I don't even like Obama any more.

[tabatha]

2. The Independent has little credibility

[IndianaGreen]

11. It was more credible than the entire fucking American press on the lead up to war

It was the first Western paper to report on US war crimes in Afghanistan, wiping out entire villages in which there were no combatants.

[tabatha]

12. I was told that by someone who would know.

Maybe that person is wrong.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Your source is wrong

I posted several war dispatches by Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, that debunked US claims about civilian casualties. Fisk, who lives in Beirut, also provided invaluable eyewitness accounts of Israeli bombing of Lebanon.

[tabatha]

24. Yeah, it seem so.

I had sent around an article on the Independent - which I thought was good, but was told they are not reliable.

[BlueJac]

3. Change?

[JeanGrey]

4. Who is really surprised?

[elocs]

5. Hardball politics in the real world. Who would have thunk it?

Gee, where are all of those pragmatic Democrats that I am told exist?

[wisteria]

6. First, who is in charge, 2. why is she worth this effort and 3. she can't touch Kerry

who SHE will have to answer to in the Senate when she appears before the foreign policy commitee.

[gaiilonfong]

7. the Clintonista TROLLS are out in full force

I hope Obama knows what he is doing...the Clintons are disgusting and are vindictive putangs.

[Fearless]

16. And we continue to throw the party under the bus... Bravo...

It only took a week this time. A new record.

[Unbowed]

8. Oh just ducky.

Just when I rationalized myself into believing the Clinton appointment might not be so bad after all...now this.

Just what the country needs now, a bona-fide Diva. And a vindictive one at that. Great choice for top diplomat.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fearless]

17. Did you seriously just post a racist slur on the DU?

THAT's what's sickening.

[Why Syzygy]

18. It was a quote from someone else's speech.

I've never said such a thing, nor would the idea ever occur to me.

Don't besmirch me with your high and mighty (secular/non race biased/gender neutral) attitude.

btw . did you note the timing of the tape? Right after the word came out about Hillary aka SOS.

[Fearless]

23. Now who's being high and mighty?

What you wrote contained no " ". It was a statement. If you didn't mean that, so be it. But that is what it said.

NTF

[Why Syzygy]

25. I'm pretty sure I used " " .

Like I said, it was something widely reported in the MSM and therefore thought to be a known reference to the reader. If you were taken off guard, then you missed a prominent news story last week.

We can't check to see if you're correct, since it "somehow" got deleted.

[Fearless]

27. Your beef is with the mod then.

[Why Syzygy]

28. wrong again

I have no beef. I'm convinced your reading comprehension skills played a part in this dispute.
I'll just leave it at that. eom

[Fearless]

30. It the words of an immortal... Mee fail inglish that unpossible.

[quickesst]

9. Just think....

for many, if HRC wasn't in the mix, Obama wouldn't have to be relegated to second tier status, but then, she'd have to be some distance, or at least six feet under. Clinton fever, the wind beneath the wings of support Obama has for an ever-shrinking insignificant few. Ho-ho. quickesst

[kristopher]

13. Hardball, huh?

If this portrayal of HRC is accurate (I don't know that it is) what would a smart man like Obama do? Again, if truely as characterized, she is potential trouble in the Senate and potential trouble at State.

Maybe a smart person would give her the SOS job so that she resigns her Senate seat, then fire her once her replacement in the senate is firmly ensconced.

Personally though, I don't think that the portrayal of her is accurate. I think these two BHO & HRC have been double teaming us since the writing was on the wall that he had the nomination locked up. I think they pushed the primary to the "bitter end" to help lay the organization groundwork for the presidential election - not to mention all the free media that it got them at the expense of the GOP getting face time.

They were and are partners IMO.

[Why Syzygy]

19. If there were any truth to that

I would feel a bit better about her. Problem is, I have no evidence to support your theory.

[kristopher]

22. Why did she continue an obviously hopeless campaign? nt

[BOBoyd]

14. We Need Hillary

We will need Hillary to help shore up the support that we will need to push our agenda. She is a great motivater of many democrats. She also will help overcome some uncertainity with our allies. Barak will not stray from his promises he made us. Hillary will work within the teams framework and do his biding.

[MadBadger]

20. Greg Craig wansnt purged, he was named WH counsel. THis article is BULLSHIT

[Skittles]

21. of course it is bullshit

and look how many idiots fall for it

[MasonJar]

26. Smart woman. Why should she be hampered by people who disparaged

her credentials in the very field she is now overseeing? Smart move of Obama to okay such a policy. He wants an effective and smooth operation, I'm sure. Too bad Powell didn't have more direct access to Bush!

[atimetocome]

31. I think it was a good move by both Hillary and Obama.

[GladysKnight]

29. Hillary Calls Her Impersonator with SOS News (Hilarious)

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[hopechange2008]

32. I wanna believe she will do well

but, oh how i worry....