Hillary's team crosses the line

[proud2BlibKansan]

The Clinton campaign's circulation of right-wing materials to denigrate a top Obama advisor reeks of cynicism.

By Joe Conason


March 28, 2008 | Over the past few months, the emotional trajectory of the Democratic presidential primary has dropped precipitously, from inspiring to enervating, turning into a chronicle of petty sniping and amplified nastiness that will harm the party, the nation and the eventual nominee. Neither side is innocent of driving the discourse downward -- and everyone observing the process knows that both sides have crossed lines of decency and decorum, whether by accident or design.

Having watched many nasty political campaigns, however, including some far worse than this one, I tend to discount the constant hysteria over "dirty tactics" that is now background noise in almost every election. But Hillary Clinton's campaign crossed a symbolic boundary this week when its operatives sent around clips from the notoriously Clinton-hating extreme-right press to denigrate Barack Obama and his advisors. It was slightly eerie to watch those items arrive in the mailbox along with photos of Sen. Clinton at an editorial meeting of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -- where she was seated next to that newspaper's owner, a certain Richard Mellon Scaife.

Although the reported encounter between Scaife and Clinton was mildly startling, it represented normal political behavior and nothing remarkable. Actually, they have even met before at least once, when the right-wing billionaire attended a White House dinner for donors to the Executive Mansion's beautification fund on Jan. 21, 1998 -- the same day that the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke on the front pages. (Clinton describes their encounter on the receiving line that night rather acidly in her autobiography, "Living History.")

Clinton did not look happy to be meeting him again in Pittsburgh, but his newspaper there boasts a circulation of about 150,000 on weekdays and nearly 200,000 on Sundays -- which means that any candidate is likely to respond to an invitation from its editorial board. One of Clinton's best qualities is her fearlessness, and it is hard to imagine her shrinking from the challenge of a meeting with Scaife and his staff. She may well have felt that in the presence of the man who had more or less accused her of conniving in the death of Vince Foster, she clearly held the moral high ground.

more . . . http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/03/28/clinton_scaife/

[AX10]

1. Strange how Joe had no problem with..

Obama using right wing talking points against HRC. I.E. the "Harry and Louise" healthcare ads replayed in Ohio.

[stillcool]

9. you mean this one?

Clinton Surrogate Compares Obama Ad to Nazi March
Fri Feb 1, 2:23 PM ET

The Nation -- On a media conference call organized by the Hillary Clinton campaign today, Clinton surrogate Len Nichols compared an Obama health care ad to Nazis.

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Accusing political opponents of Nazism is an outrageous smear. Raising the specter of a Nazi march in response to a health care mailer that evokes the insurance industry is so absurd, it would be hard to take the attack seriously, were it not launched from a high profile national campaign conference call in this crucial stretch of the presidential race. And political observers know, of course, that the Clinton Campaign regularly arranges opportunities for surrogates to launch these kind of smears, which are later followed up with apologies. (See: Bob Johnson, Bill Shaheen, Bob Kerrey, and Francine Torge, to name the most recent offenders.) For his part, Nichols did not immediately return a call requesting further comment.

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Len Nichols, Director of New America's Health Policy Program, stated, "For nearly 17 years I have worked tirelessly to reform our nation's struggling health system. Today my passion overwhelmed me. I chose an analogy that was wholly inappropriate. I am deeply sorry for any offense that my unfortunate comments may have caused.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=278988

[JKaiser]

2. Stop dividing our party by posting this crap! Attack McCain not our candidates!

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Hillary needs to drop out

so we can attack McCain. This article is a great reason to support her quitting. She is using rw propaganda to attack a fellow Democrat.

[JKaiser]

5. This is politics. Both Candidates are attacking each other...

But their ideas are mostly the same, because they are both democrats.. I am not going to attack Obama or Hillary or their fans.. It is pointless to attack fans.. because we have already made up our minds.. Therefore negative posts about either candidate will just further divide us.. We should not encourage anybody to dropout.. If Obama was in the same position as Hillary I would not want him to dropout.. We live in a Democracy.. When all the voices are heard and their is a defined winner.. it is our job to unite and support that candidate..

We need to be attacking McCain now.. We need to energize the democratic base instead of turning people off by saying mean things about others candidates.. Democratic underground starts good talking points that people see online.. It's sort of like a grassroots organization, a start of conversation that begins a movement.. We need to be united NOW.. McCain has a head start....

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Tell that to Hillary and her fans

She has been repeatedly discredited as a liar. How is that honoring our party and serving our country?

[JKaiser]

7. It goes on both sides...

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Bullshit

Hillary lied. More than once. And her supporters are back from their boycott spewing their crap here which serves no purpose other than to get McCain elected.

[JKaiser]

10. I don't want fight about this, because that's what the republicans want us to do..

[me b zola]

12. Republicans also want Hillary to stay in the race

The republicans also wanted her to be our nominee, but they know that won't happen now so they are content for her to stay in the race to attempt to bloody up Obama and drain him of resources to fight McCain.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Too bad HIllary is actively supporting their candidate

I don't want to fight either. But she is divisive and tearing this party apart. Until she quits the race, I will continue to speak out against her and her negative campaign.

[Cha]

11. And they've been using the karl rove hit book

since she came in 3rd in Iowa. What a charade they are..desperately clinging to the spotlight..for what?

[rsmith6621]

4. Hillary is worse than McLame..

....at least McCain comes out and admits he embraces bush.....Hillary doesn't....I know what I would get with McCain...I don't with Hillary.