If Hillary wins the nomination, will the whole Whitewater thing be dredged up?

[begin_within]

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yes and the Arkansas Project will begin once again

Wanna bet they are going to try to impeach her if she is elected and the pubbies take back the house?

Oh and the impeachment thing, insert democrat here

Why our people PISS ME OFF AT TIMES

[Catherine Vincent]

2. I don't see why it should.

Whitewater is dead and buried.

[barb162]

3. Of course; they'll be dragged through the mud again.

It'll be like the Swiftboat crap with Kerry.

[bonito]

4. If Hillary wins the republicans win, bet on it.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. probably. and new and old scandals too. there is always new ones

[Toots]

36. What exactly was the scandal? the fact they lost sixty nine thousand dollars in a failed land deal

What is there to bring up? Everything they brought up before was investigated in triplicate and found to be without merit. I wish they would bring it up..It totally put the Clinton in the very best light and the opposite with the Republicans..

[Bucky]

6. Shame on you for writing in the passive tense.

No, the faux Whitewater scandal will not "be dredged up" as if by some nameless formless entity dwelling in the universe of public awareness. Republican operatives, but not the Republican candidate himself, will start mentioning it relentlessly for the remainder of the campaign. These are the same Republican media personalities who are curiously not talking about Whitewater & sundry other fake scandals from the Clinton years.

[begin_within]

8. Of the various tenses available at the time, what tense would have sufficed as the more correct?

[Bucky]

14. Nothing short of pluperfect is adequate to convey my angst.

Seriously, my point is that it won't "just happen" but that there will be a concerted effort to tear Mrs Clinton apart as a viable leader beginning the second her nomination is inevitable. The people who do this would do so against any of our potential nominees, but Clinton is the one who provides them with the softest target and the most ammo.

And more importantly, there is a reason why these same people are pointedly not discussing her various Achilles heels now. Note that I don't call it a conspiracy. I don't think on a matter this obvious, our opponents need to do much coordination. As Noam Chomsky likes to say, there's no need for conspiracy when there's a collusion of interests. Everyone just knows to play their part.

[begin_within]

16. Well put

[Liberal In Texas]

20. And, put well. n/t

[begin_within]

27. True

[CTyankee]

44. I hope they do; then we could throw Robert Ray's conclusion

not finding anything illegal in the Whitewater affair and rub their noses in it. After all, Ray was Ken Starr's successor and he wrapped up the whole thing. Dems could republish the Ray report and then say "Any questions?"

[MiniMe]

7. Is a bear catholic? Does the pope shit in the woods?

Oops, may have mixed those up

[Liberal In Texas]

9. LOL!

[A HERETIC I AM]

43. Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?

just my $.02

[madrchsod]

10. of course it will

[pinto]

11. In reality, whoever gets our nomination, anything and everything will be dredged up.

It's going to be a bumpy ride. Hang in there Democrats!

[mitchum]

12. Hell, the whole Eve and the apple thing will be dredged up

or maybe some bossy cavewoman story

[LibDemAlways]

13. Yes, and the repukes will want an investigation into

the traffic accident she was involved in which killed a....oops, that was Pickles. OK, then they'll investigate why she and her President husband had their drivers license records scrubbed to erase...oh, never mind. That was chimp and Pickles, too. Then, they can always look into the arrest records of her daughter.....but, unlike the Bush twins, she's never been arrested.

The repukes will go to great lengths to make up imaginary shit, especially about Hillary....about the same lengths they'll go to to hide or make excuses for genuine, bonafide republican wrongdoing.

[jaysunb]

15. Make bank on it....

Nominating Hillary is the only chance republicans have of retaining power. :evilfrown:

[DFW]

17. It won't matter who we nominate

If it were Saint Peter, himself, the radical right would enlist the Satan detective agency
for all the dirt they could possibly find, and then make up the rest on Fox.

For the record, I think it's ridiculous to say that with Hillary (or any of the others) we
lose. After 2000 and 2004, we already know what's coming at us, no matter who we nominate.
No surprises any more, just strategy.

I think we should win because we'll offer the country something better than the right wing
will offer the country (I'm excluding any possibility that Al Gore will accept the Republican
Party's nomination). The rest is--and what a sad thing this is--in the packaging. I refuse to
bleieve that Frank Luntz is the only one in our country who knows how to put a sentence together.

[Hieronymus]

18. Of course it will, but Hillary has a powerful machine to smack them down.

[elocs]

19. I would predict there will be lots of dredging. n/t

[Jamastiene]

21. Of course. Every time she farted sideways as an infant

will be brought up. Salacious gossip sells. The Democrat who can finally win is going to be the Democrat who can learn to marginalize the obsessed naysayers and rise above the thought of "what will my political opponents think of me?" There's no room for that kind of hand wringing in politics. Hillary is probably strong enough to overcome it.

[Rageneau]

22. Wouldn't that be like the Catholic Church dredging up the Inquisition?

Whitewater was a failed persecution. There was never anything to it and that fact has been well-established. For the GOP to bring it up, would be like Nifong bringing up the Duke LaCrosse case.

[WinkyDink]

32. And how many Americans do you think remember it that way, when "SCANDAL" was the only term used?

[fazoolius_2006]

23. Most likely.

So will travelgate and filegate and a hundred other "gates". Wish elections were decided on issues and not attacking the other candidate.

[KharmaTrain]

24. Did The Checkers Speech Hurt Nixon?

Or Algier Hiss? Or his losing the California Governor's gig in '62? Nope...people wanted change that year...and I see a similar scenario helping Hillwary next year.

The Clenis is losing its ability to facinate all except the beltway elite and the 25% or less of the dead-enders who will be swept aside next year.

[WinkyDink]

33. He didn't serve out his term, did he? And claiming a middle-class income or losing one election

is not nearly the equivalent of BEING INVESTIGATED, however bogus or partisan said investigations were.

[treestar]

25. Of course. The M$M will be 24/7 on that and Gennifer Flowers

Not to mention that Monica's fame will get a new lease on life.

[H2O Man]

26. Some people

might not wait until then to bring it up.

[William769]

28. Look what happened the last time.

Let them go ahead and try at their own peril.

[ThomWV]

29. Don't worry, there isn't a snowballs chance in hell she'll be nominated

[marshall]

30. She should steel herself for anything

In today's climate anything and everything--real, flimsy, or manufactured--is going to come up.

[WinkyDink]

31. EVERYTHING and then some WILL be "dredged up"---including (are you sitting down?) MONICA.

ML's 31st birthday---completely irrelevant---was mentioned in the MSM the other day.

[earthlover]

34. Before the nomination, the media will ignore old scandals...but AFTER?

The right wing wants Hillary to be nominated. That's why they haven't been bringing up the old scandals. YET. It's like the old war tactic, don't fire until you can see the white in their eyes.

They didn't swiftboat Kerry either until he had the nomination sewed up.

I know the crap about Hillary is false and/or irrelevant to a thinking voter. So was the Swiftboating of Kerry.

We shouldn't be lulled into any illusions that the MSM will not bombard us with Hillary bashing once she is the nominee.

What's worse, it will be even harder to defend Hillary because it will just confirm suspicions people already had about her.

[ikojo]

35. While the media ignored Bush's alchol induced

excesses (DUI) and his drug use as well as ignored his SEC violations and allegations of insider trading...it will be fair game to dredge up the failed Whitewater investment.

Jerry Fallwell's successor will probably be selling DVDs of the tape about Mena Arkansas.

I doubt Hillary gets the nomination, though. She is just too polarizing a figure even among Democrats.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

37. Every bit of "gotcha" will be dredged up on all the candidates. This is America.

And, sleazy politics is a tradition dating back to the founders.

[Meshuga]

38. I'm sure it will n/t

[hatrack]

39. Are you kidding? It's all going to be rehashed - "Travelgate", Socks, Bill's Haircut . . .

The Clinton Cocaine Connection (you know, those teenagers found dead on the train tracks knew about the smuggling operation through Mena, Arkansas and the Clintons rubbed them out), "Filegate", Gennifer Flowers, Buddy getting hit by a car, and Monica, Monica, Monica.

The Beltway Cloaca Maxima will open wide and gush every minute of every hour of every day from the minute she gets the nomination until the polls close on election night.

It. Will. Never. Stop.

[tammywammy]

40. Yes, of course

Anything and everything that can be dredged up (about any of the candidates) will be.

[earthlover]

42. That's true, but....

With Hillary, it will to many confirm previous impressions. With another candidate, they would have an easier time fighting back. With Hillary, if she fights back too strongly she looks shrill, reinforcing yet another meme about her. If she doesn't fight back, she looks worse. This isn't particularly fair, but that is how I see it.

I think someone like Obama, who comes with basically a blank slate, will be better able to fight off whatever swiftboating that will ensue. For one, he has more charisma. For two, his manner is more conciliatory. But mainly, people don't come into the race with preconceived feelings about him as they do with Hillary so when the shit hits the fan it won't reinforce prior suspicions.

I am not saying hillary cannot win. She can. But it will take more effort.

[tammywammy]

45. I agree with almost everything you said

It'll be rough for anyone running for office. But Hillary will also get pounded for Bill's transgressions, so it'll be doubly as hard.

I think Obama's smart enough to get out in front of these slams, like the "he's a Muslim" claim.

[stubtoe]

41. It'll come up, but probably the Republican Slime Machine will find something else

to hound her with. If they don't find something, then they'll just make something up.

[rasputin1952]

46. Everything down to the # of shoes she has will surface...as

for Whitewater, there was nothing there, never was...they even bribed a guy to say stuff, but it didn't stick. The RWnuts will slobber over it and everything else as well...they have nothing, so all the can do is attack.

The were scared shitless over Bob Kerry, when he was thinking of running in 2000. RWnuts actually came out and said he was a coward in the firefight where he lost his leg, and earned the Medal of Honor...by people who had never worn a uniform no less, (well maybe brownshirts or Klan sheets).

The slash and burn tactics of the RWnuts is repulsive, and yet it does work. It gets enough people going to where they actually believe this crap...but they want desperately to believe it anyway...x(