DO THE AFGHAN PEOPLE REALLY NEED HUCKSTER JAMES CARVILLE MEDDLING IN THEIR POLITICS?
Clinton's Pal Carville Slams Karzai: "Incompetent"
First Posted: 07-17-09 03:24 PM | Updated: 07-17-09 04:18 PM
Afghans are in for a generous helping of Cajun-style political campaigning in the run-up to the country's August presidential elections. James Carville, working on an election in his 21st country, isn't mincing words about the incumbent he hopes to unseat.
"It's not an ungovernable place," says Carville of Afghanistan. "It's ungovernable by an incompetent, but the place isn't."
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Carville is hoping to bring to Ashraf Ghani the same magic he brought Arkansan Bill Clinton in 1992. And he'll do it much the same way, focusing on the economy, stupid, expanding on the strategy somewhat by connecting his rival with drug-runners and warlords operating within his government.
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As complicated as the campaign is for Carville, it also complicates things for Carville's good friend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Carville was a senior advisor in her husband, Bill Clinton's, administration, advised her presidential bid, and, as recently as May 28th, was helping to raise money to retire her campaign debt by signing a fundraising email.
He brushes off the conflict of interest, saying that the U.S. is not endorsing a candidate and that his involvement shouldn't be seen as such. "In the course of a certain event I probably send out seven or eight emails, fundraisers to people," he says of the pitch, "and I would be stunned if the secretary knew or was aware of it."
What's it cost for an Afghan candidate to secure the services of a top American consultant? Carville, who will be traveling to Afghanistan to help his man campaign, isn't telling. "It depends," he laughs.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/17/clintons-pal-carville-sla_n_238158.htmlCARVILLE HAS BEEN DESTRUCTIVE BEFORE IN MEDDLING IN BOLIVA'S ELECTIONS:
Globalism extends to the American way of campaigning, it seems, and the hubris of the gringo strategists — earnest ex-Clintonistas employed by James Carville’s Greenberg Carville Shrum group — would be hilarious if human lives and a country’s political will weren’t at stake.
It’s a galling and provocative experience to viewers of any political persuasion, and a reminder to the left of how easily idealism can run amok.
The Carville boys were hired by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a.k.a. ‘‘Goni,’’ a patrician Bolivian businessman who served a rough term as Bolivia’s president in the mid-’90s. Goni’s legacy was an unsuccessful program of ‘‘capitalization’’ (i.e., he welcomed foreign investment and watched foreigners get all the jobs).
By 2002, the time of filming, unemployment is through the roof and rural campesinos are agitating for political representation. Goni is old news and his poll numbers are dismal. Enter Jeremy Rosner, Greenberg Carville Shrum’s point man in Bolivia, an articulate manipulator of mass moods (and a fellow who bears an uncanny resemblance to Seth Meyers of ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ — reality parodies itself here better than any comic could).
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http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/06/30/a_campaign_in_bolivia_thats_made_in_america/AND HERE IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE TITLES-"MILLION DOLLAR ASSHOLES" DESCRIBING THEIR INFLUENCE:
Friday, April 08, 2005
Million Dollar Assholes: Carville, Shrum & Greenberg
I love documentaries. A lot. Real people in real situations are always weirder, more original and more interesting than any fiction Hollywood can brew.
I saw a documentary that blew me away today but I don't mean in a good way. It was called Our Brand is Crisis, about how the firm of Carville, Greenberg and Shrum (as in James Ragin' Cajun Carville and Bob $5 million man Shrum) travel around the world meddling in political situations they know little about for fun and profit when they're not busy losing Presidential elections.
The film takes place in the Bolivian election of 2002, when Carville et. al. convinced the Bolivian people they needed to elect Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, aka Goni, an American-born candidate who speaks Spanish with an accent and who had failed miserably once before as President during the 90s. He is elected by the thinnest of margins, only to be forced to resign 14 months later amid riots that left 100 people dead.
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http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/04/million-dollar-assholes-carville-shrum.htmlBUT WAIT, IS THERE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST W CARVILLE GETTING THIS JOB WHILE WORKING TO RETIRE HRC'S STILL LARGE CAMAPIGN DEBT?
Hillary Clinton Tries, Again, to Retire Campaign Debt
By Al Kamen
You might have thought that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would have retired her nearly $6 million presidential campaign debt a long time ago.
Apparently not, judging from an e-mail sent out today by Hillary Clinton for President announcing a lottery -- only $5 a ticket -- and offering as prizes a day with Bill Clinton in New York (as part of "your own special New York City weekend"), a trip to the American Idol Finale in Los Angeles or a flight to Washington for you and a guest for a tour of the District with political operatives and commentators James Carville and Paul Begala.
Almost every dollar raised from the Carville-Begala pitch will go toward someone who those advisers had quite a stormy relationship with -- Mark Penn, the pollster-strategist who was ousted midway through the 2008 primary season.
According to year-end filings with the Federal Election Commission, Clinton's campaign had outstanding debts of $5,943,385. Of that total, Penn's firm was still owed $5,362,278 as of Dec. 31.
In the e-mail from Carville, he says that he "knew it was going to take an extraordinary effort to help pay off Hillary Clinton's campaign debt." Especially after the economy sank and the job situation turned dreary.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/09/hillary_clinton_tries_again_to.htmlHASN'T U.S. MEDDLING IN OTHER COUNTRY'S ELECTIONS DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE IN THE PAST? SHOULD A POLITICAL HACK W CLOSE TIES TO THE SOS BE MEDDLING IN FOREIGN ELECTIONS?
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