Only the Finest Minds

One had only to look at Senator Obama's eyes as they darted from one teleprompter to the next during his concession speech on March 4th to realize just how angry he was. You could sense that he was not pleased that someone had actually taken the inevitability out of his campaign and how irritated he was that reporters were finally asking him some tough questions, the kind of questions they normally would have been asking ANY other candidate months ago. Yes, The One, was pissed.

You see, Senator Obama doesn't think that it is fair to question his word on anything. So when, after a series of denials, word leaked out that a memo showed he was lying about his advisor meeting with the Canadian government and discussing NAFTA well he was noticeably pissed. Today's New York Times says that: Obama Comes Out Punching.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/us/pol itics/06obama.html?hp

Flying from Texas back home to Chicago on Wednesday morning, Mr. Obama delivered the message that he intended to counterpunch forcefully. Mr. Obama took aim on Wednesday at Mrs. Clinton's claim that she is a seasoned hand in foreign policy. "What exactly is this foreign experience that she's claiming?" he said. "I know she talks about visiting 80 countries. It is not clear. Was she negotiating treaties or agreements or was she handling crises during this period of time? "My sense is the answer's no."

Woooo.... Obama's new strategy is to say that something isn't so. That's getting tough alright. "I, Barack Obama, the Ineffable One, and yes, that's right I am THE ONE, do hereby affirm that my sense of this is that the answer is NO. So obey my command now and fall into line. That's tellin them Barry. Where I come from we call that a sissy punch.


Vicious
You hit me with a flower
You do it every hour
Ohh, baby you're so vicious
    Lou Reed

His campaign aides on Wednesday urged Mrs. Clinton to release her tax returns from 2006, as well as her papers from her years as first lady, which Mr. Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, described as "secreted in the Clinton library.""She's made the argument that she's thoroughly vetted, in contrast to me," Mr. Obama said to reporters aboard his campaign plane. "I think it's important to examine that argument."

So the whole Obama strategy going forward is to suggest that there is something nefarious hidden in Hillary's papers as First Lady. And oh my gosh, she didn't let the public view her 2006 tax forms so she must be hiding something.

In a News Hour debate on March 5th, Bill Bradley representing the Obama campaign said in response to Jim Lehrer's question as to whether both candidates were viable:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_hou se/jan-june08/demdiscuss_03-05.html

BILL BRADLEY: I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library.
And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed. These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don't want things to explode in a general election against John McCain.

But what Mr. Bradley fails to mention is that he himself, like so many other strong Obama surrogates, has a dark past that not many are aware of. The least of which is his well deserved nickname: The King of Bundling.

http://www.realchange.org/bradley.htm

Bradley talks about the need for campaign finance reform, but in the Senate he actively worked to evade even the current loose limits on donations. The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) named him "The King of Bundling" in his last reelection campaign. Bundling is a way to evade campaign limits by having several people connected to each other donate the legal limit; a 6-year old may donate $1,000 to a campaign (the maximum) the same day that her parents each give $1,000, grandma and grandpa give a thousand, and dad's poker buddies all give $1,000. Or each partner of a law firm can donate $1,000 the same day.

This practice that Bradley perfected is the same process Obama uses to get his campaign contributions from the wives and daughters of Washington lobbyists but not directly from them. It allows him to claim the high road and the "new politics" and all that while wallowing in the time tested methods of dirty politics we all know so well.

The CRP issued a report on bundling in 1990, the last time Bradley ran for political office. Even though the limit for donations by a corporate PAC is $10,000, they found 29 cases where a company donated over $25,000 through bundling. 15 of those -- over half -- were donations to Bill Bradley, from special interests such as Walt Disney, Time-Warner, and Washington power law firm Skadden Arps. The next time you see favorable publicity about Bradley, remember that Walt Disney owns ABC-TV and Time-Warner owns about half of all media in America.

Bradley also received bundled gifts from 9 different investment banks and brokerage firms. He received nearly a million dollars in total donations from securities and commodities firms overall, and another $183,000 from commercial banks.

Sound familiar? It should. Obama receives LOTS of money from the special interests on Wall Street. And he gladly took campaign contributions from Excelon, a Chicago-based energy giant and nuclear plant operator, whose executives and employees have contributed more than $200,000 to Obama's campaigns since 2004. So while Senator Obama makes all these claims about his purity in not accepting a dime from Washington lobbyists, he certainly has no problem at all accepting contributions from the executives of industries he is responsible for regulating. Notice how the nuclear regulatory bill that Obama falsely claimed as having passed, was watered down so much using his much heralded plan to work across the aisle that the final legislation was essentially worthless? Not only did it not pass but it was ruled by the Jerry Slominski, senior director of legislative affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute as unnecessary. "We don't believe this regulation is necessary. The NRC has all the legislation it needs to protect public health and safety." And thus the legislation died. I wonder whether that $200,000 in campaign contributions had anything to do with the legislation meeting its demise. Or was it the ineffectiveness of Obama's leadership in working across the aisle that he is so famous for? Or both?

But back to Bradley.... His implication that "you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions?" Well Bradley has something here. Something he is very well aware of. In fact The Center for Public Integrity has a few things to say about Bill Bradley's point. Only it isn't what Bill Bradley or Obama wants you to know.

Bill Bradley would have you think he was among the cleanest members of Congress, but he was among the very worst in accepting free trips (junkets) from special interests. From 1996 to mid-1997, the period studied by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, Bill Bradley had the 2nd worst record out of 535 Senators and Congress people, taking 29 different trips including one worth $10,000 to Switzerland. It's especially striking since Bradley retired at the end of 1996, missing the last third of the period studied.

In a Newsweek article last year on Oct 29, 2007 by Michael Isikoff the truth of all of this nefarious activity is revealed. The article begins typically enough. A Clinton hit piece artist is attempting to gain access to information she knows she won't be able to gain access to and feigns cover up and contempt.

When author Sally Bedell Smith was researching her new book about Bill and Hillary Clinton's White House years, she flew to Little Rock to visit the one place she thought could be an invaluable resource: the new William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Smith was hoping to inspect records that could shed light on what role the First Lady played in her husband's administration. But Smith quickly discovered the frustrations of dealing with a library critics call "Little Rock's Fort Knox."

An archivist explained to Smith that the release of materials was tightly controlled by the former president's longtime confidant Bruce Lindsey. Could she look at memos detailing the advice Hillary gave Bill during debate over welfare reform? Smith asked. No, the archivist said, those memos were "closed" to the public because they dealt with "policy" matters. What about any records that show what advice Bill gave his wife about her 2000 U.S. Senate campaign? Those, too, were closed, the archivist said, because they dealt with "political" matters. "He essentially told me I had no chance of getting anything," says Smith, whose book, "For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton, the White House Years," hits the bookstores this week.

You might know who this particular author is. She is a buddy of another Clinton hit piece specialist, Arianna Huffington. In fact Ms. Smith has gone out of her way to distort this story even further at the Huffington Post. And as you can imagine Arianna is there egging her on, if not helping her write it. According to Smith, she was at a party last October where she ran into Terry McAuliffe where he approached her grilling for information about the new book.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/26 /another-clinton-biographe_n_70007.html

According to Smith, the former democratic National Committee chairmain unexpectedly blurted out: "[Bill Clinton] has read the book, and he told me it is devastating about him."

A rather unexpected claim from Mr. McAuliffe considering the book had not been released yet and wouldn't be released for another two months.

"I was trying to prevent my jaw from dropping to the floor, " Smith told Huffington Post. "Only 20 galleys had been printed and everyone who received a copy had signed a confidentiality agreement... The worry is that it's only early September, and the Clinton camp now has a lot of time to develop a plan to undermine the book in some way."

And this is where the story gets very interesting. You see, McAuliffe denied ever saying these things. And even if it was true why would he be asking her about the book? If indeed Bill Clinton had somehow received a copy and read it, why on earth would Terry McAuliffe ask Smith about the book? It just doesn't make any rational sense. But it sure would be nefarious.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, McAuliffe denied that President Clinton had ever seen or been disappointed with the book. "There had been rumors on this book and the president had heard it was a hit piece on him," the former DNC chairman recalled. "But she's crazy. The book wasn't even out yet."

But that didn't stop the Huffington Post, bastion of unbiased unfiltered journalism that it is, from spinning this story a little more. According to them, the day after the encounter (you notice how it does not include the word alleged before the word encounter as if they had somehow independently verified that Ms. Smith's version of this story was the accurate one) Ms. Smith wrote an email to Random House asking them to look into the matter. Random House wrote back that they could find no evidence of a leaked copy being sent out. And yet this was reported as they confirmed that they investigated a possible leak but could not find a source. In other words, the allegation was shown not to have any validity. But the lack of proof is somehow used in the spin room to imply that one might still exist, if we trust Ms. Smith that is. Yes, Ms. Smith has no bias at all here:

"I know enough about how they operate to know that they're pretty sophisticated and machine-like and they find hidden ways of going after people where they don't leave any fingerprints. And it is a trademark technique of Hillary."

"Hidden ways of going after people where they don't leave any fingerprints." Pardon me but I think she is accidentally describing the Obama campaign. All those threatening phone calls. Tavis Smiley death threats and all that. And Obama just smiling and going on about his business of denouncing and distancing himself from it all. Wink wink.

And if you were undecided as to whether or not Ms. Smith was decidedly anti-Hillary, look at this little gem she spoke right after Hillary won New Hampshire. Discussing her turn around and the "emotional" moment Ms. Smith found even more nefarious activity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/11 /clinton-biographer-tries-n_81073.html

"Just the very notion of that," Smith said, "shows how ingrained the mistrust is of whatever she says or does. So much of what she has said for so many years has been calculated that it is so tough to judge something like that given her history. It's tough to accept it at face value... The fact that it is a matter of debate is incredibly revealing."

"A matter of debate?" Does this remind you of anyone? Sure sounds an awful (emphasis on the awful) lot like Arianna Huffington, that republican hack that became a Democratic hack when her husband's bisexuality became public and she became rich.

Archives officials say Clinton is within his legal rights. But other Archives records NEWSWEEK reviewed show Clinton's directives, while similar, also go beyond the restrictions placed by predecessors Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, neither of whom put any controls over the papers of their wives.

And yet Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush are not U.S. Senators. And they weren't attacked mercilessly day after day. Well yeah, Nancy got hit for stealing silverware and having an astrologer. And poor Barbara was slammed a few times for having that coke headed drunk George W. and for looking like Millard Fillmore. But generally tame stuff. Nothing compared to the non-stop hits Hillary took every day. Can you believe that her political rivals are now demanding to see the written history of how she dealt with those dark days when she was most vulnerable? Of course they are only interested in the history and would never use the information to exploit her. Never. Not in a million years.

"It does sound pretty expansive. You start to wonder what's not included," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

You start to wonder.... oh that sounds nefarious. Citizen's arrest! Citizen's arrest! Call in Ken Starr.

But John Carlin, a former Archives chief (and a Clinton appointee) who got the 2002 letter from Clinton, didn't blame the former president. "Given all that they went through in office," he says, the restrictions Clinton placed were "not surprising."

It's like no one remembers the 90s and the non-stop Republican attack machine. But what am I thinking? The Obama campaign remembers the 90s. You know, that decade they didn't want to relive. Seems those were Just Words. Words, just words?

On ABC This Week, Top Obama strategist references Whitewater. AXELROD: " I honestly -- with all due respect, I would think that the Clinton campaign would be the last person to be wanting to characterize any real estate transaction as unusual, but anyway, George, I'm sorry." [ABC This Week, 3/2/08]

If they really want to take that course of action I assure Mr. Axelrod and the Obama campaign that the rank and file Democratic Party will exit the Obama camp in a mass exodus of biblical proportions. Obama and his team have already made it very clear that they are quite willing to regurgitate Right Wing Republican talking points to bloody Hillary up. They like to beat up on women apparently. Because that is exactly why the Republicans beat up on Hillary, because she is a woman and she had the nerve to stand up to them.

At Hillary Hub is the following FACT: After Texas and Ohio, Obama Campaign Mimics Ken Starr

And unbelievably they really are.

Citing a Wall Street Journal editorial the Obama campaign even brings up the long time disproved allegation of insider trading and cattle futures from so many years ago.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12036403 7189484545.html?mod=opinion_main_review and_outlooks

1978 and 1979 were the tax years when Mrs. Clinton reported her 10,000% cattle-futures trading profit. Remember Red Bone and Jim Blair, and how she claimed she had made the investment on her own after reading the Wall Street Journal?

And if this isn't despicable enough for you the op-ed ends with these words:

If the Clintons continue to keep his and her finances under wraps, the public would be wise, given their history, to assume they have something to hide.

Not to be outdone Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe appeared on NPR the day after Hillary's big night and tore right into her.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story .php?storyId=87922258

It's clear that the Clinton campaign is going to run a scorched earth campaign. The truth is Senator Clinton would be a deeply flawed Democratic nominee. Senator Clinton I think is also someone that would hurt down ballot candidates in many states. It's clear the Clinton campaign is going to run a scorched earth negative campaign. Everything else they've tried did not work. She still refuses to release her tax returns. There's a lot of questions about donors to the library. And so I think for voters that are worried about things that might come out here Senator Clinton has a lot more exposure than we do.

Isn't it obvious that what Mr. Plouffe is saying (actually saying it twice) is that the Obama's strategy is the scorched earth campaign? Bringing up all these questions that were answered over a decade ago to raise doubts about Hillary's integrity rather than challenge her on the issues which they know they can't win. The Obama campaign has no moral integrity. They are more than willing to regurgitate Right Wing talking points if they think it will cause doubt in the minds and votes of the electorate. They don't mind tearing down a fine public servant if she is standing in the way of allowing them to deceive the country and elect this hopemonger with undefined plans for our future and a past linked to truly nefarious creatures. Creatures that they hope to avoid having to discuss by keeping the attention on Hillary and what the Republicans said about her.

Well, they can hope!

Tags: Barack Obama, David axelrod, David Plouffe, scorched earth (all tags)

Comments

30 Comments

Re: Only the Finest Minds

So in this long diary attacking the eventual nominee do you have any explanation as to how Hillary can salvage her campaign? I mean she's looking at Huckabee math right now.

by Socraticsilence 2008-03-06 06:29PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Methinks they are both working with the Huckabee math right now, actually!

by Si Ella Puede 2008-03-06 06:33PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Considering it is impossible for you to read this diary in less than three minutes I must assume that your canned response is something that you place on any diary written by a Hillary supporter.

I won't dignify your question with a response. It's your candidate you need to be concerned about.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 06:32PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

They're regurgitating right wing talking points by asking her to release her tax returns?  Get a grip.  The bottom line is Hillary won a few states that are demographically favorable to her.  Congratulations.  

But the fact of the matter is, the correction of clerical errors in California on Tuesday gave Obama more delegates than Hillary will wind up gaining in the states that voted Tuesday combined.  Because even on the terrain absolutely most favorable to her, she still can't score decisive victories, so she winds up splitting votes.

Its not a coincidence that Obama has received 60% or more of the vote in 18 or 19 contests, while Hillary has done it only once, in Arkansas (when one of Obama's stronghold areas was literally struck by a Tornado).  Hillary has substantial opposition pretty much everywhere in America.   And if her supporters would take their blinders off for only a minute, it might occur to them that this substantial, nationwide opposition to her candidacy might actually prove to be a hindrance in the general election.  But its a point that I'm sure won't be lost on the superdelegates.

by davey jones 2008-03-06 06:34PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds
The funny thing is she made the releasing of Tax returns a big issue in her 2000 senate campaign:
http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/lo ngisland/politics/blog/2008/03/flashback _hrc_once_thought_tax.html
by Socraticsilence 2008-03-06 06:37PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Exactly.  But the Clinton campaign cares nothing about hypocrisy.  They just want to slam Obama for everything he does.  So now they want to slam him for "going negative."  So they trot out the ham handed Ken Starr line, and attach it to anything he says about them.  They really are shameless.

by davey jones 2008-03-06 06:44PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

It could also go the other way around, davey.

by HillaryKnight08 2008-03-06 06:47PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Actually the Obama campaign is the one that brought out the Ken Starr routine. I thought you guys were supposed to be highly educated.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 06:54PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Actually, it was Howard Wolfson who invoked the Ken Starr comment today in reference to releasing the Clinton's tax returns. Nice try again.

by victoryfordems 2008-03-06 08:15PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Only a blind person would not see that bringing up the cattle futures question was not invoking Ken Starr. Sorry, I can't write in braille.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-07 05:01AM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Actually the "big deal" she made was that the guy said he was going to release his tax forms but then didn't. Kinda like your guy claiming to support publicly funded campaigns only to change his mind when confronted by it.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 06:53PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

When your campaign raises $55 million a month and the Democratic National Committee advises not to take public financing because of the huge funding advantage over the Repubs, that's why. And some of his campaign's money can be used to help elect Democratic Senators and Congressmen this fall. John McCain has backed off from public funding also. Why have an $85 million even playing field with the Repubs, when the Democrats are raising 2-3 times as much money. Try again.

by victoryfordems 2008-03-06 08:05PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

So you are saying that there is a conspiracy between the Obama camp and the DNC? It's about time someone admitted it.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-07 05:02AM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

The pompous ass attitude is getting a little old. Your guy is going to lose this thing. Get used to it. Believe whatever you must to get through the night but in the end the truth about your guy is going to be exposed.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 06:49PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

"The pompous ass attitude is getting a little old. Your guy is going to lose this thing. Get used to it. Believe whatever you must to get through the night but in the end the truth about your guy is going to be exposed."

He might lose. To McCain.  But he's not going to lose to Hillary.  Because, spin notwithstanding, she's already beaten.  She has no plausable path to victory. And that won't change, no matter how much crap her campaign drops on his head.

by davey jones 2008-03-06 06:58PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

When the truth about your guy gets out. And it will.  Just watch what happens.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 07:08PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

"When the truth about your guy gets out. And it will.  Just watch what happens."

Right.  You're lucky my guy's a gentleman, or the truth about your girl would already be out.  And it wouldn't even be close.

by davey jones 2008-03-06 07:13PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Yes, when the truth comes out. What about the news reports that it was the Clinton campaign that contacted the Canadian government not to worry about changing the NAFTA agreements, wink, wink.

by victoryfordems 2008-03-06 07:43PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Good luck with that lie.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 07:59PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Not a lie. Been all over the news today. Tear yourself away from the computer once in a while and see the facts that are coming out.

by victoryfordems 2008-03-06 08:12PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Sorry, but MSNBC isn't "the news."

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-07 05:03AM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Your starting to sound one of those 9/11- "truther" types.

by Socraticsilence 2008-03-06 08:10PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

GFY

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-07 05:04AM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

The truth about the Clintons has already come out and continues to come out, but their supporters have very selective memories.

by victoryfordems 2008-03-06 07:53PM | 0 recs
Why not provide the 2006 tax returns?

What is the big deal with the Clintons releasing their 2006 tax returns?  Everyone else had to do it.  We know that they are complete, right?  They are for 2006 so they are done and a simple Xerox machine could take care of it.

What's the big deal?  How can you explain the foot dragging?

by Trent 2008-03-06 06:55PM | 0 recs
Re: Why not provide the 2006 tax returns?

Everyone else had to do it.

Had to do it?

Where do you get your information? Are you under the impression that releasing tax forms is a requirement?

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 07:09PM | 0 recs
Re: Why not provide the 2006 tax returns?

Ok, not had to, but it has traditionally been done.

From Tax Release Common Post-Watergate

The release of candidates' tax forms has become common practice in presidential campaigns since the Watergate era of the early '70s.

Since 1984, only one major-party presidential candidate -- Bill Clinton in 1992 -- has refused to release the tax forms he sent to the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1996, Clinton did release his forms, and Republican nominee Bob Dole released his tax returns going back 30 years.

Candidates, including 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004, and Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, were criticized for not releasing their spouses' returns but offered no resistance to releasing their own.

Yet as the 2008 election draws near, the only top-tier candidate who has committed to releasing his 1040 forms is Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who already made public the return he filed this year.

by Trent 2008-03-06 07:22PM | 0 recs
Re: Why not provide the 2006 tax returns?

Glad to see you came to your senses. Other than supporting Obama that is.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 08:00PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

I really dislike Bill Bradley but I really don't see the point in wasting energy taking him down.

by Steve M 2008-03-06 07:21PM | 0 recs
Re: Only the Finest Minds

Maybe if he wouldn't have said the things he did I would cut him some slack. But he didn't and I won't.

by Fleaflicker 2008-03-06 07:22PM | 0 recs

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