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alp227

(31,959 posts)
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 12:12 AM Oct 2014

Clinton presidential documents show White House amid setbacks, scandals

Source: Washington Post

White House aides raised questions about how to structure and describe then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s role in the 1993 attempt to overhaul the health-care system, including whether she would be considered a government employee and whether the group’s work could be kept secret, documents released Friday show.

The lawyerly exchanges among aides in the Clinton White House include suggested talking points to back up the administration’s position that Hillary Clinton could head up a task force on health-care reform without triggering a federal open-meetings requirement.

Scores of documents about the failed health-care effort were among about 10,000 pages of documents released Friday by the Clinton Presidential Library — the last batch in a series released over the past eight months. The trove of unclassified memos, correspondence, phone logs and other papers initially withheld by Clinton charts his administration’s responses to a series of scandals and setbacks.

There is a communications plan for answering questions about the Whitewater affair and the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, and discussions about Monica Lewinsky, the Kenneth Starr report on her dalliance with Clinton, the White House travel office debacle and more.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-presidential-documents-show-white-house-amid-scandals-setbacks/2014/10/10/6c9a872a-50ac-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html

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thesquanderer

(11,953 posts)
1. Bad timing for Hillary
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 12:31 AM
Oct 2014

With a trove of new info, there will be all kinds of excuses for adversaries to revisit old crap, justified or not. This is not the stuff she wants on people's minds right now.

elleng

(130,126 posts)
2. Timing could be why she's been so 'kind of' coy about whether she'll run.
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 12:46 AM
Oct 2014

Will be painful (for us ALL) to rehash all that crap.

BlueMTexpat

(15,348 posts)
8. It is more likely that she has not
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 05:41 AM
Oct 2014

announced a WH run yet because she wants the focus to be where it properly should - on mid-term election candidates. More power to her for that, whatever her ultimate decision.

If we survive 2014, then I'll begin thinking about 2016.



SkyDaddy7

(6,045 posts)
6. Not really...
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 04:48 AM
Oct 2014

This release gets it all out in the open & over with 2yrs before the 2016 election...This will not even be remembered by then. HELL, the American people are so politically ignorant most will never even know these documents were released. Yes, the Right wing talk radio & FOX "News" crowd will have fun for a few days with them but that will be about it. Fuck them.

BTW-We need a better candidate than Hillary anyway. Just sayin.

karynnj

(59,474 posts)
12. Depends what is there
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 10:08 AM
Oct 2014

The fact is the CW is that she failed on healthcare. Assume for a minute, that the documents show a reasonable plan and show that Republicans acted in bad faith. It could show that, at worse, the Clintons should have waited until they better understood who the power players in DC were.

On the other issues, it could show a pattern of bogus attacks - like Fast and Furious, IRS, Benghazi -- that were met and proven to be false.

There was always the risk that HRC running would bring up the sewer reports that they killed 100s of people including Vince Foster because they knew the "truth". Here, you get not the sewer, but the times when the tips of the sewer iceberg became something they were publicly charged with AND the information of how they dealt with it and how it was not proven to be real. If anything, it could be thought of as an inoculation.

SkyDaddy7

(6,045 posts)
5. I'm not a Hillary basher either, but deep down I know...
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 04:45 AM
Oct 2014

you are 100% correct! If Hillary is our nominee I will put all my efforts into seeing her get elected because she is better than anything the GOP will nominate. However, I think we need someone else, someone who has more of an eye on the poor & middle class!

marble falls

(56,353 posts)
9. I will vote for her if she ends up the candidate but will support a bunch of others in the primary.
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 09:10 AM
Oct 2014

Elizabeth Warren would be my pick.

yurbud

(39,405 posts)
15. like Obama, I like her on a personal level--a lot of the incidents that offended the right
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 11:40 AM
Oct 2014

impressed me over the years.

Everything she's done related to economic and foreign policy has not.

A snappy comeback isn't going to pay off my student loans or keep Wall Street from breaking our economy again.

 

dballance

(5,756 posts)
4. Why on earth is it a surprise the WH would have discussions, position papers and talking points?
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 03:16 AM
Oct 2014

This isn't news. I'd think the WH and staffers were being really incompetent if they were not producing position papers and talking points on the relevant topics of the day.

This isn't the least bit scandalous.

BlueMTexpat

(15,348 posts)
7. You are absolutely right.
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 05:38 AM
Oct 2014

It is not scandalous at all.

The difference, however, is that Democratic administrations are generally more forthcoming with releasing such information.

The US public will likely never get to see anything like this in connection with Bush-Cheney. Ever.

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)
11. I agree
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 10:00 AM
Oct 2014
The US public will likely never get to see anything like this in connection with Bush-Cheney. Ever.


Everything has probably already been burned.

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
18. Remember the 22 million emails they "lost"?
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 06:54 PM
Oct 2014

Fortunately they were found, just "accidentally" mislabeled in storage somewhere.

former9thward

(31,798 posts)
19. Yes, we will see them.
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 08:22 PM
Oct 2014

All non-classified documents from Presidential administrations are released on a schedule determined by law. It has nothing to do with some administration being "more forthcoming" or not.

marble falls

(56,353 posts)
10. This is from the big dog's playbook. Get the damaging stuff out first and get in front of it....
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 09:12 AM
Oct 2014

I'd rather the big dog could run again.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
16. He will be the "First Man" and entitled to live in the WH...
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 04:53 PM
Oct 2014

and there's pillow talk.

So it would be a Two-fer." I think many would be comfortable with that now that his reputation has been rehabed and Hillary's Senate and SOS experience.

But...I would hope for someone else. Don't like dynasties and the Clinton track record with NAFTA and Deregulation has turned out not to have been good for the country.

Was huge supporter of him when he ran. Disappointment.

But, they do have the power and name recognition. That will go a long way.

Yupster

(14,308 posts)
20. Yeah
Sat Oct 11, 2014, 09:04 PM
Oct 2014

That's why he admitted the Monica mess right from the beginning and apologized for it.

Oh wait, actually he lied about it for months until it turned out they had a stained dress.

Your post is actually the accepted political SOP, but Clinton did the opposite and it worked out well for him. He stalled, sued, claimed privilege, all to delay things long enough for people to get sick of it and want it over with. Hence the founding of the group, Moveon.org.

If your advice was followed, things would have been better for him I think. He would have apologized, congress would have passed a censure motion and it would have been over.

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