The Return of Clinton Derangement Syndrome

[Triana]

Her email scandal has predictably transformed from a legal inquiry into a partisan witch hunt.
BY BRIAN BEUTLER
July 8, 2016

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, then Republicans lost their minds chasing the Clintons down rabbit holes years ago.

They spent the 1990s turning every gnat fart in the Clinton White House into a six-part inquiry, and at the end of it, Bill left office historically popular. They’ve spent the better part of the 2010s doing the same thing to Hillary, and though she is emphatically not historically popular, Republicans have, in the process, tended to humiliate themselves and abet Donald Trump—the one person politically incorrect enough to call her crooked and accuse her of playing the woman card, at last, at last.

What we witnessed Thursday was part of a pattern that goes back more than 20 years. A Clinton does something—in some cases innocuous, in this case worthy of criticism—and her political nemeses respond completely out of proportion. They’ve invested so heavily in the fantasy that she’s one email or utterance away from complete self-destruction that they can’t bring themselves to accept anything less than the highest returns. A sunk cost fallacy of power politics and partisan score-settling.

. . .

Republicans in Congress and their conservative media allies largely brought this upon themselves. They were the ones who made right-wing sop out of baseless speculation that Clinton might be indicted for violating a law nobody’s ever been convicted of violating.

THE REST: https://newrepublic.com/article/134949/return-clinton-derangement-syndrome

[liberal N proud]

1. Hopefully this will have the same affect on Hillary's popularity as the 90's attacks did on Bill

[L. Coyote]

2. Bush vs. Gore, the 'Arkansas Project,' the USA firings, and the Swiftboat Admiral

Here's a Deja DU with some highlights of past republican insanities on this front:

Bush vs. Gore, the 'Arkansas Project,' the USA firings, and the Swiftboat Admiral

My favorite involves Drump's buddy Roger Stone:

Swiftboating Al Gore from Argentina, SIDE, Israeli wire transfers, spy files, forgery, Bush & Menem
Jun-10-07 by L. Coyote
There just is no way to make this stuff up!! This is a court pleading. Unbelievable.

First get some spy files from Israel, alter them to look like Argentine spy files, make them implicate Bush and Menem in corruption, blame Gore for the forged documents. Sound familiar. Did I mention blackmailing bribed journalists and, of course, the perennial covert Republican dirty tricksters. This genre of dirty trick came to be known as "swiftboating" when done to Kerry four years later by the same players!!

==========================
http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/041901.P.pdf
Olavar (Triumph Communications International Group, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.
Santibañes, Defendant-Appellee, and Ikon Holdings, Inc., t/a Ikon Public Affairs, Dick Morris, Roger Stone, Eileen McGann, John Does, Defendants.

Appeal from the United States District Court Decided: December 1, 2005

Triumph Communications International Group, Incorporated is a corporation that provides political consulting and public relations services and is owned and operated solely by Mattie Lolavar.

In early 2000, Miss Lolavar began discussions with defendant Dick Morris about the possibility of her working with Craig Snyder and defendant Roger Stone, who are partners in defendant IKON Holdings, Inc., another political consulting firm ... about the possibility of Triumph Communications’ assistance with work that IKON was doing for the government of Argentina.
These discussions lead to two contracts ... and provided that Triumph would act as a public relations consultant to "the Secretary of Intelligence of Argentina" as well as arrange various media events...

Miss Lolavar went to Argentina in August 2000 to assist de Santibañes with preparations for his testimony in Argentine congressional hearings inquiring into allegations that he and the Argentine intelligence agency, known as SIDE, were responsible for bribing various Argentine senators in exchange for political support. Morris and Stone assigned other tasks to Miss Lolavar while she was in Argentina. Among other acts, they instructed her to contact SIDE and obtain a list of journalists who accepted bribes from that organization in order to harm the credibility of those same journalists in reporting on a bribery scandal surrounding de Santibañes and President de la Rua, as well as requiring her to spread false information to the press concerning de la Rua’s political opponent, Dr. Carlos Menem. The charges and counter-charges related here are from the papers in the court file, as are the other facts.

A request that occasioned controversy between Miss Lolavar and the defendants was Morris and Stone’s request that she serve as an intermediary in an anonymous wire transfer of funds to an official in Israel. These funds were to be paid to secure intelligence files from the Israeli government to assist de la Rua’s political domestic disputes with Menem, and to imply a corrupt relationship between Menem and George W. Bush, who was then running against Albert Gore for the United States presidency. These files were to be altered by Miss Lolavar to appear to be SIDE documents.

When the defendants became concerned that this plot would be discovered and traced back to them, they ordered Miss Lolavar to orchestrate a press response to blame Vice President Gore for the dissemination of the documents, since it was known to them that the Gore campaign had been attempting to connect Menem with the Bush campaign.

[HassleCat]

3. What they're telling themselves

"We just failed to generate enough phony outrage the last time we did this."

"That was about sex. This is about national security. We'll find way to make it about sex AND national security."

"We didn't spend enough money last time."

"We didn't do enough grandstanding last time."

"All those acting lessons are about to pay off."

"We're the majority party in both houses. We have the power to bring the nation's business to a halt while we concentrate on the email scandal exclusively."

"This is what the people elected us to do. Surely they realize we can't govern?"

[Arkansas Granny]

4. The return? I wasn't aware that there had been a lapse.

I can't imagine all the time and resources that have been wasted on these endless investigations.

[Adrahil]

5. Visit JPR to see it full bloom.

Threads criticizing Comey.

Threads thanking God for the GOP since they won't let Hillary off the hook.

One giddy thread about how they "definitely" nail her for "perjury" during her Testimony last October.

Complete morons. It's un-fucking beleivable.

[Triana]

6. I don't think so.

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2016, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)

But I never believed (or cared about) her emails either. I knew there would be no indictment and IMO it makes no sense for there to be one. And Benghazi was a cooked-up Republican hit-job. I expect with the Clintons in residence once again, the White House will once again be Scandal Central. The Republicans will see to it.

I do not look forward to that. At ALL. And it's the goddamned GOP who will be at the helm of all that. It's all they'll do for 4-8 years. There really IS (I believe) a vast RW conspiracy.

But I also believe there is a vast CORPORATE conspiracy against the 99%. I KNOW there is. I'm pretty sure most Americans know that. To be here though -- I am to believe that Ms. Clinton has nothing whatsoever to do with the corporate conspiracy and I just can't believe that.

I don't think Hillary Clinton is honest or even the best candidate. But she's what we've got and beats the alternative. Now, somebody(s) here are hellbent on reporting almost every comment I make here. I'm certain someone will report/alert on this one - perhaps I'm 'bashing" the candidate because I don't choose to swallow the pablum or do the proper cheering or do it in the proper way. I will likely vote for her because I will have no choice but to not vote (and I AM voting). But my eyes are WIDE OPEN while I'm doing it, let's just say that.

Now - I have no PROOF of anything I've written here. It's all my OPINION and is based on what I know of this candidate and her record and money. And that's what I do when considering candidates: look at their record and follow the money.

If that's not acceptable, then so be it. Report, ban, review my account as if I'm some sort of trolling disruptor -- me who has been here since 2001 (15 YEARS) and who has said many times HRC will get my vote (however with deep reservations). I'm not allowed to say that here, evidently. AWARENESS of this candidate's flaws is hardly the equivalent of Republican DERANGEMENT that has begat them the likes of Trump.

Go ahead. Don't goddamned wonder why JPR has so many members over there - including ME.

[Adrahil]

7. It's one thing to have an opinion.

But JPR has gone full-on stupid. I see people I used to respect completely disregarding evidence and expertise because it does not comport with what they "know" to be true. It's no wonder they are embracing the Teabaggers in Congress. They have pretty much embraced the same warped and detestable "logic." Even you yourself admit there is no proof for your beliefs... Just your intuition based on decades of being fed half-truths and outright lies about the Clintons.

I assume you do NOT agree with the significant number of posters over there who think Trump is better than Clinton? You said you would vote for her, which puts you at odds with most over there.