Hillary Clinton's ally David Brock sent out massive email comparing Sanders to Hugo Chavez?!

[pantsonfire]

Last edited Sun Apr 3, 2016, 09:18 AM - Edit history (1)

Can Anyone Ever Truly Trust David Brock? by Lloyd Grove

He burst upon the scene in the early ’90s as the marquee writer for The American Spectator. The magazine is still best known for Brock’s scurrilous hatchet jobs on Anita Hill—whom he famously derided as “a bit nutty and a bit slutty”—and Bill Clinton, whose extramarital dalliances (facilitated, Brock claimed, by Arkansas state troopers on the governor’s security detail) were the subject of a 11,000-word exposé rife with seamy details that he never bothered to verify, part of the so-called “Arkansas Project” to delegitimize the Clinton presidency, generously funded by right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.

That, funnily enough, is a conveniently revisionist and rather unreliable account of what Brock actually wrote in his Hillary biography, which attributed the failure of her healthcare reform initiative to “not just surprisingly poor judgment on her part but character flaws of a particularly dangerous and self-destructive sort.”

Indeed, in an observation that could be applied to the current email scandal by Clinton’s present-day detractors, Brock wrote two decades ago: “Hillary has failed because she never really accepted the simple truth that legal and ethical structures and standards of accountability exist not just to protect us from the ambitions of the wicked but from the hubris of the good.”

One can only imagine the righteous wrath that today’s David Brock would bring down on the hapless pundit who expressed a similar opinion.

Brock did his candidate no favors this week when Correct the Record circulated a controversial email that tendentiously attempted to link Clinton’s main rival for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, to comments praising the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and claimed to identify troubling similarities between Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, the new leftist leader of Britain’s Labour Party, who (according to the email) has called the death of Osama bin laden “a tragedy,” has invited representatives of Hezbollah to discuss peace in the Middle East, and has sided with Russia over America’s NATO allies.

List of Written Work:
1. The Real Anita Hill
2. The Seduction of Hillary Rodham
3.1997 Esquire piece, “Confessions of a Right-Wing Hit Man”
4. 2002 memoir, Blinded By The Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.

Organizations/Groups:
1. Media Matters for America
2. super PAC American Bridge 21st Century
3. super PAC Correct the Record
4. super PAC Priorities USA Action (Resigned Feb 10, 2015).
5. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)

Once a hit man, always a hit man? That is the cross Brock realizes he must bear.

[Jarqui]

1. Folks who would hire and hang with a chronic lying hit man like

David Brock really do not belong in the Oval Office. Employing him embraces and rewards the dishonesty we have seen from Brock in this election cycle and before.

What job would you want leeching pond scum like this doing in the White House Administration? I have infinitely more respect for an honest and decent man cleaning toilets.

The Presidency should be above such sleaziness. After 24 years of this and scandal after scandal, the Clintons obviously never will be.

When your political inner circle includes people like David Brock and previously, Dick Morris, you're got some serious shortcomings in your ability to judge the people around you.

Is this really the best the Clintons can do? The best quality of people they can attract? I think America can do better and deserves it.

[peacebird]

2. She recognizes how good he is at the artful smear, of course she employs him. She wants the best

Liars around on her side. The more scheming and disrespectable thare better, as long as she thinks they can get her what she wants. She does not care one fig for truth, honesty, or integrity.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. Truth and all that, tend to interfere

with fund raising.

[peacebird]

6. But truth and all that HELPS Bernie fundraise. He is for We, The People. Hill is for Wall$treet

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. Yup

That message is becoming more and more widespread

[fun n serious]

16. These are TRUTHS

Bernie Sanders was the ONLY left person who Voted Against Ex-Im Bank. Very puzzling since this is not a vote any democrat would ever make. Well it is a vote that benefits the KOCH BROTHERS who in turn gave money to Sanders Campaign. http://www.rollcall.com/politics/sanders-unique-among-senate-democrats-opposing-export-import-bank/ http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/2016-election-defense-military-industry-contractors-donations-money-contributions-presidential-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republican-ted-cruz-213783 http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-votes-against-ex-im-bank

Also, the NRA.. Supporters excuses are weak. #VettBernie

[pantsonfire]

25. #vetsforbernie?.....

While Clinton was secretary of state, her department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors.

Who were those donors? Countries with some of the worst human rights violations? hmmmm...

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Questions-about-arms-deals-for-Clinton-Foundation-6292996.php

[Jarqui]

19. Who really wants a chronically dishonest and ethically shallow woman with

a weathervane rudder for our kids to look up to as President?

I'm all for a woman to be president. Elizabeth Warren would seriously interest me - even against Bernie.

Do we really want the first woman president to be a sleazy liar with superficial decency that isn't even skin deep? Hillary as a scandal ridden, dishonest president could set the woman's movement back decades.

In spite of the racism he faced, Barack Obama will probably go down in history as one of the better presidents. Personally, I think he's been the best of my lifetime. Even the racists know deep down, beyond their hatred, he's been pretty decent. The way he did that job is a beacon for all races to respect. I don't know how well the blacks think he did but the blacks ought to know, the whole world saw a black man take one of the toughest, if not the toughest jobs in the world, and do it really well, with class, integrity, decency - etc - with so many personal qualities that would make anyone proud. In that way, Barack Obama has helped their cause and done them proud. Obama earned great respect of people around the world.

Hillary may break the glass ceiling but she'll have also broken the advancement of trust in women in leadership with her dishonest ways. That will hurt future generations trust in woman as leaders. I think women are better off with a different woman that has true depth of character - not a propped up shell, with a scant resume in legislative achievement from a past administration.

I would really like to see a woman as president in my lifetime. But I do not want to see one running a dishonest, inept, scandal ridden administration. I want to see a great woman make their mark like Obama. Hillary's character is bankrupt of those qualities. She is not a great woman and history is not going record her as such.

Donald Trump isn't the answer but neither is Hillary Clinton.

America deserves a heck of a lot better than those two.

[reformist2]

4. It's long overdue for Hillary to disavow any help from, or association with, David Brock.

[peacebird]

7. Won't matter, it's who she is. The type person who would knowingly hire David Brock is not the type

person I want in the oval office. Smacks of Frank Underwood.

[Recursion]

10. That would be criminal

HRC can't tell a super PAC to fire someone without breaking the law. She can't tell them to walk back a message, either.

[reformist2]

12. That's absurd. She can say in public that she doesn't want his help. Is that too much to ask?

[Recursion]

15. In that it's asking her to break the law, yes

That's too much to ask.


That would be coordination, which campaigns can't do with super PACs. Stuff like this is literally exactly what that law is about: to keep a campaign from having control over a super PAC's message.

[Scuba]

24. She's not legally prohibited from saying "I disavow any comments linking Sen Sanders to Chavez."

But she won't, and it's not because she's concerned about breaking any laws.

[Recursion]

28. That's true, but I imagine if a journalist asked her she would

Our two candidates like each other a lot more than their supporters do.

[Scuba]

31. I only know one Hillary supporter. She's a nice lady who wants a woman President. I like her ...

... despite the fact that she puts gender over policy.

[Recursion]

33. I know roughly an even mix. In our house I'm team Sanders and she's team Clinton

And we manage to actually disagree on our primary votes without calling the other a corporate whore or whatever.

[fun n serious]

17. Campaign finance reform Yeah right!

Bernie Sanders was the ONLY left person who Voted Against Ex-Im Bank. Very puzzling since this is not a vote any democrat would ever make. Well it is a vote that benefits the KOCH BROTHERS who in turn gave money to Sanders Campaign. http://www.rollcall.com/politics/sanders-unique-among-senate-democrats-opposing-export-import-bank/ http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/2016-election-defense-military-industry-contractors-donations-money-contributions-presidential-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republican-ted-cruz-213783 http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-votes-against-ex-im-bank

Also, the NRA.. Supporters excuses are weak. #VettBernie

[pantsonfire]

22. Correction, he resigned as of Feb 10. from Prioties USA....

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/david-brock-resigns-priorities-usa-action-115028

1. In the book (Killing the Messenger 2015), Brock accused the New York Times of being a “megaphone for conservative propaganda” directed inordinately at Clinton.......right that's why they endorsed her for President of the United States.
2. He resigned because:

In a resignation letter obtained by POLITICO, Brock, a close Clinton ally, accused Priorities officials of planting “an orchestrated political hit job” against his own pro-Clinton groups, American Bridge and Media Matters.
Those groups — along with another pro-Clinton group, the super PAC Ready for Hillary — had their fundraising practices called into question last week by a New York Times report. It pointed out that veteran Democratic fundraiser Mary Pat Bonner got a 12.5 percent commission on funds she raised for Brock’s groups and a smaller percentage commission on cash she raised for Ready for Hillary.

3. What'd you think of the video?

[Recursion]

23. That's from 2015

And what video? I generally don't watch videos; they're a horrible way to make an argument.

[pantsonfire]

26. Dodge....n/t

[Recursion]

27. No, just pointing out that people with real arguments don't need videos to make those arguments

Though I still have no idea what video you're talking about.

(Hint: I'm giving you an opportunity to post whatever video it is.)

[pantsonfire]

29. It's literally the first.....

.....thing you see, then I have excerpts, list books he's written, groups he's involved with.......you are so frustrating.

[Recursion]

32. Oh, the OP? Yeah, like I said I don't watch videos here.

Real arguments don't need them.

[Loudestlib]

38. .

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/05/20/super-pac-backing-hillary-clinton-sees-staff-overhaul/?_r=0

[pantsonfire]

47. Thanks for that...

Anne Caprara, the vice president of campaigns at Emily’s List, which supports female candidates for office, will be moving to Priorities USA as its executive director, officials said. That job was vacated this week by Buffy Wicks, a veteran of President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Ms. Wicks, a veteran organizer, is expected to join the coordinated side of the campaign, meaning either a role with Mrs. Clinton’s team or with the Democratic National Committee. Ms. Wicks’s departure was first reported by BuzzFeed.

At the same time, Mrs. Clinton’s staunch ally, David Brock — who runs a political action committee that will be coordinating with the campaign — is expected to rejoin the board of Priorities USA after he had previously resigned from the group amid an internal conflict.

[runaway hero]

30. Kasich just did.

[99Forever]

37. Since when has something being illegal stopped a Clinton from doing it?

And no, disavowing the shit this asshole says ISN'T illegal. You don't know the first thing about what you are talking about or you are flat out lying.

Just who the fuck do you think you are fooling?

[Recursion]

39. Since forever

You're repeating two and a half decades of right-wing lies, and think that makes you "progressive". The kids these days...

[99Forever]

40. Fuck the entire "RW" including those with a "D" behind their name.

I'd wager I have kids more mature than you.

What "makes me progressive" is that I actually am now and have always been a progressive. I, just like Bernie Sanders didn't need to "evolve" to PRETEND I was one.

DINOs these days...

[Recursion]

41. Yeah, I'm sure. I read you as about 22 or 23

If you're older than that you should act like it more.


What "makes me progressive" is that I actually am now and have always been a progressive.

Nope. Progressives don't parrot right-wing lies about Democrats like you do. You are not a progressive, period.

I'm glad you support my preferred candidate for President, Senator Sanders, but you are absolutely not a progressive. You know a tree by its fruits, and your fruits are right wing lies.

[99Forever]

42. I have a granddaughter that age.

She's a strong Sanders supporter and progressive.

Your weak sauce attempts at personal insults define you. It's called transference, I recommend you seek therapy.

[scscholar]

55. Why?

She hasn't disavowed any of her other friends that for decades that make attacks for her.

[bowens43]

5. Lies are all hillary has...its all she has ever had.....

[oasis]

8. Great interview. Thanks

[pantsonfire]

20. oasis.........you should change your name to mirage n/t

[dchill]

9. "Once a hit man, always a hit man"

The ONLY reason she hired him.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. Clinton supporters on DU claim to not know who he is! Then they proudly stand with Anita Hill....

Irony on parade.

[Vinca]

13. Are you sure that isn't Karl Rove in disguise?

He might be interested to know Hugo Chavez is the reason many Vermonters didn't freeze to death when oil prices made heating a home in Vermont a luxury.

[Gwhittey]

18. And the Clinton Bot response to this

Is Sanders is just as bad because when he was in college he went to the dinning hall and took a pat of butter from the hall.

[FlatBaroque]

21. If Dick Morris didn't have a toesucking fetish he would be on Team Clinton /

[MrMickeysMom]

34. That's the first time I've actually seen the interviewer laugh in the face of these Brockisms!

What a laughable attempt at doing the nasty work. By the way, I think he's going for that white messy hair look. It's another wanna-be attempt.

Is there anything real and effective about this clown?

[PowerToThePeople]

35. What a waste of air

He is a waste of limited resources that could go to a decent human being.

Millions are dieing while this walking turd lives the high life.

[99Forever]

36. Hillary Clinton and David Brock, two of a kind.

Sleazy, lying, amoral, birds of a feather, flock together.

[Onlooker]

43. You're linking to a six month old article

Yeah, it was wrong and ludicrous for Brock to send out that email, but it's also wrong not to point out this story is 6 months old. Should we keep the issue alive of when Sanders went negative against Hillary in Iowa, implying she took bribes from Wall Street and elevating the email scandal (only a few weeks after saying it wasn't important)?

[pantsonfire]

48. Yes.....HRC's campaign and/or her super PACs are for more negative. n/t

[SheenaR]

44. The fact that a candidate for our Party allows this man to be a mouthpiece

is despicable

[MattSh]

45. This Hugo Chavez?

Venezuela's President Chavez Offers Cheap Oil to the Poor...of the United States | Democracy Now!

We play the rest of our conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He spoke with Democracy Now! in his first interview in the United States. We ask him what evidence he has for his charges that the Bush administration has attempted to assassinate him and he reveals for the first time, details of a plan to offer of cheap oil to the poor...of the United States. [includes rush transcript]

Today, the rest of our interview with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

President Chavez was in New York last week for a summit of world leaders at the United Nations. In his speech, Chavez blasted US foreign policy and accused the Bush administration of trying to hijack the UN summit. He described the United States as a terrorist nation because it is harboring the televangelist Pat Robertson who recently called for his assassination. Chavez has long charged that the US was behind the aborted coup against him in 2002.

In the interview, he reveals for the first time, details of a plan to offer of cheap oil to the poor...of the United States.

-----> http://www.democracynow.org/2005/9/20/venezuelas_president_chavez_offers_cheap_oil

Earth to Asshole Brock. Most people don't know who Hugo Chavez is. But I'm sure if they read up on him they'll like him almost as much as they like Bernie!

[polly7]

53. Actually, I'm a bit surprised by younger people in my own family who do know of

him. Also at how interested they are in world politics .... but they need to be, and the internet is an amazing resource.

[Wednesdays]

63. A blast from the past -- Top Ten Trivia Tips about Hugo Chavez!

1. Hugo Chavez is actually a mammal, not a fish.
2. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are Hugo Chavez!
3. Hugo Chavez can smell some things up to six miles away.
4. It takes more than 500 peanuts to make Hugo Chavez!
5. Koalas sleep for 22 hours a day, two hours more than Hugo Chavez.
6. The Australian billygoat plum contains a hundred times more Vitamin C than Hugo Chavez!
7. Without its lining of Hugo Chavez, your stomach would digest itself!
8. To check whether Hugo Chavez is safe to eat, drop him in a bowl of water; rotten Hugo Chavez will sink, and fresh Hugo Chavez will float!
9. The original nineteenth-century Coca-Cola formula contained Hugo Chavez!
10. On stone temples in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of Hugo Chavez!

[pantsonfire]

65. Brilliant....do you know the leader of North Korea's Top Ten? n/t

[Wednesdays]

66. No, but hum a few bars and I'll try to fake it.

Ba-doom-bang!

[MisterP]

46. Clinton bragged she wink-and-a-nodded Zelaya's kidnapping because

Caracas was somehow luring the region away from democracy by, uh, Zelaya wanting to update the constitution to the same standards as all the other countries in Central America, and resign his presidency at the end of his term in favor of someone elected in a fair vote

[polly7]

49. I miss Chavez.

He did great things for his people who'd suffered horribly before him.

[PufPuf23]

50. Hillary Clinton reminds me of Richard Nixon eom

[liberal_at_heart]

51. Hillary supporters have absolutely no credibility when they say Bernie is running

a negative campaign when Hillary is employing this dirtbag.

[brooklynite]

52. UNREC

The headline is misleading. Brock didn't "compare Sanders to Hugo Chavez"; he FACTUALLY pointed out comments Sanders made ABOUT Chavez.

[pantsonfire]

54. So sorry....would you mind explaining why he did that? He couldn't....n/t

[noretreatnosurrender]

56. David Brock Revealed

Even the corporate media can't stomach him. Sadly, it says a great deal about Sec. Clinton that she actually hired this man to have such a prominent role in her campaign. I dare Hillary supporters to watch this video. You don't need to comment here about it but just watch it. You really need to see this to know what you are supporting.

[polly7]

57. I just watched it ........... what a weasel he is. nt.

[noretreatnosurrender]

59. Weasel Is Not Even Strong Enough

He just ooozes creepiness. You feel like you should take a shower after watching him. He hasn't changed a bit since the time he was smearing Anita Hill and Bill Clinton. I said this in another thread and I will say it again, I think he will write a tell-all book about the Clinton campaign for one last payday before he fades into obscurity. He's just such a terrible human being.

[polly7]

60. I wouldn't bet against you on that.

I have no doubt he will. Once Sanders is President, who's going to hire him for anything, except maybe as a pay-day debt-collector or something. The second I read on here that he called a woman who'd been sexually harassed 'a bit nutty and slutty' I've thought of him as human filth and been amazed Clinton's team hired him. Seriously, wth?

[pantsonfire]

58. If they can watch it and have strong stomachs....

[Bill USA]

61. did author of this article give a link to the email. I'd like to read it for myself. I couldn't find

a link.

[pantsonfire]

67. They cite it...

In the video and in the link to the dailybeast article.
There are multiple sources, he doesn't deny he sent it, I simply cannot find a hard copy of the actual email.

Just found this:

The e-mail Brock sent out to journalists Monday denigrated Corbyn as some kind of a radical leftist...

[Bill USA]

68. I don't doubt the existence of the email. I'd just like to read it myself, for context. Excerpts

made by somebody else can really alter the tone, implications and intent of the original.

did Brock say Bernie agrees with Corbyn that killing OBL was a "tragedy" , or that Hezbollah is our friends... I think you can be sure he did not say or imply that.

Sanders has has made "comments that NATO’s expansion into former Soviet states is dangerous because it could provoke Russia" and has expressed some "opposition to more U.S. funds for NATO"..

these in fact are similar postions to those taken by Corbyn on these matters.


I would just like to read the email for myself and make my own decisions about the tone, tenor and intent of the email.



If you find a link to the email I would appreciate it if you would share it with us.

[Major Hogwash]

62. Brock likes money . . and he will say anything to get more of it.

It's all about the Benjamins.

[Still In Wisconsin]

64. If she gets the nomination (and I am not saying she definitely will) then I hope she dumps Brock

I don't buy his supposed "conversion." Sleazeballs like him don't completely change.

[Bill USA]

69. RW Media Smear Sanders With "Historically Inaccurate & Ridiculous" Comparison To Nazi Ideology - MM

Right-Wing Media Smear Sanders With "Historically Inaccurate And Ridiculous" Comparison To Nazi Ideology - Media Matters

Right-wing media have been smearing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, by comparing his ideology to that of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party. Experts have called the comparison "inaccurate," "outrageous," and "a trivialization of history."

Historians And Civil Rights Activists On Sanders And Nazi Party Comparison: "Outrageous," "Historically Inaccurate And Ridiculous"

~~
~~

PolitiFact: Claim That Sanders' Ideology Is Comparable To Nazism Is "Historically Inaccurate And Ridiculous." PolitiFact "consulted historians and books" to examine the claim that Sanders shares the same ideology as Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party. The site reported, "While socialists on the left celebrate democracy, [Rice University historian Peter] Caldwell said, the word has a different meaning on the right -- in this instance, he said, excluding people who are not part of the nation, hence rejecting Jews and communists and, in pre-World War II Germany, democracy itself." PolitiFact ruled the comparison "Pants on Fire" false, concluding that it was "historically inaccurate and ridiculous" and "there was little socialist about the party's platform or Hitler's actions once he acceded to leading Germany in the early 1930s." (PolitiFact, 10/16/15)

ADL: Comparing Sanders To Nazism "Is Outrageous" And "A Trivialization Of History." In response to a National Review piece smearing Sanders, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO and national director Jonathan A. Greenblatt debunked comparisons of Sanders' policies with Nazi Party ideology. Greenblatt also noted that Sanders is "the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland whose family was lost in the Holocaust":
(more)

Readers will note that the article excerpted is from Media Matters.

The charge that Brock is a "hit-man" is nonsense. Any assertion that he misrepresents the facts should be backed up by specifics. A general, sweeping, unsupported charge is nothing more than what they accuse Brock of doing - a Political "Hit"... demonization of the type practiced by demagogues and mountebanks.

Sanders supporters consistently portray anybody who doesn't agree, wholeheartedly, with their choice of candidate or, for that matter, anything they say - as horrible, immoral, hateful, disingenuous people animated only be evil intent. These ridiculous attacks on those who dare disagree with them is the product of a childishly simple view of the world as populated by the "good guys" (i.e. Bernie supporters) and "bad guys": all the rest of the World.

Brock has written about his former 'lost' days, when he described himself as a political "hit-man" (Blinded by the Right). He also described how he came to terms with himself, and decided to become an authentic person. As a result of this he realized he had no place in the Rabid Right and became a Democrat. He created Media Matters and has proceeded to earn the wrath of the Right by describing the Republican Noise Machine, and on the MM site, exposing the efforts of the Right wing disinformation infrastructure to twist reality to confuse and manipulate voters. MM has also done since its inception, a wonderful job of showing how Corporate media aids and abets the Republican party in their dissemination of propaganda for the masses.

Democrats have learned to appreciate Brock's invaluable efforts at pointing out the constant efforts of the GOP to con the public and Mainstream Media's contributions to the GOP's propaganda onslaught.

Any Sanders supporters baseless criticism of Brock again puts them in a position of being indiscernable from GOP McCarthyist propaganda against Clinton.

The article referred to in the OP does not show us the actual email. It only gives us the author's interpretation of the email. Well, thank you, but I want to see the actual email and make my own mind up on the intent. Just because Brock in enumerating some details of Sanders record includes and important and laudable effort by Sanders to make a deal with Venezuela for cheaper heating oil for his constituents - I don't see that that automatically means Brock is using that to tie Sanders to a British politicians lionizing of Chavez. I think that is quite a stretch to draw that conclusion. I am not going to rely on the judgement of the author of this less than impartial article.

[treestar]

70. What's the obsession with this guy?

Does he even have a position with the campaign? Just read his wikipedia entry and it is written in a very biased way.

[pantsonfire]

71. The Real David Brock..

http://www.thenation.com/article/real-david-brock/