DNC pores over agencies’ records for dirt on McCain

[sabra]

Source: The Hill

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with Cabinet-level agencies and inter-agency departments looking for opposition research to use against presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

In early February, there was a sharp uptick in the number of FOIA requests from the DNC with McCain as a specific target. February was about the same time McCain emerged as the front-runner and likely nominee.

A review of FOIA requests and independent confirmations obtained by The Hill turned up requests from the DNC at at least three agencies – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Commerce Department.

According to one filing, Alicia McClintock, a DNC operative, wrote DOI asking for “any and all records of communication (including but not limited to letters, written requests, reports, telephone records, electronic communication) between your agency and John McCain or his offices/staff from 1999 to present during which period he has been a United States Senator.”

A spokeswoman for the DNC said the FOIA requests and research efforts are “standard.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dnc-pores-over-agencies-records-for-dirt-on-mccain-2008-04-17.html

[izquierdista]

1. Like looking for ice cubes in Greenland

How about starting with the Keating 5? How is Senator I'll-help-your-S&L going to do squat for the mortgage meltdown? Except cause more of it?

[ptolle]

11. Unka Karl

Couldn't they have just gotten Unka Karl's files from the 2000 primary? I'm sure Unka Karl had oodles of dish on J.S. Mcinane.Or even just the RNC I've never heard anyone over there object strenuously when J. S.was accused of collaboration with his vietnamese captors by members of his own party.

[MaineDem]

2. Good! n/t

[leaningprog]

3. Let's have a race that makes both Parties feel wholesome

John McCain is probably going to run a clean race like Barack attempted
to do with the Clintons, based on the issues. McCain is a moderate
Republican, and he is having to reassure and cater to the Right in
his party to gather support, just like Obama is having to reassure
Hispanic, blue collar, and middle aged and older portions of the
Jewish Democrats that he is going to be their champion as well
as the obvious demographics he is strong with.

But what if the two candidates ran a clean and decent but
fearless race on the issues and on the characteristics of
the two candidates. What if the 527 slimers of both parties
put out their first video scat and the found it rejected by
people who are so sick of it they could vomit, and found out
they were wasting their money? (The people who like this scat
can soak up all they want on the Internet or cheap newspapers
anyway.)

John McCain and Barack Obama in the final analysis are exactly
the type of men who are big enough to reach across the aisle
and do their best to lead and get the American people as a whole
to start addressing their real problems, with every single bit
of talent we have in place engaged for both parties. And with
the conservatives and liberals of the country meeting in the
middle and getting something done.

We don't need revenge on Neocons, they have destroyed themselves,
we need healing and progress for our country.

Barack Obama 2008 - Because we have been fighting to a standstill
and it is time to get America back in service again.

[drm604]

5. Yea, McCain is going to run a clean race

and I'll be able to shoot wild bacon out of the sky. :eyes:

[acmavm]

6. Yeah, McCracked is just the guy that would run a 'clean' campaign.

And my kid's a Mensa candidate and I'm the Queen of England.

[Freedom Train]

13. Good for you and your kid.

Yes, I agree, McCain is likely to run a clean campaign.

[bklyncowgirl]

14. I agree that both parties should conduct a clean and issues based campaign

I for one would love to see the sort of campaign you describe and there is a real chance that Obama and McCain who both claim to despise negative campaigning would conduct themselves in a manner that would make all Americans proud. Wouldn't that be great to see!

But it makes no sense to come to a gun fight armed with a pocketknife.

Let's take McCain at his word, but also be prepared in case things degenerate into accusations and mud throwing.

I read somewhere that Bill Clinton kept Bush the Better from using his sexual pecadillos in the campaign but sending a couple of aides to Bush's people with documented proof that Bush the Better had not exactly been faithful to dear ol' beloved Barbara. They didn't use it but the other side sure as hell knew they had it.

As far as the neocons go, they're not destroyed, they keep on doing the things they've been doing, because in Washington no matter how often you're wrong as long as you're a member of the club you're going to be just find. Bill Kriston just got a lucrative gig on the New York Times. Others (John Bolton for example) appear frequently on talking head shows. Some are advising the McCain campaign. It's people who had the temerity to be right that are outcasts in our nation's capital.

I wish they were gone, I wish that every time they appeared on television the host would say something like "this is Mugwatter Thumpscrup from the American Enterprise Institute who predicted that American troops would be showered with flowers and Iraq would become a pro Israel democracy whose people would take up baseball and golf. Mr. Thumpscrup, how do you have the nerve to appear on this show when you were so completely, utterly and catastrophically wrong?"

Unfortunately that is not going to happen because they are members of the most elite and exclusive club in the world. Washington insiders.

By the way welcome to DU.

[cosmicdot]

4. back in 2000

Dear DNC, this link was making the Internet rounds in 2000 -- print a copy for the file

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

the owner of the site, however, imo, needs to modify the first sentence starting with
"John McCain is a maverick senator..."


the link, also, has deleted his quote regarding Chelsea Clinton

- "Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father." -- John McCain


The Wayback Machine shows how the page used to look

http://web.archive.org/web/20060101094251/http://www.realchange.org/mccain.htm

[leaningprog]

7. go ahead rub it in, I am idealistic and naive

So let's go for what we all really like. First, Obama goes after
the Neocons who aren't pardoned when Bush leaves (if he misses any).
We tie the two parties up in a clash to the death for his first 3
years. We can gloat on this forum while each Neocon is offered to
the dragon to be burnt and then eaten. Having polarized the
two parties up again (the way we love it) we then begin to pick
off the weaker people on their side and they respond and destroy
every possible effort that gets put on the table.

This will be great, because WE WILL BE IN POWER instead of them.
We will look up after four years of this disgrace and ruin and
say that we are on our way to getting even.


I am naive, but not as naive as those who think the propagation
of hate and character assassination for sport, and of opposing
progress simply because it is not your exact ideal, is going
to cure the clusterfuck that it has created.

You are trying to cure THEIR disease with a liberal injection
of our own disease. We have to be bigger people than we have
been and we have to lead by example. The old way is not working
at all.

So far as John McCain, that was a despicable thing about Chelsea
and there is no defending it, so what do you suggest, should
we get the line on his kid and match their hate, blow for blow?


Our politics are not big enough to solve our problems, we have
to enlarge them and ourselves or else learn to love sitting in
the sewage and rubbing shit in each other's face.

[Mz Pip]

10. The politics of personal distruction

do little to move the country forward and while I do agree with you in priciple, I just don't see it happening. John McCain may say he wants a respectful campaign. Maybe he does, I really don't know. BUt he has no control over the 527s. After they put out a nasty ad against Obama or Clinton, he can come out and make a statement disavowing any connection to the group but the crap is still out there, poisoning the process.

Maybe some of the Republicans will play nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath. After 8 years of hounding the Clintons with everything from innuendo that they somehow murdered Vince Foster to tying up the government for 2 years over the Monica mess, how can I possibly believe that they will want to reach across the aisle to the next Democratic president?

I'm all for standing on high ground - until someone starts shooting. Then all bets are off. I wish that were not the case. The Republicans smeared, slimed, lied and intimidated for 8 years. Now their presumtive nominee says he want to run a respectful campaign.

We shall see. If I am cynical, it's with good reason.

[Javaman]

8. pores over records?????

fuck, just look at how fucking keating basically funded the idiot back in 1980. Then went on to include mclame in his get rich/screw the poor savings and loan scheme.

jesus chirst on a swingset, does the DNC need a fucking letter engraved in marble for them to get a clue?????

[chat_noir]

9. Unmasking Darth McCain (see how little has changed in 8 years)

Hard to see, the dark side is. — Yoda


The media’s done a fine job of showing McCain, reformer and war hero.

But there’s another side to him they don’t touch — a darker, more suspect side. And I think while we’re on the subject of Star Wars analogies, there is one character who McCain could claim some similarity: Senator Palpatine.

For those of you who didn’t see The Phantom Menace and who are oblivious to the Star Wars saga, Palpatine is the ambitious senator who maneuvers his way into becoming Chancellor of the Galactic Republic by promising to tackle corruption. But unbeknownst to most people, Palpatine has a hidden, dark side to his personality. He stealthily begins increasing his power and becomes a dictator, destroying the Republic altogether. Eventually, Palpatine becomes the shriveled up, cloaked emperor we see in Return of the Jedi.

Now I’m not saying Sen. McCain is evil like the fictional Sen. Palpatine, but they do share some common traits. For instance, McCain often exhibits a mean streak which the media have downplayed because, darn it, they like the guy.

Because he’s very accessible and candid with journalists, he often gets away with saying outrageous statements no one else could escape.


http://web.archive.org/web/20040803052744/www.dailyillini.com/mar_00/mar9/opinions/col01.html

[AndyTiedye]

12. While the RNC pores over the raw NSA intercepts from Dem offices