Has the Clinton campaign been infiltrated by the Neocons?

[NorthernSpy]

Could that be who's behind the smears emanating from some shady place in the general direction of the Clinton camp?


As we all know, the Republican Party isn't doing so well these days, and the Neoconservatives have always been free agents. In fact, they were Democrats before they were Republicans. I suspect that even before the 2006 election, some Neocons began to finger the old Clinton machine as a possible new vehicle for continuing their agenda.

And now along comes our Obama, screwing it all up. If he takes the nomination, the Neocons are looking at a certain loss of access at the highest levels of power. Also, it's worth noting that they fear the return to influence of Obama's foreign policy advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who most recently ticked them off by writing a defense of the Mearsheimer and Walt book.


Think about it. Those hysterical emails that circulated before the Maryland primary? The dogwhistle-to-the-xenophobes picture of Obama in native Somali dress. That recent call-to-arms that Krauthammer collaborated on with far-right shrieker Debbie Schlussel. The obsession with Louis Farrakhan. That weird -- but telling -- incident in which the "JDL" very publicly demanded that Obama "repudiate" actor Will Smith for allegedly "praising" Hitler (Smith just won a defamation action in Britain against the tabloid that printed that lie).


And always that peculiar viciousness that has characterized these attacks -- suggesting that the animating force lies outside of the Democratic Party, and is indifferent, or actually hostile, to our party's health and future.


The question for us is, how a big a problem is this going to be for Obama, and what should we do about it?





(edited to supply missing word "the"...)

[marshall]

1. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas

That's what my grandmother used to say.

[TexasObserver]

8. Word.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Mark Penn's lobbying shop is headed by John McCain's top adviser"

Mark Penn's lobbying shop is headed by John McCain's top adviser" »

http://www.obamaiswinning.com/2008/02/mark-penns-lobb.html

[Skidmore]

3. Her campaign is being managed by Penn, Charlie Black's employee.

Charlie Black was a campaign operative for the last neocon candidate, George W. Bush. He used to be all over teevee back during those campaigns selling the "W". I think it smells to high heaven.

[leveymg]

4. Hill and the neocons go way back., and share a lot

http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9247
July 5, 2006
Hillary May Be Presidential Material, After All
On Iraq and Israel, she's a perfect neocon
by Joshua Frank
There really is no way of getting around it. Sen. Hillary Clinton may well be future presidential material. From Manhattan to Hollywood, Hillary Clinton is pocketing enormous amounts of cash for her reelection campaign. Yet, Hillary is facing what seems to be fierce opposition from within her own party, as well as from third parties here in New York. The main reason candidates have signed up to challenge Hillary is her position, er, non-position on the disgraceful "war on terror."

Hillary, in a letter to constituents last November, expressed her belief that the war in Iraq shouldn't be "open-ended" but was clear that she would never "pull out of Iraq immediately." She wrote that she wouldn't accept any timetable for withdrawal and won't even embrace a "redeployment" of U.S. troops along the lines of Rep. John Murtha.

SNIP



http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/10/hillary-clinton-fooled-again-or-neo-conned/
Hillary Clinton: Fooled Again or Neo-Conned?
by Donna Saggia / October 11th, 2007

SNIP

The ABC’s of the neocon agenda

At first glance, the neocon agenda for the Middle East appears to be based on three transparent convictions:

The US has a duty to promote democracy around the world, using its unrivaled power if necessary. Since the Middle East is a region of despotic Muslims, democratic transformation must begin there. And, since Israel is the only democratic outpost in the region, we must protect Israel’s right to defend itself.

But if we read between the lines, where the neocon agenda really lies, we can break the code with a few simple substitutions:

A. for “promote democracy around the world” substitute establish free markets; for “unrivaled power” substitute preemptive military force;

B. for “despotic Muslims” substitute Islamic terrorists; for “democratic transformation” substitute regime change;

C. for “Israel’s right to defend itself” substitute the right to continue the military occupation of Palestine and bomb Lebanon, Syria, and Iran if necessary.

The deciphered neocon agenda thus reads:

The United States has the duty to establish free markets around the world, and to do so by preemptive military force if necessary. The Middle East is a hotbed of Islamic terrorism and needs to undergo regime change in order for free markets to survive. Israel’s aggressive use of military force was successful at containing Muslim terrorists for almost 40 years and is a shining example of how democracy can be spread throughout the entire region.

Hillary Clinton and the neocon agenda — how to “negotiate” like a neocon

That the neocon agenda places Israel’s security in such a prominent position, and that Hillary Clinton is on board with that agenda, have been evident for many years. The neocon perspective sees Israel as a valiant little nation defending itself against a Muslim monolith. It’s the David versus Goliath myth, with a twist: neocons also see the US as vulnerable to that same Goliath. National Review’s Larry Kudlow summed it up nicely: “Israel is doing the Lord’s work. They are defending their own homeland and very existence, but they are also defending America’s homeland as our frontline democratic ally in the Middle East.”

To the neocon mind, the fate of the US is tied to the survival of Israel.

Although the right-wing talking heads have been slow to see Hillary’s inner neocon, there are signs that some of the neocon elite are becoming very comfortable with her foreign policy positions. They see her foreign policy goals as being very consistent with their own, and Clinton’s vigilant defense of Israel’s security bears this out.

SNIP

[NorthernSpy]

5. interesting article in Haaretz...

It mentions the Neocons:

Official Israel is making an effort to maintain a respectable neutrality. Has-beens are being called into the ring, like a former ambassador to Washington, Dan Ayalon, who jabbed Obama in a sensitive spot - the volume of his support for Israel

.Ayalon is not alone. Jewish advisers and non-Jewish supporters are almost obsessively occupied with searching for skeletons in the black candidate's past

.The Republican Party's neoconservative clique is trawling archives for "anti-Israeli" essays by advisers who had been seen in Obama's staff. Robert Malley, who was President Bill Clinton's special assistant during the Camp David talks, joined Obama. The neoconservatives reached Malley's father, a Jew of Egyptian descent, who, alas, kept childhood ties with Yasser Arafat. Malley junior is accused of publishing a joint article with an Oslo-supporting Palestinian, in which they dared to argue that Ehud Barak played a major role in the Camp David summit's failure in July 2000

More at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954463.html

[Independent-Voter]

6. HRC is a NeoCon. No infiltration necessary.

[NorthernSpy]

7. gunning for Barack: Israpundit neocons declare war on Obama

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:ieokTY99QVEJ:www.israpundit.com/2008/%3Fp%3D300+obama+consensus+anti-semitism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us


They claim to be preparing "a set of viral Emails and letters to the editor for people to use to discredit Obama".


Me, I think that the key is to spend only ten percent of our energy disputing the smears, and the other ninety percent going after the Neos themselves -- being sure to blame them for the Iraq war and to work in inflammatory subjects such as the current AIPAC spy trial.


I think we should give them a taste of their own medicine for once.

[HeraldSquare212]

9. Penn's company is high up in the Clinton and McCain campaigns.

He only loses if Obama wins. That's why he's arguing to go negative on Obama - even if it doesn't help Hillary, it will help McCain.