Politico: Obama backer revives Clinton sex scandals

[DemsUnited]

From Ben Smith's blog at Politico:

Another sign of the anger in Obamaland at the Clinton campaign: an email from a member of Obama's LGBT leadership council, Maxim Thorne, to a couple of listservs.

"We cannot tolerate her lies and stolen election," Thorne wrote of Clinton, revisiting familiar themes:

At 3am, Hillary said she and Bill were in bed and she knows of all the calls a President gets at different times of the day and night. Really? So much involvement - so much togetherness. Where was she when Monica was having sex with Bill? 35 years of experience? When he was intimidating Katherine Wiley and Paula Jones? Where was the judgment on the cattle futures and white water. Do we forget Mark and Denise Rich? This was an impeached President who lost his license to practice law. He committed perjury. They settled with Paula Jones for the full amount of her lawsuit. I haven't forgotten and none of us should.

"These comments have no place in this campaign," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor, who couldn't immediately say whether Thorne would be leaving his position with the campaign.


UPDATE: Vietor said Thorne is resigning from the leadership council, and that the campaign has accepted his resignation.

Maxim Thorne's entire email (and it's a doozy) at http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Obama_backer_Clinton_lies_and_stolen_election.html

Yeah, the old scandals left scars and bad tastes, but I'm personally more concerned about current potential scandals flying below the radar. For example, Clinton ties to InfoUSA as well as the Dubai Investment Group are just two that are percolating. Have a feeling her tax returns (if they ever get released) will reveal even more more dubious financial relationships.

[Occam Bandage]

1. See, Clinton? When Obama surrogates say dumb shit, they get exposed, denounced, and canned.

[redqueen]

22. Have any of them gone on a RW talk show and stuck to their guns? (nt)

[Barack_America]

27. Have any of them gone on a RW talk show?

What Ferraro did today (with the campaign's apparent approval) was absurd on many levels. She's just following in Bill's footsteps...he's already done the race-baiting and RW talk show pandering thing.

[writes3000]

2. He should step down. He's not helping Dems with that kind of trash.

I understand his anger. But he was way in the wrong here.

[DUyellow]

did you read the op?

[mckeown1128]

11. Umm... he did resign.... n/t

[writes3000]

24. I was simply agreeing with his decision. I understood that he stepped down.

It meant it to read "Yes, he SHOULD step down."

The Obama campaign made the right call. Even though, as I said, I understand the guy's anger.

[Occam Bandage]

12. He did. Unlike "I have no knowledge" Clinton, Obama keeps a clean house.

[saracat]

3. But interesting you don't worry about any of Obama's "potential scandals"

Why not worry about his potential tie to the Iraqi oil deal?

[Occam Bandage]

5. Like all bullshit scandals from Sinclair to Rezko: Find some evidence of wrongdoing and we'll talk.

[grantcart]

15. its for reasons like reply #3 above that I have changed and now hope that

Clinton stays to the bitter end so she can receive a complete and total thrashing she so richly deserves in defeat after defeat. Also by the time we get to Puerto Rico not only will they have tried everything with the kitchen sink but everything in the sewer will have been tried, failed and abandoned.

[Catherine Vincent]

28. "..total thrashing she so richly deserves.. "

For someone who doesn't support Hillary, you and the other Obamabots sure spend alot of time paying attention to her.

[grantcart]

30. It is a two person race and Obama is competing against her. How woud we

watch the race and not pay attention to her? It would be like trying to watch a boxing match and watch only one boxer.

Do you even bother to think about your responses before applying pressure to the appropriate keys on the keyboard?

[Catherine Vincent]

35. Yes, I bother smartass.

I'm just saying that I keep hearing all the posts for Hillary to go away or drop out. Why listen to her when she appears on these shows? And no, this wouldn't apply to me because I support both candidates because I don't know which one will become the nominee.

[ProSense]

6. What

Iraqi oil deal?

Spin and innuendo don't count!

[saracat]

9. But the OP can "spin about the Clinton's?

"Yeah, the old scandals left scars and bad tastes, but I'm personally more concerned about current potential scandals flying below the radar. For example, Clinton ties to InfoUSA as well as the Dubai Investment Group are just two that are percolating. Have a feeling her tax returns (if they ever get released) will reveal even more more dubious financial relationships."

[ProSense]

20. Glad you can admit to spin, but where is the spin in

"Clinton ties to InfoUSA as well as the Dubai Investment Group"

That's not spin!

Did you even read the info at the link provided.

[americanstranger]

21. Um, apparently he CAN'T 'spin about the Clintons.'

At least not in an official capacity (he was denounced by the campaign and resigned already).

Not with the campaign any more, but don't let that stop you. Rage on, by all means.

- as

[saracat]

33. The OP was with the campaign? I think not, I was talking about the last remarks by the DU poster.

Reading comphrehension is a useful skill.


"Yeah, the old scandals left scars and bad tastes, but I'm personally more concerned about current potential scandals flying below the radar. For example, Clinton ties to InfoUSA as well as the Dubai Investment Group are just two that are percolating. Have a feeling her tax returns (if they ever get released) will reveal even more more dubious financial relationships."

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. We'll make you a deal. We won't worry about Obama's potential scandals

And you don't have to worry about your candidate's real scandals which are orders of magnitude worse.

[Vinca]

10. Then we'd have to rehash Bill's Cayman Island money, the uranium

deal, the Dubai connections, etc., etc., etc. Honestly . . . I'm starting to hope Bill is #10, just to get this over with.

[DemsUnited]

17. Actually, I'm all for vetting both Obama & the Clintons

Whoever our candidate is (and I say our because I'm still naive and hopeful enough to believe that Dems will ultimately unite behind our nominee) has to be vetted.

That means issues like Obama and his "boneheaded" house deal with Rezko should be looked at. If all there is to it is what we currently see, it's a nothing. If there's another shoe, then let it drop now.

It also means we shouldn't be giving the Clintons a free pass from 2000 - 2007 just because we're pissed at how badly they were persecuted in the White House for their own boneheaded decisions, land deals and otherwise. And I personally believe that the Clintons were persecuted beyond all bounds.

But that was then, this is now. It's a presidential election. They've made decisions, connections and money during the last seven years that are just as important to vet as Obama's.

[Pirate Smile]

23. None of the Clinton stuff is getting vetted because Obama doesn't want to run

that kind of campaign. I would prefer he win without having to do that and I think it looks like he is going to but the does anyone think that if Clinton somehow wins the nomination that the Republicans wont make a huge deal out of the Marc Rich pardon (I've never heard a decent explanation for that and I hated that story in 2001) or Hillary's brothers selling pardons? The crap would fly and I don't know how we are supposed to justify or defend those actions.

[DemsUnited]

26. Agree that Obama doesn't want to run, hasn't run, and should

continue to reject running the kind of sleazy campaign this country is (sadly) getting used to. That's not what he is about.

But I also agree that the Republicans would be all over the Clinton scandals -- the old and established ones as well as some of the possible ones from more recent years.

The Clintons need to be vetted.

And as much as I believe that Obama is the real deal, if there *are* any skeletons, well, they need to be vetted too.

This is the Democrats year to sweep it all, and sweep it with such ferocity that it will change the political landscape for many years to come. That's the prize we should keep our eye on.

[Not the Only One]

4. More decisive leadership from the Obama campaign

Good for them. If people want to speak off the cuff like we do here at DU, they need to disengage themselves from an official capacity with the campaign.

[jackson_dem]

14. When did Jesse Jackson Jr., Charles Barron, several of his staff get kicked out?

[cali]

19. When did Charles Johnson, Andrew Cuomo

Geraldine Ferraro etc get kicked out? Oh that's right they didn't. Obama has run a cleaner campaign that Hilly.

[jackson_dem]

25. Is Hillary claiming to be something she isn't like Obama, once again, is?

They both have run dirty campaigns. Whether one has been marginally cleaner is irrelevant. If folks cared about (relatively) clean campaigns they would have voted for Edwards.

[Beacool]

34. Jesse Jr., I would like a few words with that a-hole.

I respect his father, but this race baiter can go to hell as far as i'm concerned!!!!

:mad:

[tishaLA]

8. Not good

He was a powerhouse in the campaign.

[ProSense]

18. Appears no one is troubled by the fact that everything in the e-mail is true. It was not a public

comment. Wonder who leaked it?

Still, once it's out there, this was the right move.

[anigbrowl]

32. I do not agree

I strongly prefer that Obama campaign on issues as they are now and leave voters to exercise their own judgment about how important (or not) old scandals of the past should be when selecting a candidate. Thorne is responsible for putting it out there himself, seems like, and i don't agree with all of his allegations (eg about the Clintons looting the white House - an old, discredited GOP smear).

The email could have come straight from the RNC as far as I can tell, and I want no part of it. The fact that the Republicans would start an avalanche of this sort of thing if Clinton becomes the nominee is beside the point - we already knew that.

[AtomicKitten]

13. It's an exercise in reality -- Obama's faux scandals versus ClintonCo's REAL scandals.

I'm betting Hillary's going to regret opening up Pandora's Box when amazingly her camp dropped the first salvo by mentioning Whitewater when they accused Obama of acting like Ken Starr for asking to see her tax records. Oooops!

[bridgit]

16. What!? I thought that was DU did that, and now this guy gets all the props...

DU BO peeps need their place in the sun I see a letter campaign on the horizon :rant:

[bluestateguy]

29. This is what I do know

If Bill Clinton had kept it in his pants, the 2000 election would not have even been close. There would have been no realistic way for Republicans to steal it, or Nader to have any effect.

[anigbrowl]

31. Well done to the campaign for repudiating this immediately

Sorry to see a member of the LGBT leadership council leaving the campaign, since Obama needs to keep working hard to cultivate more support with this demographic. But taking a shotgun approach ot Clinton scandals while acting as a representative of the campaign isn't acceptable.

[OzarkDem]

36. Obama and his supporters are despicable cowards

What kind of lowlifes would ignore the problems facing our country today, refuse to discuss issues and instead spend their time and energy trying to destroy reputations of fellow Democrats?

Obama is a GOP scumbag if he keeps this up, nothing more.

[cbayer]

37. Aren't you getting tired of being beaten up?

Some of your statements are so provocative that you are losing all credibility.

I think calling Obama and his supporters despicable cowards, lowlifes and GOP scumbag is right in line with trying to destroy the reputations of fellow Democrats.

You are clearly very passionate, but I think you would do yourself and your candidate a favor if you brought it down a notch or two.