Hillary and her old enemies cuddle up for a kill

[democracy1st]

Hillary and her old enemies cuddle up for a kill
Andrew Sullivan



Last week was officially the moment that the race for the Democratic nomination slipped through the looking glass into surrealism. Here is a brief list of those people who are now actively supporting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy: Pat Buchanan, a charming man slightly to the right of Genghis Khan; Rush Limbaugh, the most voluble and incendiary of right-wing talk-show hosts; Richard Mellon Scaife, the media mogul who financed the virulently antiClinton crusades of the 1990s; and, if you read between the lines, even Karl Rove, the “architect” of the past decade or so of Republican dominance in electoral politics.



Limbaugh began his pro-Clinton campaign when Ohio and Texas were at stake. Last Wednesday he claimed success in getting enough Republicans to vote for Clinton in Pennsylvania to keep her candidacy alive. Limbaugh calls his initiative Operation Chaos. “Were it not for Operation Chaos, Obama could win this by winning the primary process. But he can’t now,” he bragged last week. Yes, this is the same Limbaugh who rose to fame hawking White-water and Lewinsky for eight years. Now he wants to save the couple he once wanted to impeach.


Or take Rove. In a brilliant opinion piece last week in The Wall Street Journal he insisted Obama could not win white ethnic voters in the autumn, and he even endorsed one of the Clinton campaign’s least persuasive arguments: that the votes in the Michigan and Florida primaries – deemed illegitimate by party bosses ahead of time because the states broke the rules by scheduling their primaries out of order – should be counted in the popular vote tally.



You have to pinch yourself as Buchanan – the former senior adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford and Rea-gan, and a man who clearly believes John McCain is a flaming liberal – all but endorses Clinton night after night on television. Buchanan’s rationale: “Obama cannot concede that the anger of white America – that its right to equal justice has been sacrificed to salve the consciences of guilt-besotted liberals – is a legitimate anger.”



Meanwhile we witnessed another surreal inversion. Last Tuesday night Terry McAuliffe, the Clintons’ money man, appeared on a network that many Democrats view as anathema and said: “Let me congratulate Fox , because you were the first to call it for Hillary Clinton. Fair and balanced Fox: you beat them all.” Fox is now using the Clinton spokesman as part of an ad promo.



The icing on the cake was the endorsement of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by Scaife, the man who bankrolled the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Hillary even sat down with Scaife for a fawning interview. His paper concluded: “Clinton’s decision to sit down with the Trib was courageous, given our long-standing criticism of her . . . Political courage is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it; Obama has not. She has a real record. He doesn’t. She has experience of value to a president. He doesn’t.”



If Clinton prevails, they know how to beat her. If she loses, she will have legitimised a main Republican line of attack against Obama. It’s not that hard to understand. And it’s even more intelligible when you absorb a simple fact. Beneath the headlines about suicidal Democrats, there is a sobering reality for the Republicans in the current polling.

Even now – as the Democrats are tearing themselves apart – the polls are still showing that McCain and Obama are all but tied in the national vote. In a swing state such as Minne-sota, Obama actually has a 14-point lead over McCain, as of last Thursday.

The death match is now. And the Clintons and the Republicans need all the mutual support they can muster.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3821271.ece?openComment=true

[ekwhite]

1. K&R

[Buzz Clik]

2. That's been a common theme at DU lately.

However, anyone cuddling up with Hillary is about to become a necrophiliac.

[babylonsister]

3. Rec'd for truth, whether you like Sullivan or not. This is what's happening. nt

[roguevalley]

56. you can tell someone by the company they keep. this is outrageous

and if it were reversed, the hillary deadenders would be the first to decry it. no true democrat acts like this and allows this kind of 'support'. ever.

[KoKo]

71. See post #79....it's not Hillary...

[cliffordu]

80. It ain't me either...

I'm post #79....

[featherman]

4. "Beneath the headlines about suicidal Democrats....

"Beneath the headlines about suicidal Democrats, there is a sobering reality for the Republicans in the current polling."

All the nervous nellies around here should read and reread this simple statement.

[AdHocSolver]

60. The Clinton game plan is actually simple to understand. It isn't to win the nomination.

The clintons are realistic enough to know that, short of an asteroid hitting the planet, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee.

Their motives are more sinister than winning the nomination. Their subtle racial attacks on Obama, there "praising" McCain as being better qualified to be Commander in Chief than Obama, and all the other BACK STABBING tactics they have been using in this campaign point to one conclusion about the aim of the Clinton campaign.

Clinton's aim is to divide the Democratic Party and stir up racism issues among Republicans and independants so as to bring about a McCain victory in November. Then she will jump into the 2012 presidential campaign on an "I told you so" platform.

There are at least two flaws in this line of thinking. First, if she succeeds in electing McCain president by these tactics, she will destroy the Democratic Party making it unable to elect a dog catcher, let alone a President. Second, the economy and the social fabric of this country under another Republican Bush/Cheney-like presidency will be so shattered that the Great Depression of the 1930's will look like a picnic in comparison

The Republicans aren't helping Clinton so as to run against her. They are helping her, or rather, Hillary is helping the Republicans, to defeat an Obama candidacy.

The biggest threat to America in this presidential campaign is Hillary "It-is-my-turn" Clinton. If they cannot fairly win the Democratic nomination, the Clinton's seem to be quite willing to bring down the Democratic Party, and the country, in flames.

[okasha]

5. Bareback Andy calls Rush truthful

and cozies up to a homophobe-once-removed.

It don't get much more surreal than that.

[Moochy]

68. disgusting

what nicknames can people devise for you?

[Name removed]

74. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Moochy]

75. You know you are a real jerk

Let's just put you down under, !@#!@#!@#!@# with a time budget for flamebaiting.

Calling him "Bareback" Andy was YOUR act of homophobia, which I called out as disgusting.

[okasha]

77. It's his nickname in the LGBT community, given to him by LGBT's.

If you had any contacts in that community, you'd be familiar with it.

And let's try this again--if you're in favor of unprotected sex among at-risk populations, you're both a homophobe and a racist because gay men and black women are still the most in danger from AIDS.

[Moochy]

78. "If you had any contacts in that community"

You don't fucking know me from Adam, presumptuous jerk.

[okasha]

82. I know quite a bit about you--

your style of communication is quite revealing.

[Moochy]

83. And your presumptions show your narrow mind

Disabled PMs? check. Hillary Clinton Supporter? Check. Cattily uses name for "Bareback" Andy Sullivan, then when I call you disgusting for using that term, tries to call ME homophobic because of my supposed endorsement of bareback sex!!!! for fucks sake is there anything more ridiculous than you trying to make me the one who is in favor of unprotected sex, and therefore a homophobe and racist.

Brilliant baiting!!!!!

[yourguide]

6. K & R

[akbacchus_BC]

31. yourguide, can you please switch that pic of Senator Clinton, you

not doing Senator Obama any kudos by posting a nasty pic of Senator Clinton. Thank you!

[yourguide]

34. Sorry, it's not coming down

until she cleans up her campaign.

[akbacchus_BC]

37. Hon, that is an awful pic, you can do better! I dislike her politics too

but no need to deface here. We are all Democrats and we have to heal after the primaries are over. I beseech you to trade that pic!

[yourguide]

39. Will consider it but as more garbage piles up

it makes it harder for me to have a shred of good will towards her.

let's see how she carries herself through the next round of primaries.

[Beacool]

66. Oh please, more childish behavior from the Obama fans.

At this point I can't stand the sight of the Anointed One, but I have refrained from posting nasty pictures and cartoons of him that are taken directly from the RW sites.

Some "uniter" this guy has turned out to be.......

[QC]

36. If you have Firefox, you can use the Adblock addon to block all this poster's graphics.

That's what I did.

[akbacchus_BC]

40. I dislike that pic with a vengeance. After all, she is a democrat too ..

I just wish they would not distort her pic, dunno how to block it but that pic has always bothered me!

[akbacchus_BC]

41. You know, the more I come on here, it is bothersome, am neutral to

both dem Candidates. Either one would be better than a rethug. It annoys me how some supporters on both sides are so annoying. My main issue is if the party can come together to beat McCain. The world is banking on Americans to choose a new candidate, but you all failed us in 2000 and 2004. Am not holding my breath, but if Obama is elected, the world will rally around America!

[QC]

43. Fortunately, DU is not America, or even the Democratic Party.

It's just a message board, one that seems to attract far more than its fair share of cranks, obsessives, and, I am convinced, quite a few of the genuinely insane.

In the world outside DU, the party will come together just fine.

[Yael]

7. Faux is featuring McAuliffe in an ad promoting their station?

Up is down and left is right.

Surreal doesn't begin to describe it.

She is the Sith Lord.

[americanstranger]

18. Link to video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v4x-RIvkDBk

- as

[Yael]

19. Oh. My. Word.

Truly unbelievable.

[H2O Man]

8. Troubling.

Thanks for posting this.

[Lerkfish]

12. agreed.

[4themind]

9. Like she said, she's a uniter -nt

[Raine]

10. This new friendship should make

everyone suspicious, it's very creepy.

[Maribelle]

11. Mr. Sullivan is a right wing fraud. Nothing more.

But I do find it comical that the same folks that scream over DUers linking to some site that has not fallen in lock step with Obama's campaign have suddenly become enamored of AS-horsehockey that sold the Cheney/neocon agenda along with his sould without qualms and helped defeat our Gore in 2000.

What on earth have you done to DU?

[babylonsister]

15. Bullshit. Prove it. He used to be a rethug, and has freely admitted

he was wrong, the r/w is wrong, and * is wrong. If he's so r/w, why is he bashing them? Nice try.

[Maribelle]

16. That's your choice to swallow his feigned mia culpa on the neocon crap.

I have seen other evidence.

[babylonsister]

17. Post it, something recent. Change my mind. Educate me. nt

[cali]

32. lol!! up is down, black is white. Whatever Sullivan is or isn't

hillykins has been sucking up to neocons on the far right. And you just cnn't fucking deal with the facts. pathetic.

[QC]

35. Has he ever disavowed The Bell Curve?

You might remember it--the book that claimed blacks are stupid? He publicized it heavily when he was editor of The New Republic and portrayed that action as a brave stand against the thuggery of political correctness.

Has he disavowed that yet? As recently as 2005 he was describing that as one of his proudest moments of his career.

Honestly, Captain Bareback is no progressive, and you do not want to embrace him.

[democracy1st]

58. Cenk,Ariana and a host of others use to be Repubs

You can change "Yes We can"

[QC]

63. Ask him if he's still proud of promoting a racist book.

Also, does he still believe that liberals constitute a treasonous "fifth column" that hopes to betray America to the "Islamofascists"?

Sully is a nasty piece of work in so many ways: the fact that he has a crush on Obama does not make him a progressive.

[Yael]

21. Can you refute even one point that he made?

Or are you just going to slide in with the ad hom attack?

[democracy1st]

57. Thought you guys loved the rightwing - Richard Mellon Scaife

[cbayer]

13. The right wing is doing what the right wing does best -

pitting the Democrats against each other for the eventual gain of their own party. Clinton is not snuggling. She is being used, much as many in the blogosphere are being used. If you think Andrew Sullivan is your friend, I think you are sadly mistaken.

[Yael]

20. This has nothing to do with Sullivan's politics

Can you refute anything he said happened in the last 2 weeks?

Did McAuliffe praise Fox for being the first to call for Hillary as them being the most "fair and balanced"?

Did she seek the endorsement of Scaife?

Is Rush claiming credit for TX, OH and PA with his "Operation Chaos"?

Is Pat Buchannan praising HRC and spouting about Obama not being "electable"?

If any of your answers are "no" to these, then please post where Sullivan is wrong.

I'll be right here waiting on the rebuttal to his prose.

[cbayer]

24. Do you really think for a minute that Scalife, Rush and Buchanan want Clinton to be the President?

Really?

And do you not think that Fox might take some of Obama's comments today and now use them to push their "Fair and Balanced" theme. Look! We are so balanced that Obama agreed to come on our station and do an interview!

This is what these people do. They are playing us.

Prose is an apt description of Sullivan's tripe. We are all going to feel so foolish in retrospect when we see how we've been played. They are loving every second of this.

[americanstranger]

25. Watch the McAuliffe video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v4x-RIvkDBk

They did not take his words out of context. He said what he said.

If Obama came out and endorsed Fox News (which Mcauliffe most certainly did), I'd be all over him for it, too.

But I think Obama's got a lot more integrity than Mr. '$10 million in 24 hours,' so I don't think that's a concern.

- as

[cbayer]

27. It is very difficult to defend what he said

and I am not going to try. The candidates and their surrogates make stupid, off the cuff statements all the time. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have every single word that comes out of my mouth scrutinized.

You can't even make a typo on DU without getting a pile on.

Whatever he meant, they spun it as an endorsement. I doubt very much that Mr. McAuliffe meant it as an endorsement.

Obama may have more integrity. He is newer to the process. Politics has a way of grinding away at your integrity. That's why I quit.

[Yael]

30. He said they are the most fair and balanced of the news networks

Ed Rendell did the same damn thing.

And you don't consider that a ringing endorsement?

[cbayer]

38. The link is to a Fox commercial.

A fox commercial for gawd's sake. He used their tag line and credited them for calling the election first. He did not say they are "the most fair and balanced of the news networks". I have no idea about the Rendell "endorsement" of Fox.

When they twist Obama's words around to make it sound like an endorsement, are you going to take the same position.

I feel the need to defend both of our candidates, even against their fellow Democrats. Particularly when I think the RW media is using fellow dems to help with the attack.

[Yael]

44. That was the clip. Please do feel free to do a search as I did a short while ago.

He said that they were the "most fair and balanced" because they called the election in PA before any other network.

Oh, and Hillary isn't a Democrat. Not how I define it.

[cbayer]

46. You are a mighty debater.

You also have a firmly entrenched position. If you don't think Clinton is a Democrat, then we probably have little common ground on which to discuss this.

I don't think that those that are trying to draw Clinton as neo-con, Republican lite, right wing, not Democrat, etc, etc, are Democrats. Perhaps a new definition was developed while I was out of touch the last couple of years.

The party I knew was tolerant, inclusive, understanding, inquisitive and fair. It did not tolerate bullies or unquestioning acceptance of whatever the majority said. I barely recognize my party as it is being represented here on DU. Perhaps it is me.

[Yael]

50. And you as well

I am a recovering Republican. We are the worst kind. Once we figure out we have been lied to -- the anger sets in and (in my case) we go full tilt to left of left.

When I see HRC, I see a Republican in Democrats clothing. Takes one to know one or somefin' like that.

[cbayer]

52. I am a recovering radical leftie.

I have learned to take what I can get and I never get what I really want.

Perhaps we should start our own party. :toast:

Off to watch 60 minutes and get off this damn computer for awhile. I look forward to our next debate.

[Yael]

54. If we don't chat -- enjoy your week!

:toast:

[Beacool]

69. Well, it's a question of perception.

I see Obama as an empty suit.

:shrug:

[Yael]

29. They want her to be the NOMINEE

How is this so confusing?

[babylonsister]

23. Who's using who? Get real. It's a mutual effort, make no mistake. nt

[Cha]

14. I'll say this..

hilary certainly belongs with all that slime.
She's come home to roost with the traitors
of the United States of America and
it will be a pleasure seeing her swirling
down down the sewer system with these maggots
who feed their whiskey holes on people's misery.

[rainbow4321]

22. HRC and the repukes are intertwined

Bedfellows.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5707283&mesg_id=5707283

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071105/baker_federman

In the Clintons' pursuit of power, there is no such thing as a strange bedfellow. One recently exposed inamorata was Norman Hsu, the mysterious businessman from Hong Kong who brought in $850,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign before being unmasked as a fugitive. Her campaign dismissed Hsu as someone who'd slipped through the cracks of an otherwise unimpeachable system for vetting donors, and perhaps he was. The same cannot be said for the notorious financier Alan Quasha, whose involvement with Clinton is at least as substantial--and still under wraps.

Political junkies will recall Quasha as the controversial figure who bailed out George W. Bush's failing oil company in 1986, folding Bush into his company, Harken Energy, thus setting him on the path to a lucrative and high-profile position as an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and the presidency. The persistently unprofitable Harken--many of whose board members, connected to powerful foreign interests and the intelligence community, nevertheless profited enormously--faced intense scrutiny in the early 1990s and again during Bush's first term.

Now Quasha is back--on the other side of the aisle. Operating below the radar, he entered Hillary Clinton's circle even before she declared her candidacy by quietly arranging for the hire of Clinton confidant and longtime Democratic Party money man Terry McAuliffe at one of his companies. During the interregnum between McAuliffe's chairmanship of the Democratic Party and the time he officially joined Clinton's campaign, Quasha's firm set McAuliffe up with a salary and opened a Washington office for him.

[madrchsod]

26. you know axlerod worked for the clintons......

so there`s nothing he can`t handle from the clinton camp...oh yes he worked for john edwards too.

[futureliveshere]

28. K&R

[tekisui]

33. It will only be suicide for

the Clinton Campaign.

[Skip Intro]

42. Smear job. Pure and simple. And some lap it up like mother's milk.

How Hillary is supposed to be responsible for the actions of some repuke loons is beyond me.

But no, you set up an argument that these bad guys are helping Hillary, and you don't question it - you just accept it because the bad guys told you that is what is happening, and you associate Hillary with the bad guys. And that "if she loses, she will have legitimised a main Republican line of attack against Obama." She, by twisted verbal magic that only somebody so full of hope and change as the author could construct, is working in tandem with the worst of the worst. Simply by remaining in the race, she is a repuke-enabled enemy of the party. Wow.

Not the first time I've seen this type of attack against Hillary either.

Seeing that Barack Obama practically began his campaign calling Hillary bush/cheney-lite and comparing her to romney and gouiani, and seeing that Barack himself was punked by the likes of Robert Novak into attacking Hillary for some bogus claim, I wonder if Barack would agree with Mr. Sullivan's thoughts.

[babylonsister]

45. Ducks. Walks like one, talks like one, no smears here. Quack. nt

[Skip Intro]

47. Baaaaa-rock.

[babylonsister]

48. Nah, see the OP. That could be all of Clinton's r/w surrogates, that

seem to be multiplying like sheep. Imagine that. Or explain why.

[Yael]

51. ...

:popcorn:

[americanstranger]

49. Heh.

How Hillary is supposed to be responsible for the actions of some repuke loons is beyond me.

Now just flip that around, insert 'Obama' in place of Clinton and insert 'former pastor' or 'ex-radical that he met at a fundraiser' or 'Hamas,' and maybe you'll get how fucking hysterical your side sounds most of the time.

Or not. Blinders come in handy, no?

- as

[babylonsister]

53. Perfect, but not quite. The r/w can't even spin Wright after tonight.

So sad. :D

[Frank Booth]

55. Bill Kristol's a big fan of Hillary these days too.

If you lay down with dogs you get fleas.

[CoffeeCat]

59. I think Kristol supporting her...

...and sticking up for her--is really revealing and so very grotesque.

He's the PNAC founder. We suspect she's a warmonger in bed with those goons.

When I saw him on Fox today, trash talking Obama and speaking in such glowing
tones about Hillary, I was stunned.

How much evidence do we need? The Fascist warmongering kingpin--who is responsible for
the entire PNAC plan--loves Hillary.

Hillary supporters, I realize that denial is comfortable, but by supporting this woman
you are supporting a warmongering neocon corporatist.

Please. Wake up.

[KoKo]

70. It's the NeoCon's War Policy that's under attack...and so of course

Kristol will support her over Obama. But, in fact Kristol doesn't support either. He's a snake...and hurts Hillary by doing this. He doesn't want any Democrat in... The Clintons didn't allow the Neo-Cons to run their foreign policy and neither did Poppy Bush. Kristol works for them. They will pick off Obama and let the Clinton baggage speak for itself as she goes down the tank on her own.

[SunsetDreams]

61. Democrat for President~ Barack Obama

[Scurrilous]

62. K & R

:thumbsup:

[invictus]

64. K & R

[Beacool]

65. Even a broken clock is accurate twice a day............

First time I agree with Scaife on anything:

His paper concluded: “Clinton’s decision to sit down with the Trib was courageous, given our long-standing criticism of her . . . Political courage is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it; Obama has not. She has a real record. He doesn’t. She has experience of value to a president. He doesn’t.”

[samsingh]

67. this disgusts me like that nothing else.

[ampad]

72. She is disgusting

K&R

[Swamp Rat]

73. k&r

[WillyT]

76. Absolutely LOVE This Line...

"He {Bill Clinton) was a master at bonding with African-Americans while signalling to white voters that he was also a Bubba underneath."

Yep...

:shrug:

[cliffordu]

79. great post. Kicked.

[Bread and Circus]

81. K and R. Don't forget Kristol now either. Anyone supporting Clinton at this

point seriously has to question what is at play here.

[TwilightGardener]

84. Simple--Democrats simply cannot let that disgusting woman win. Or they will

be destroyed forever as a party.