THE RNC'S 1,200 PAGES OF CLINTON OPPO

[sniffa]

From MSNBC's David Shuster
Two Republican officials at the Republican National Committee who are involved in "opposition research efforts" in preparation for the general election say the RNC's oppo research dossier on Sen. Clinton runs more than 1,200 pages in length.

According to these officials, the book includes "previously undisclosed information about Hillary Clinton's connections to the Whitewater scandal, travel office firings, and Democratic fundraising efforts." Given that the book has not been shared with us, we've been unable to confirm this assertion. Furthermore, the Republican officials would not describe the nature of the "new information."

However, I was not directed away from a front-page story in today's Washington Times about memos/documents from the estate of Sam Dash, Ken Starr's ethics adviser during the early stages of the Whitewater investigation. The Dash Whitewater memos and documents have been turned over to the Library of Congress (where they were presumably available to the Washington Times reporter/researcher). The documents reportedly show that prosecutors concluded that Hillary Clinton concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for the Savings and Loan at the heart of the Whitewater investigation. The allegation that she concealed and misled is not new, and was sourced by reporters who covered the investigation in the 1990s (including me) to "attorneys close to Starr" or "sources in the office of the independent counsel."

The documents from Dash's estate, however, mark the first available "documentary evidence" that Ken Starr's office drafted a criminal indictment of Senator Clinton, also known as a "pros memo" and debated verbally and through written memos whether Clinton should actually face charges. The documents indicate, according to the Washington Times, that prosecutors in the end decided not to charge Sen. Clinton because of their concern about the strengths of their evidence and the likelihood of obtaining a conviction of a sitting first lady. But such memos, documents, and etc. about the internal debate in the office of the independent counsel could be a gold mine for negative ads, etc.

By the way, to put the RNC's opposition research effort into context, I'm told the dossier on Senator Obama is 1,000 pages in length and that Republican researchers spent a few weeks in Chicago recently collecting information on Obama's ties to the Weather Underground" and separately to Tony Rezko (who is currently on trial for federal corruption charges).

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/08/998470.aspx

Glad she won't be the nominee - IT WOULD B A DSASTR!!1!

[jasmine621]

1. Here we go again. This stuff is pure bull crap.

If they couldn't do it before, they can't hurt her now. Besides, there have been so many lies against the Clintons they are immune by now.

[islandmkl]

3. '...couldn't do it before'...??

they did a pretty good job on the entire Clinton presidency for about 5 or 6 years there in the good old '90s...

[ClassWarrior]

4. Yes, she is invincible.

:eyes:

NGU.

[Nitrogenica]

11. Oh they couldn't? ANd they won't again?...What are you the freakin predictor?

[Coexist]

2. r u casting asparagus at teh series?!!11!1!!

seriously - is that why the conservatives were having such a love fest with her candidacy?

[sniffa]

17. THIS HUGH!!1

[AllentownJake]

5. The GOP

will attack the democratic nominee with lies and inuendo...it's what they do..doesn't matter who it.

[OneBlueSky]

6. all the Repugs have to do is read the past year's GD-P board on DU . . .

there's certainly enough allegations against both Clinton and Obama here to get a good start on oppo research . . .

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. Ken Starr had an ethics aviser?

Oh, that's rich.

[Tellurian]

10. Ken Starr had delusions of a Judgeship..

instead he was relegated to Pepperdine as a working stiff!

[grasswire]

8. I guess Rev. Moon wants Obama.

There can't be any other explanation for the Washington Times to get involved in this.

Why? Why would Rev. Sun Myung Moon, proclaimed King of the World and friend to the Bush family, want Obama?

[global1]

9. Hilliary's New Metric To Win.......

she has 200 more pages than Obama.

[The Night Owl]

12. So, let me get this straight... According to you, the fact that the RNC's opposition research...

...on Hillary Clinton is 200 pages longer than the RNC's opposition research on Barack Obama makes you feel relieved that Obama will probably be the Democratic nominee? Think again. Considering the fact that Obama has been in the public spotlight for only a fraction of the time that Clinton has spent in it, the fact that the RNC's opposition research on Obama is nearly as long as its opposition research on Clinton concerns me... a lot.

[Fridays Child]

13. MAD

Mutual Assured Destruction

There's at least one entire generation that knows nothing of McCain's early scandals--yet. I've no doubt that Democratic operatives have some good oppo research of their own. Never, for a moment, think that the American public might reach its slime saturation point. Our candidates seem to have an infinite capacity for slinging it and being hit by it, and we don't ever seem to tire of watching the festivities. It's a made-for-reality-TV, non-contact contact sport.

Excuse me, political leaders, but we need a little more bread and a lot fewer circuses, okay?

[rocktivity]

14. "Given that the book has not been shared with us,

we've been unable to confirm this assertion."

THEN WHY THE CHENEY ARE YOU RUNNING THIS STORY????

:argh:
rocknation

[Zachstar]

15. Ouch

[Texas Hill Country]

16. 1200 pages of well covered ground vs 1000 pages of current and brand new shit... hmmmmmmmmm

[anigbrowl]

18. It's just poliics porn...sure they'll trot out some crap

but they know it's going pear shaped for them. Rezko's trial has failed to yield any juicy nuggets and may not even yield a conviction. Oooh, acquitted non-felon Tony Rezko. It was easy debunking all the BS being posted about him a few months back (eg 'people freezing to death'...when the heating system violation was in *September* and brought up to code a month later) and it's only going to get easier as the date recedes.

I'd say there's a lot of 'this page intentionally left blank' in those dossiers - and 'dossier' is just a scary word for 'document box'.

[Exilednight]

19. A repug strategist on NPR said they've had 6-8 years to find all the info they need to defeat ......

Hillary. They've had 6-8 weeks to find info to beat Obama, and most of it would have never been found if it weren't for Hillary.

Basically, Hillary has done all their work for them.

[eridani]

20. It's all crap. They'll do it to any Dem, even if they have to make everything up n/t

[LaurenG]

21. I don't find it hard to believe that the have found "garbage" to slander her with

but I would have to agree with several others here that they will find someone/thing to make allegations against any of our candidates. It's how they roll.