Posted on 07/13/2007 8:59:09 PM PDT by doug from upland
Edited on 07/13/2007 11:57:49 PM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
HERE'S THE NEW YORK TIMES STORY. Gee, no mention of the confrontation.. Here is the WMUR story.
How is it that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the smartest woman in the world, does not know who Juanita Broaddrick is?
Earlier today I spoke with Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien, our own KPfromDerryNH. I knew she was heading for a showdown with Hillary today and didn't know if they would even let her into the event. She became somewhat famous for challenging Al Gore at a townhall meeting in New Hampshire in late 1999. Kath asked Gore if she believed Juanita Broaddrick, and Gore claimed he knew nothing about the story.
In 2000, I worked with her to plan a rally in New York. The great New York FReepers really got involved with the event. Kath spoke about being a rape survivor like Juanita, and after a poignant speech, she delivered a video copy of the Lisa Myers interview with Broaddrick to Hillary headquarters.
Hillary, if you are such a great defender of women, Help bring this rapist to justice. Maybe you can also explain how a trafficker of women made many visits to your White House, spent two days in the residence quarters, and laundered 645K to the DNC through Charlie Trie.
I spoke with Katherine at about 9:45pm, Eastern. She spoke with great emotion, and the day had been very draining for her. She was going to try to write it up tonight, but I guess it is getting too late. She confronted Hillary face to face, asking her if she believed Juanita Broaddrick. When Hillary said she didn't know about Broaddrick, Kath explained that she was the woman who accused Bill Clinton of rape. Hillary's handlers or Secret Service demanded that she leave and threatened her with arrest. That is the short version.
When Kath's full story gets to me, I'll ask the Admin Mod to add it here.
OKAY, HERE IS HER STORY. Admin Mod, can you put it up at the end of the original post?
Today I Met Hillary in Nashua, N.H. also known as “The Gate City”
by Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien
Today, Friday the 13th of July was my lucky day. I went to Daniel Webster College to meet Hillary Clinton.
I knew that the chance of that really happening would be slim. I arrived a little late but just in time for the program, that had been billed in the paper as free and open to the public to begin. I had called Hillary headquarters for tickets a few days prior. A friendly staffer told me that my tickets would be at the door and that there would be a 1/2 to 3/4 hour question time after her talk.
“Great”, I thought to myself, that will be a good time to see how open and free it really is. I’ve seen pre selected questions before and I loathe that process, it’s a sham.
When I got there, they did not ask my name or anything. It was fantastic that they gave out water bottles. I found the crowd of about a couple hundred strong to be a bit anemic in their overall vibe.
People were pleasant but not wicked thrilled to be there. I thought it would be a much different feel. Bill Clinton spoke for a bit, then Hillary spoke. I don’t care what any of her enemies say, the truth is she is looking better than ever now. Hats off to her hair, make up and style people. I hoped my luck would hold and she really would take random questions.
Throughout her speech, she made some points I agreed with, such as let’s treat our returning veterans better and interest rates on student loans should be as low as they can possibly be. Amen.
When she was done talking music started. Not looking good for that question asking session I dared to hope for...
I went up to the group heading towards the stage to meet her or her husband. It gets cozy fast in those crowds. There was a lady next to me, wearing a tee shirt that declared her as a health care voter, who had two canes she used. I tried to help her squeeze in a bit and half joked with her to whack the folks pushing in front of her with one of her canes. The poor lady might have fallen over if she did. For goodness sakes-can’t Hillary get staffers to watch out for and help those folks. Just a little free advice. Get them all up front, life is hard enough for them. The lady gave up and left.
I was not too far from the former President so I called out to him but he didn’t see me. Hillary came up next and I held out an old light green colored postcard towards her as others were holding tickets, baseballs and stuff like that.
She took my postcard, signed it and asked “Whose is this?” I said it was mine and asked her if she believed Juanita Broaddrick. “Who is that?” she asked.
I replied “The woman who said she was raped by Bill Clinton in 1978.”
“I don’t know anything about that” Ms. Rodham Clinton said, still holding my card
“I sent you a videotape of the interview she gave to Dateline NBC and I’m sure you have received it, I sent it by certified mail and that’s the receipt showing your office got it that your holding.”
At some point around this time someone behind her asked my name so I told them what it was.
She gave the receipt back to me.
I asked her again if she believed Juanita Broaddrick.
“I don’t know what your talking about.” she then started going back towards the direction she had come from, away from her husband.
I had to yell so she would hear me over the music as I asserted “That’s not true!” and went on to ask her “Why are you doing this? You’ve always been so good to rape survivors.”
I was thinking about how she started Arkansas’ first rape crisis hotline and helped start its first rape crisis center. I would have loved her way back then for that.
The people around me suddenly discovered they did not like me and began making vehement requests to have someone get me out of there.
A well groomed, handsome man in a suit with one of those clear, curly wires in his ear, a Secret Service agent perhaps, grabbed both my arms above the elbow and began pushing me backwards and telling me I had to leave.
So I did. Well, I began to.
An enthusiastic, yet clueless young campaign worker invited me to take a sign up card thing so I could get campaign updates.
I declined her offer by muttering a swear phrase that encourages people to go have fun with themselves but I don’t think she heard me.
As I passed the media stage I thought I’d at least talk to some media folks and tell them my side of the story. I had printed it up on a sheet of paper I could give them.
About four guys in suits with wires in their ears were joined by an equal number of Nashua Police officers who told me I couldn’t do that. So I began to leave again..
All eight of them were kind enough to escort me toward the gate. Who says chivalry is dead?
As officers of the law, I will obey them but I couldn’t see why I was such a threat. I’m 130 or so pounds soaking wet, I was wearing a dress and heels and so upset and humiliated I’m was trying hard not to cry and not always being successful.
This was a very hard thing for me to do. I try to be polite but I also know that I must be bold and assertive as well to get the answers I want. I know my intentions are pure and this gives me confidence. At that moment, knowing my intentions were honorable, this caused me to be very angry too. I declared that the event was a sham. To me it was. If a candidate wants to earn the right of having said they were vetted by the tough, hard question asking New Hampshire citizenry, then I respond that she must earn that right. Hillary is not doing that, walking away from tough questions and not being brave enough to take random ones that a whole crowd can hear. Does she think were stupid?
As we all walked on, I was struck by the irony of what the Nashua Police were doing. I asked them how they could square what they were doing to me with what they do all day long for work, fight crime and have to kick me out when all I did was ask a tough question. I asked them how they could sleep at night.
I told them I was a polite person, I never did anything wrong. I wanted to say I’d been a Girl Scout Leader and all I ever do in life is take care of other people. I’m even doing laundry right now as I write this.
One of the men asked me what I asked about. I told them I asked about Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who said she was raped by Bill Clinton and that I couldn’t figure out why Hillary would have ever cared about 18 minutes of blank tape during the Watergate scandal but never wanted to know where her husband was on April 25, 1978, a date he will not account for and the date Broaddrick says the rape happened.
I pointedly asked one of the officers that a man running for governor would have those records, an Attorney General would have those records, right?
They world be someplace, right? No answer, I wasn’t expecting one anyway.
We got to the road and that’s when it got really weird. One of then asked me where I was parked. I pointed towards my car near the airport. Another asked me if I was ok to drive.
“What!?, yes I can drive, I’m fine to drive!” He must have thought I was nuts or he deals with so many drunks this is an automatic question..
I began to walk towards my car, I wanted to get out of there so bad.
An officer started talking about the fence, the gate or whatever but I tried to tell him “OK OK, I’m leaving, I’m leaving” but he kept trying to tell me about the gate.
I could not disobey the officer who was trying to make me listen to what he had to say so I had to walk back to him.
I said “Yes, sir yes, sir, I’m listening, I’m listening.” That’s when he told me that on the other side of the gate was state property. After I crossed over it, if I were to come back I would be arrested.
I was shocked, I’ve never even gotten a speeding ticket in my life. I said stuff like “What!?, I’ll be arrested!?”
“Why,why would you arrest me? What did I do?”and “I can’t believe this, why?”
He only said the same thing over again but this time with an emphatic “Mamn” at the beginning of his sentence.
I thought about walking to the fence as fast as a snail or coming back over just 1 inch to find out why I’d be arrested.
But that would be a high price to pay just to find out and I had to get to my job. How do you call in to get someone to cover for you because you got arrested ? I don’t want to find out. Well, my story ends there and my washing machine just stopped...
Sam Donaldson made one attempt to ask Bill Clinton about Juanita Broaddrick at some press event, and Clinton brushed him off with some lawyerspeak, and that was the end of that.
Thank you for posting this Doug, and thank YOU Katherine for being such a strong, and caring person.
As a survivor of sexual assault I commend you for what you are trying to do, and I fully support you. For Hillary to say she has no idea who Juanita is when half the world knows her name shows the utmost contempt. Just one more reason why Hillary should never be elected... She talks a good line, but when it comes down to it she is just as two-faced as any other politician (especially the liberals who declare their compassion for women, and others and only turn around and stab them in the back like this...).
Keep your chin up Katherine, I know the anger and frustration you’re talking about when you KNOW someone is lying to you, and you’re on the right side. It can be so emotionally draining. Keep on fighting the good fight — we’re all behind you 100% and we’ll eventually win!
On youtube there is video of a guy asking Hitlery if he can be her "intern"...he says he has his own cigar and everything....great stuff.
Yep, you’ve got it correct, Doug. A survivor is one who refuses to be a ‘victim’. We are victims at the time these things occur, but yet we survive, and go on to live another day... THAT is why we are survivors, and not victims. It is a way to take back the power that the perpetrators try to take away.
This term is also applied to Child Abuse Survivors, and other ‘victims’ of crimes as well. Being a victim is not a good mindset at all when you have experienced these things in your life because it prevents you from healing from the experience.
I saw an interview with Bill on Oprah years ago after he left the White House. He said exactly what you are saying. He stated that when all the investigations were going on, and he was being subpoenaed about Lewinsky it was all just about the “bad guys” trying to take hold of our country... and that he was one of the “good guys”. He literally said that... I’ll see if I can’t find some kind of transcript, but it might be hard as it was some years ago, and I can’t remember when it was exactly...
Thanks for posting that, I always wondered what Lisa thought after interviewing Juanita and having her story axed. I believe her career as well. She was a hard hitting journalist.
Katherine is one bold lady, we should all try to be a little more like.
I admired her so much I sent her a thank you card when she first made headlines and she was kind enough to write back.
I wish her confrontation with Hillary could receive the same news coverage!
Good post,goes on my save list to bring up for later!
Also Juanita Broaddrick is a Democrat and has no reason to lie.
I think things has changed dramatically in these cases since 1978. As others have mentioned you have to take into consideration who her perpetrator was, and the position of authority he had over her. Right after the event, the person raped is very traumatized, and in this case I imagine she was extremely afraid to come forward.
In this case I would tend to believe Juanita — based on Clinton’s actions towards other women it makes perfect sense. I would even wager a bet that there are other women he assaulted that haven’t come forward yet as that is often the case with perpetrators such as this — and these women may never come forward simply because of the extreme pressure his accusers who have stepped forward have faced. Not to mention the infamous way the Clinton’s have of dealing with their foes...
Still, in this day and age when there is a lot of support for Rape Survivors (and other survivors of Sexual Assault type crimes) some still don’t come forward and report the crime, or go to the hospital. That is something we as a society need to work on still, IMHO. Many communities don’t have the resources they should for women (and men) who experience these types of crimes... I wish they did, and I wish more women would report these crimes. There is still a lot of bad sentiments against women who are preyed upon in this way — it’s very unfortunate and causes a lot of harm.
CORRECTION:
In the first sentence of my post “has changed” should be “have changed”...
Young women voting for the first time are drawn to liberal celebrity. That’s why they will always be Kennedy and Clinton allies.
Maybe HRC didn’t mind if Juanita took some of the “work” off her. She looks like she would be very bored sexually.
I remember when a lady in Chicago was arrested by the SS at a parade for yelling “You suck” at Bill Clintion when he was in office.
All Hail Lord Clinton!
She disgusts me.
That explains my youngest sister (and Clinton)... Argh.
Yes I remember the Sick mess and didn’t Hillary pay Paula Jones a Half Million to stay out of court?
Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Clinton managed to turn the Secret Service into the SS. May as well have issued brown shirts and arm bands.
If only a few of the words ————————In MANY folks minds...LOL...
"Former President Bill Clinton on Telling the Truth"
Bill Clinton says he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky to protect his family and the presidency.
Oprah: Did you at least think to tell the truth?
Bill Clinton: Oh, God, yes. Absolutely. When the whole thing came out, I thought, "This is really a sleazy thing." What I did was bad enough; what they did to Monica Lewinsky was horrible—keeping her in that hotel room and then later they forced her mother to testify, which was a total violation of Justice Department rules. I mean the whole thing was amazing, trying to get her to wear a wire…
Oprah: But ultimately, why didn't you just tell the truth from the start?
Bill Clinton: I was afraid if I did it at the time, that A, [Kenneth Starr] would go out and indict people, falsely; and B, the hysteria would cause me to be run from office and that the bad guys would win…[emphasis mine]
Next to what I did wrong, I regret misleading my family, my administration, the American people most of all. I should have said: "I didn't break the law, and I didn't ask anybody to break the law," because that was the allegation they were printing. I should have said that and said nothing else.
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