Posted on 04/16/2005 6:14:47 PM PDT by MadIvan
Senior Republican activists have launched two high-profile campaigns aimed at sabotaging Senator Hillary Clinton's hopes of an elected return to the White House - even though the next presidential contest is three and a half years away.
It was also revealed last week that Mrs Clinton is to be the unwilling subject of a book in the autumn which will reportedly contain explosive revelations from her time as First Lady. The book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, is being written by Ed Klein, a best-selling biographer and the scourge in print of the Kennedy clan.
The ratcheting-up of "Stop Hillary" operations reflects a grudging acknowledgement among Republicans that Mrs Clinton, long regarded as an unreformed liberal out of touch with the country's political mood, has been carefully staking out middle-of-the-road positions on issues such as abortion and immigration.
Both the Republican fund-raising initiatives are initially targeted at defeating Mrs Clinton when she runs next year for a second term in the Senate. Their organisers, however, make little secret of the fact that they are hoping to deal a crippling blow to a leading frontrunner for the Democrat nomination for the 2008 White House race.
"Stopping Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most important thing you and I can do as Republicans in the next two years," wrote Stephen Minarik, the New York Republican Party chairman.
"You could say it's our duty as Republicans," he said, launching the nationwide "Stop Hillary Now" campaign in a four-page letter to potential backers. They would establish a "truth squad" to "expose her lies", he promised.
In the other fundraising initiative, Arthur Finkelstein - a veteran, if reclusive, Republican strategist - is canvassing donors for a new advocacy group, "Stop Her Now", which aims to raise $10 million to fund advertising and media assaults on the New York senator.
Since Mr Bush's re-election in November, Mrs Clinton has tried to reinvent herself as a politician who would be more acceptable in the American heartlands which carried the President back to power.
She has railed against illegal immigration, moderated her public statements on abortion rights and backed American military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although her voting record places her firmly on the liberal wing of the Democratic party, recent opinion polls suggest that her new political look is winning support.
Many American conservatives, however, retain a visceral contempt for the Clintons, fuelled by their frustration that the president and his wife survived a series of scandals including the Whitewater financial affair and the impeachment proceedings over Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern.
Mrs Clinton is such a polarising figure that there will be little difficulty in soliciting funds for her followers, or her foes. When she launched her own fundraising campaign recently, she told supporters that she was "the number-one target for the Right-wing attack machine", although she insists she is not looking beyond her Senate campaign.
Crucially, New York Republicans have yet to find a strong contender to fight Mrs Clinton next year. Their two biggest local names, Rudi Giuliani, the former mayor, and Governor George Pataki, have counted themselves out. Party chiefs are concerned that a strong Clinton victory in 2006 would bolster her momentum for White House run in 2008.
In a clear signal of how the Republicans intend to attack Mrs Clinton, Mr Minarik's letter described her as a "radical liberal" or "ultraliberal", called her the "darling of the wealthy liberal Left - especially the Hollywood Left" and referred to her "vast network of far-Left contributors".
Mr Finkelstein played a key role in turning "liberal" into a dirty word in American politics when representing politicians such as Jesse Helms, the ultra-conservative North Carolina senator. He has also advised Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Right-wing Israeli prime minister.
It is understood that Mr Finkelstein hopes to repeat the successful formula used by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during last year's presidential campaign.
The pressure group of Vietnam veterans unleashed a series of fierce attacks on John Kerry's war record, fatally undermining the Democratic candidate's challenge to President Bush.
Bill Clinton, the former president and now vocal supporter of his wife's political aspirations, flew to her defence last week after it emerged that Mr Finkelstein, 59, had recently married his male partner in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts.
Referring to the Republicans' use of the same-sex marriage issue to mobilise conservative voters, Mr Clinton said: "Either this guy believes his party is not serious and he's totally Machiavellian, or he may be blinded by self-loathing."
It is not just the Republicans who are concerned about the Clinton bandwagon. John Edwards, the defeated Democrat candidate for vice-president last year who is touring key states in his own barely-veiled drive for the 2008 nomination, observed in a recent interview: "I think talking about a front-runner four years before an election is ridiculous."
"Mr Clinton said: "Either this guy believes his party is not serious and he's totally Machiavellian, or he may be blinded by self-loathing."
Clinton is surely a world-class authority on subterfuge, disingenuineness, Machiavellian tactics, and self-loathing.
The Liberal Senator from New York. enuff said
bookmarked till the a.m. side...
BINGO! Add the cover of the MSM and it will be like she is a virgin all over again.
Don't cry for me,
America.
I want to,
Control you,
Severely.
It's for your own good,
You don't need freedom,
You need my guidance.
You need my Love.
Kerry had the cover of the MSM, didn't help did it ?
#19.
Thanks for those insights. Will help when, living in NYC, there are many chances to defend our side in conversation...need the facts...hard to stay civil but must.
That's what I think! Otherwise we'll have to keep digging out more dirt about her for 3 years. LOL, come to think of it, she is probably creating more right now!!
.
The Fight against the Enemy Within HILLARY is worth EVERYTHING.
"HILLARY will not become President of the United States, no matter the cost"
...was my Year 2003 statement to my neighbors as I left my house of 26 years, and my SANTA house of 20 years, after having to sell it and becoming a renter...
...just to continue the Fight full time on line and on Talk Radio/TV against HILLARY for Free.
Because it means...
...EVERYTHING...!!!
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
(House Photo)
And the water's just fine, man.
.
"Lets not do this cunning little runt any favors....."
Cunning little Runt...
Are you sure you didn't get a couple letters misplaced here?
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Getting banned is not my goal....ye are correct !!....:o)
yeah,..."who're ya gonna believe , me , or yer lyin' eyes?" Bubba
I'm not worried how many votes she'll get; I'm worried how many she'll manufacture. While we have the majority, we need to improve the election system to secure the ballot, count our military votes, and get rid of rules that allow unverified people to vote at the last minute.
Wow, what a demise for wildman33. He didn't even get a proper zot/banning. He just never existed.
.
...Right on, ntnychik, as 9/11 was all HILLARY & CLINTON's fault...
...as they and SANDY BERGER refused 3 Free Offers from the Sudan during the 1990's to give us our No. 1 Terrorist Enemy OSAMA bin LADEN on a silver platter before he could hit us hard here after they left the White House.
The Enemy is now Within...
and always has been.
.
.
RICK RESCORLA went down with the World Trade Center's Tower 2 after his getting almost everybody else outta there:
http://www.RickRescorla.com
.
we could have pinned 9-11 on the Clinton's. Eight years of his stewardship of the nation's military and intelligence apparatus led directly to 9-11, 7 months after he left office. we didn't, instead we sought "unity" after 9-11 only to see the Dems trying to blame it on Bush and Rice a couple of years later. Even after seeing this, we still let Sandy Berger off the hook. And we allowed Bill Clinton to rebuild his image with things like the tsunami relief and papal funeral visits.
If Hillary wins in 2008, much of the blame goes to the poor political apparatus of the white house during these two terms on issues like this.
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