Republicans launch twin attacks to stop Hillary's return to the White House
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."
Understand that this is the "Two-Party Cartel" & the same elites own both factions & they have no intentions of allowing a conservative agenda to be established.
Holy cats, did he explode? He sounded like his head was about to pop from some new nervous disorder, Hillercide or something.
He was made an un-person.
But...but I thought we owned Diebolt?!?!?!???
I know there is a fat chance in getting a republican to win her Senate seat
But is there a Dem candidate that can knock her out of the race?
The twinkle in that soldier's eye is marvelous -- what a moment!
Funny how the number of groups FOR Hillary totals "666".
If Bill Clinton was NOT a homophobe, there would be no basis for his comment. Would you condem someone for breathing, sleeping, sneezing? So for Bubba to bring that up, he has to believe it's NOT normal and that it's worthy of scorn. Bubba is a homophobe, as are Al Gore and Pete Stark. They went homobhopic when it suited them too.
I've read elsewhere that Ed Klein is a Democrat, which would seem to be a pertinent fact given the thesis of this article.
Republicans launch twin attacks to stop Hillary's return to the White House
This is a BIG mistake.
I never got to read any of his posts. Just here to witness the cleanup.
He was a glitch in the matrix.
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