Posted 9:33 AM by Scoobie Davis

Notes of a Former Clinton Defender
Using this blog, I have had considerable success addressing many of the right-wing operatives were responsible for some particular noxious smear campaigns against Bill and Hillary Clinton during the 1990's. I challenged Matt Drudge about his libel of former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal. I had an on-air confrontation of Bill O'Reilly about his boss Roger Ailes' attempts to implicate the Clintons in Vince Foster's death. I confronted Rush Limbaugh about his lies about Al Gore. I turned the tables on Sean Hannity's attacks on Bill Clinton's sex life and also used Hannity's radio show to address Jerry Falwell's dirty tricks against the Clintons. I have successfully engaged in "hacktivism" against Fox News, Fox News operatives (click here, here, and here), as well as against anti-Clinton Scaife operatives, Christopher Ruddy and Joseph Farah, who were major players in what journalist Trudy Lieberman called "the Vince Foster Factory." I exposed Ann Coulter's book Slander as a literary fraud. I know all about the anti-Clinton right's mendacity and wild conspiracy theories.

During the past several years, particularly during the 2008 primary campaign, Hillary and her campaign has begun to work with many of these operatives as a part of her "kitchen sink" strategy to win the Democratic nomination:

• Hillary recently had a meeting with the editorial board of Richard Mellon Scaife's vanity paper Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. During the meeting, Hillary sat next to Scaife, the billionaire crank who bankrolled the Arkansas Project and who was a believer in the "Clinton Body Count" which posits that the Clintons are responsible for the murders of dozens of people. Scaife funded various operatives, namely Joseph Farah and Christopher Ruddy, who were propagating the various Vince Foster conspiracy theories. Also, Scaife's Tribune-Review continued to carry white supremacist Samuel Francis' column even after the Washington Times dropped it.


• Bill Clinton appeared on Rush Limbaugh's radio program right before the Ohio primary. Limbaugh has been a major Vince Foster conspiracy theorist who has spewed hate on his radio program (Limbaugh has continued to suggest that the Clintons will kill those who get in their way years after those theories were discredited). Limbaugh has a parody song on his radio show that mocked Vince Foster's death. Currently, Limbaugh is encouraging listeners to vote for Hillary in the primaries as a part of "Operation Chaos," an attempt to cause massive infighting within the Democratic Party.


• The Clinton campaign used the Drudge Report to circulate the picture of Obama in traditional Somali garb (Drudge has previously libelled former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal, spread the false rumor that then-Enron CEO Ken Lay slept in the Clinton White House, spread the rumor started by Moon's Washington Times that Bill Clinton blamed 9/11 on America, and helped to popularize the Bill Clinton/Black Love Child rumor).


• The Clinton campaign has been distributing an article from the American Spectator that makes highly questionable accusations about an Obama adviser. The Spectator was subsidized by Scaife to publish the phony Troopergate story (the story led to the Paula Jones lawsuit and impeachment). Also, the Spectator libeled Anita Hill.


• Hillary and her campaign have been close to Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. Hillary has been close to Murdoch in recent years. A few days ago, Clinton campaign surrogate Ed Rendell complimented Fox on its "balanced" and "objective" reporting. Not only is Fox News a political operation, but its CEO and chairman Roger Ailes had spread conspiracy theories about Vince Foster's death and was the producer of Rush Limbaugh's television show that portrayed then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton as the White House dog.


• Hillary recently endorsed Sun Myung Moon's Universal Peace Federation. Not only has the depraved cult leader exploited his followers financially, psychologically, and sexually, but Moon has used his ill-gotten money to engage in dirty tricks against Democratic presidential candidates.


• As I pointed out last year, Hillary had previously approached one of Sun Myung Moon's top operatives, Josette Sheeran Shiner, and cajoled Shiner to carry her syndicated column on the editorial pages of Moon's Washington Times.

Why are the Clintons and their campaign consorting with this assortment of lowlifes and paranoids? I can only speculate. One of the ironies of this is that Hillary unwittingly gives credibility to the paranoid rants by Limbaugh and company that she will do anything to gain power.

What Hillary and her people have done is unconscionable. I realize that in practical politics, it is sometimes necessary to associate with some unsavory characters but couldn't the Clinton people at least think back to what these people put Vince Foster's family through during their time of mourning?

Not only is it unconscionable but from a strategic standpoint, it's horrendous. Hillary's campaign got chummy with these right-wing operatives because they believed that they would help her win the nomination. It ain't gonna happen. Anyone who knows elementary math knows that Hillary's chances of garnering the nomination have been close to nil for the past few weeks. Hillary receives nothing by becoming chummy with people who have run roughshod over the American political process, destroyed lives, victimized people in mourning, encouraged the undermining of American elections, and debased American journalism. On the other hand, these bottom-feeders have benefited immeasurably by having a Democratic presidential campaign accord them legitimacy. The point is that any progressives who think they can work with the likes of Scaife, Ailes, Limbaugh, and Moon are kidding themselves. They are people who need to be discredited, marginalized, and defeated.