Monday Reads: the Hillary Factor
Posted: May 19, 2014 Filed under: 2014 elections, 2016 elections, Hillary Clinton, morning reads, right wing hate grouups 73 CommentsGood Morning!
The Republicans are seriously flipping out at the thought of President Hillary Clinton. I didn’t watch the Sunday talking head shows but I certainly followed the follow-up fallout. Reince Prebius is literally pissing his Little Lord Fauntleroy suits in anticipation of the 2016 race.
By repeating the claim over and over again that she won’t run, RNC chairman Reince Priebus admitted that the Republican goal is to smear Hillary Clinton into not running for president.
Priebus claimed that Clinton’s age and health are fair game. The RNC chairman said, “What was her record as Secretary of State? Benghazi, Boko Haram, you know, Syria, Russia, those are going to be the issues that I believe will cause her to rethink whether or not she wants to run for president.”
Later he said, “What I think is going to make her rethink whether she should actually run for president. By the way, I don’t think she will if she has another month like she just had, but the issues that I talked about are the issues that are going to make her unacceptable to the American people.”
Priebus denied the that issue is to convince her not to run, then he claimed that Clinton is trying to sweep Benghazi under the rug, and he repeated, “My view though is David, is that given the month she just had, actually I doubt very much that she will run for president in 2016.”
The man who should be in front of a firing squad for lying us into war, violating our torture agreements, and ignoring all the intelligence leading up to 9/11 even crawled out from the Wyoming caves long enough to snarl Benghazi! Like this guy doesn’t need a full out investigation leading to his arrest and imprisonment. When do we get to hold Bush/Cheney inc responsible for all their screw ups?
Dick Cheney, the former vice president who was in office during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and later pushed the country into war with Iraq based on faulty intelligence, said on Sunday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be “held accountable” for four Americans that died during a terrorist attack in Benghazi.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Cheney if Clinton “did anything wrong,” and if she should be “held responsible for the events surrounding that attack.”
“She was secretary of state at the time that it happened,” Cheney opined. “She was one of the first in Washington to know about it. I think she clearly bears responsibility for whatever the State Department did or didn’t do with respect to that crisis.”
“I do think it’s a major issue,” he added. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it yet, and I expect that she will be held accountable during the course of the campaign.”
Cheney’s wife, Lynne, who was also on the program also doubled down on her recent suggestion that Hillary Clinton had conspired with Vanity Fair to publish an article by Monica Lewinsky to get the issue out of the way before a 2016 presidential run.
“I was really paying the Clintons a large compliment,” she insisted. “I was saying how clever they are politically. And it seemed to me, if you had something that might come up during the campaign that would be damaging, it was very smart to get it out of the way early.”
“So, that’s my case, Chris, and I’m staying with it.”
The totally irrelevant Karl Rove continued his spiel on Fox. He’s been so consistently wrong on things recently that you’d think even the Fox vacuum tube would burst.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Rove said the Clintons are hypocritical for crying foul.
“I love President Clinton’s comments the other day,” Rove said. “Let’s remember, this is a guy who ran for office savaging Bob Dole.”
“I love being lectured by Bill Clinton,” Rove said sarcastically.
Bill Clinton didn’t necessarily lecture Rove, but he did defend his wife last week, saying she is “strong.” But the former president might have made the situation worse for his wife by saying she had a “terrible” concussion that took six months to get over. That is the first time anyone from her team has said it was a six-month recovery.
“Karl Rove is struggling to be relevant,” Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri shot back on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” calling the former Bush adviser’s super PAC, which spent more than $175 million trying to elect Republican Mitt Romney, an “abject failure.”
What is it with these men that they are so afraid of one woman? It just amazes me to see the kind of filth the kick up about her.
Bernie Sanders is questioning Hillary from the left.
Sanders says he doesn’t know whether Clinton will run or not but, like everyone, can see the direction of things this spring. He already has plenty of questions about whether the former senator and secretary of state is what he believes the times demand.
“If she does run, will she be as strong as the times require in taking on the billionaire class that has so much power? I’m not sure that she will be,” Sanders said during an interview in his Senate office. “Will she be as strong as needs be to address the crisis of climate change? I am not sure that she will be. Will she be as strong as needs be to take on the power of Wall Street? I’m not sure she will be.”
It has been widely assumed that if Clinton runs, someone who speaks for the party’s restive progressive wing could mount some kind of challenge — symbolic, gadfly or otherwise — to force a more robust discussion about economic issues and the power of Wall Street and corporate interests. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is a popular choice among many on the left to lead that effort, but she has so far demurred. Sanders is not so reticent.
He appears slightly uneasy presenting himself purely as the anti-Hillary. “I like Hillary and have known her for many years,” he said somewhat defensively after he was reminded that he recently told Jay Newton-Small of Time magazine that he would be a better president.
“What I do know about Hillary Clinton is that she has been a very strong advocate of women’s rights,” he continued. “I respect that. She and I have worked together on some issues regarding children. She’s been a strong advocate of children. I have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton.”
But it’s clear his respect has limits when it comes to the core issues that long have animated his politics. “These are extraordinary times, which require a boldness and an aggressiveness that I’m not sure her past history suggests is there,” Sanders said. “I am not sure that she has been — ” He paused and caught himself. “Well, that’s all. I’m going to leave it at that.”
I do worry about the “inevitability” factor raising its head again. That caused a lot of democratic pols to search out other candidates. Will we see some of the same?
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said he is concerned about the “inevitability” factor with a potential Clinton nomination.
“I do worry about the inevitability thing,” Patrick said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that it’s “off-putting to the … average voter.”
“I think that was an element of her campaign the last time,” he said, without having to specify how that turned out (Barack Obama won). “I just hope that the people around her pay attention to that this time around.”
All of this effort is pure speculation at the moment anyway since Clinton still is coy about her future. I also hope we can continue to focus on the 2014 elections and the need to ensure we don’t see the Republicans win the Senate Majority. There is still a good chance that the ever scarier Repubican loonies could do it. Right now many folks are saying there are 48 seats leaning towards each party and about 4 are a toss up. This is the outlook from Larry Sabato.
The calculated takeaway is this: As of now, Democrats are clear underdogs in the two states where they want to play offense. They also are probably no better than 50-50 in any of the seven red states where they are defending seats, and drowning in a couple. A big enough wave could cut into the blue states, too, although probably not as deeply as Republicans fantasize. Put it all together, and the current forecast calls for a wave that’s more than a ripple but less than a tsunami — a four to eight-seat addition for the Republicans, with the higher end of the range being a shade likelier than the lower.
So, I’m really worried about all of this. I don’t want to experience the absolute misogyny again and I certainly don’t want the right wing religious whackos in office. I think we really need to work on GOTV for the fall and try to get off the 2016 races already!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
That Dickwad Dick Cheney’s comments made me so mad when I read them, and his smirk as he said em…ugh!
On a related issue, Y’all remember the Ted Rall cartoon I posted this Friday:
Well read this:
The 9/11 museum’s absurd gift shop | New York Post
See the rest and the pictures of this shit at the link.
And also regarding the whole Hillary Benghazi thing: Popular Conservative Website Tries and Fails to Debunk Our ’13 Benghazis’ Article | BobCesca.com | News and Politics Blog and Podcast | We Cover the World
read the rest please…
It’s a Barnum & Bailey world. Nothing is sacred if there is a greenback to be made.
Shit, have y’all see this? On August 1, 2014, Russia plans to kill the Internet
Any word from Greenwald about this? As the blog post goes on, the blogger is concerned about using this against LGBTs in Russia….
I’ve been posting about that for months. Don’t expect any objections from Greenwald. In fact Cryptome is now accusing Greenwald and Poitras of some kind of psy-op and Snowden of actually being a spy (I’m not sure if they think he’s a US black op or Russian sympathizer, but the entire movement is falling apart over Greenwald’s naked greed and refusal to post docs about domestic spying.
They also say security is lax for the people who now have the Snowden docs, and most likely those have been accessed by governments.
With Wikileaks, Anonymous, and Cryptome all being against GG, I think there soon will be insider revelations from the Greenwald cult. Why did Marcy Wheeler quit anyway?
Cryptome is even suggesting that Jill Abramson was fired because of openness to publishing Snowden docs. Thinks Mark Thompson is the enforcer. “UK architect” = Thompson
There appears to be evidence now that Snowden was at the crypto conference in Hawaii before he accessed the rest of the data he wanted at Booz Allen. Poitras and Applebaum were at the conference, and could have told Snowden what (and how?) to steal. I wrote about it last July.
Booz Allen is where he got all the names of employees of NSA and CIA. Greenwald may just be patsy — cover for what they were up to, or maybe really involved. He does hate the U.S. passionately.
Greenwald as a patsy…oh just the thought of how that would make him feel…with his ego, to realize that he was taken for the ride…mmmm.
Let me enjoy the thought for a moment.
Why should he care? He’s corrupted by the money at this point.
There’s a lot more than the internet in that article. It covers a lot of bases.
Putin is using Snowden and his “revelations” to wrest control of the internet from the U.S. and get other countries to do the same. At the same time, Putin/Kremlin can choose to allow whatever content they want. But the Russian public will be cut off from free information they had before–like a new “iron curtain.”
It’s ultra creepy that Putin also seems to be using homophobia to unite Russians so they’ll focus on that rather than the fact that they are becoming less and less free. It’s like what Hitler did.
Oh I know you have been on top of it BB, I was being snarky about that GG comment. lol
I haven’t heard about the Cryptome thing…That surely would be something if all the shit hits the Greenwald fan.
I think Greenwald is the one person who will get away rich and scot free. I expect some of his other journalist pals are going to get screwed too.
I agree
Great post, Dak. I love that photo of Hillary at the top, looking smug.
Thx. I’ve been amazed at how the Rethugs think rehashing a bunch of made up crap is going to scare her off making history.
They really don’t have anything else so they’ll just make it up as they go along.
Agree. Look at all the votes Hillary got in 2008, and the x-over we were seeing and hearing about from Republican women (and moderate Republican men). They are just blowing smokescreens. It’s going to be one innuendo after another to the point of Why Would That S* B* Run? Yawn.
As for Bill & his 6-months recovery remark, that’s not alarming. That’s just standard medical advice for anyone who’s hit their head, even if mild and no loss of consciousness. We just don’t want patients in a position where they’re likely to get another hit in the next few months. Simple headaches are very common in even mild head injuries, and can recur for longer than 6 months. Anyone ever broken a nose playing sports? That can give you headaches afterwards for months, too. Hillary has no signs of anything concerning for long-term damage.
Rove can go blather about something else or just shut up. Yes, he’s irrelevant now, which must make him irritable.
” Anyone ever broken a nose playing sports?” Yes….The black eyes were gone in about 4-6 weeks, but It took me months to quit having headaches. And I had nose bleeds for a while after the injury too.
I’m glad you brought that point up Luna because that will be exactly the argument the Hillary camp will retaliate with . My grandson played 2nd team QB on his HS team last year, he got knocked out during a game near the end of the season and the Doc recommended he not finish the season. I’m no medical person, but head trauma is nothing to mess around with.
It took me a good 6 months to recover from a broken elbow and longer to straighten and strengthen it so I was back to “normal.”
Great post, Dak, in an article by Julian Zelizer, history and public affairs professor of Princeton, he states that the Republicans have actually done Hill a favor by getting all their ‘concerns’ out now. His belief is that it will all be old hat and irrelevant by the time the campaigning (when people are paying attention) is upon us.
That makes sense. I hope it turns out that way.
Well it’s for damn sure the GOP can’t come up with anything they haven’t already said a million times. The most recent Hillary bashing point called “Benghazi” has become a big whiff, now they’re trying to paint her as a decrepit medical case. If she runs she’ll knock that notion out of the park after the first debate.
Benghazi!!! Brain damage!!! Bad haircut!!! Get ready, everyone.
Cankles! Wrinkles! Grand baby as prop!
It doesn’t matter what Hillary does or doesn’t do, they will attack her because that’s what they do. She’s a woman and to their mind NO WOMAN is qualified to be POTUS or any other position that confers power. She was attacked for her business dealings while at the Rose Law firm. She was attacked for her activism during her term as First Lady of Arkansas. She was attacked for attempting to put together a healthcare reform plan. She was attacked when Vince Foster died because the Rush-heads thought he was killed because he was having an affair with Hillary. She was later attacked because her bold manner reminded the right of a Lesbian. The lesbian rumor has followed her ever since even into the SOS job. They accused her of sabotaging Ron Brown’s plane, apparently Brown “knew too much”. They attacked her for not leaving Bill over his dalliances. They attacked her when she ran for U.S. Senator from NY because they hated her “lesbian like” ambition and her “audacity” to change her residence in order to run. They hated her while she was in the U.S. Senate. They hated her tireless advocacy for women and children. Especially if those she was advocating for weren’t U.S. citizens. They hated her hair, her paint suits, her make up, her glasses, her shoes, her makeup of lack of makeup, her laugh, her walk, her mannerisms, her INTELLIGENCE. But most of all they hated her because they thought she was an uppity woman. HELL YEAH!!!! Any woman who dares to defend other women, work for equality and protections in the law for women and children, supports choice, L/G’s and Healthcare reform is an uppity woman.
Great post about political ratf*ckery …
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Burglarizing_Private_Lives
Having been a lesser victim of that crap, I can only imagine, be appalled, and weep for the victims.
It took me a while to see through some of the blogger/commenter charades, you know that meme of the “disaffected Democratic” or the “Democratic party left me” crowd who then jumps on the Tea Party bandwagon and/or defends the TP, TP female candidates and the Fox ravings of the Snow Queen all in the name of the “injustice to Hillary”. If Hillary decides to run I expect those same people (likely with new nyms) to be crawling out of the woodwork to bash her.
Mouse, you don’t have to be psychic to see it happening. ( Wink )
I know exactly where you’re coming. They are springing forth, or trying to spring forth, even as we type. Apparently the crystal ball business is weak. (wink-wink)
It is a brainwashing/propaganda technique. Something that we studied in high school back in the 60s. Of course, most of those posters are paid one way or another.
Regarding the Calhoun HS gang rape case in Georgia, I reviewed the Board of Education calendar, seeing that they were meeting tomorrow, I called to ask if they would have issue of gang rape on their agenda. The board member told me school was out, and they would not be discussing this, as the police are investigating and it happened in another County. I really felt like they were covering their asses. I asked if they had spoken to families, or shared information on the rights of students, and rape victims. I also asked if they would be talking to the student protestors, and their families about Title IX as it relates to sexual violence. I was assured that they were doing everything to protect students and promote safe environment for them. I asked if they were providing counselors to students, and was told they have counselors.
It seems like to me this would follow the rules set forth in Title IX……….
Last week BB shared the list of college campuses that have been noted to be in violations of Title IX. Robin Hattersly who compiled that information, suggested reading pages 3 and 4 of “Dear Colleague Letter: Sexual Violence”. I thought to share this with regarding Title IX in relation to High Schools. FYI
Click to access colleague-201104.pdf
FBI Wary Of Possible Russian Spies Lurking In U.S. Tech Sector (Target: Boston)
http://www.rferl.org/content/fbi-wary-of-possible-russian-spies-in-lurking-in-us-tech-sector/25388490.html
Actual charges filed here…
CBS: U.S. files economic espionage charges against Chinese military hackers
Yeah, that’s interesting.
WHY JILL ABRAMSON WAS FIRED: PART THREE
POSTED BY KEN AULETTA
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/05/why-jill-abramson-was-fired-part-three.html?utm_source=www&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=20140518
And . . . Twitter quickly caved to Russian demands for censorship.
Twitter Blocks Pro-Ukrainian Political Account for Russian Users
http://mashable.com/2014/05/19/twitter-blocks-account-russia/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link
Twitter seems like a bunch of tools.
They’re no worse than Yahoo or Google. They’ll all cave if it means losing money.
Yes but twitter is so self-righteous about it before they cave 🙂
Dak, like you I didn’t watch Sunday talk shows, but caught this peice early this morning from Dancing Dave. Here’s Carly Fiorina claiming liberals have a war against women:
http://crooksandiars.com/2014/05/Fiorina-blames-liberals-using-women
facepalm
headdesk
Too many friends worked for HP for me to ever take a single word from Fiorina seriously.
Ooops:
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/fiorina-blames-liberals-using-women
Talk about behind the times when it comes to women – the senate has 16 democratic women to 4 republican women – 4 times as many women in senate, and the house has 60 democratic women, and 19 republicans……..three times as many women are dems. What a hypocrite she is. The republicans have been suppressing the right to vote, they unanimously voted against the equal pay bill. They voted against the Violence Against Women’s Act. They filibustered the vote on Federal minimum wage increase. They voted to defund programs like Food Stamps, Snap, and WIC programs. They have voted against ACA 54 times, and refuse to allow women to gain access to health care, and reproductive services.
Here’s a woman that wrecked HP, and caused over 30,000 people to lose jobs, and thousands and thousands more jobs that went overseas. The day she was let go, HP stocks went up considerably. Not to mention that she walked away from the table with a 25 million package/compensation. She was chair of the CPAC “War of Words” back in March when she and Huckabee got up to speak about good old uncle Same and women’s libido.
Read the comments at the blog.
G.O.P.: EVIL MASTERMIND BEHIND BENGHAZI IS FRAIL OLD WOMAN WITH BRAIN DAMAGE
POSTED BY ANDY BOROWITZ
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport
Hahahahahahaha! In what possible world? I will look forward to when I can get out the popcorn and watch the exploding heads!
Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Miles O’Brien slam CNN as the ‘Wal-Mart of journalism’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/19/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-miles-obrien-slam-cnn-as-the-wal-mart-of-journalism/#.U3pOb-dvyUA.facebook
Pando Daily has hired me, by Ted Rall
http://rall.com/2014/05/19/pando-daily-has-hired-me
That’s a mistake!
Why?
An utter lack of nuance. He’s like getting hit in the head with a hammer. I don’t like that in either a cartoonist or editorialist.
NBA Formally Tells Sterling of Vote to Strip Him of Clippers
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-19/nba-formally-tells-sterling-of-vote-to-strip-him-of-clippers.html
AP: Federal Judge Strikes down Oregon ban on same-sex marriage.
Everybody Dance!!!!!!
They are falling like dominoes!
The States that lined up the Dominoes banning same sex marriage through referendum, in their State Constitution or through their State Legislators asked for this.
Yes they did and thankfully the courts are saying no to denying rights.
Louisiana’s ban is being challenged as are the bans in every other state. I’m ready to get married as soon as my State’s ban is lifted and every day makes me more confident that it will.
I can’t wait for them to take down Louisiana’s ban.
Wonderful, get on the good foot.
Even my old ass jumped for joy.
Let’s Dance the Last Dance. You have to be gay to fully appreciate what Donna Summer’s music meant to the LGBTQ community.
And then there was this, the all time favorite at the Women’s bars
Hope I’m not too much in people’s face with it!! NOT
Not at all! I’m dancin’ with ya!
I love it, Mouse!
Luv it too.
A snippet from the Judge’s Decision:
Judge Michael McShane (who is “openly gay” by the way) ignited a fury on the right who say he should have recused himself because he’s “openly gay”.
“Oregon recognizes a marriage of love with the same equal eye that it recognizes a marriage of convenience. It affords the same set of rights and privileges to Tristan and Isolde that it affords to a Hollywood celebrity waking up in Las Vegas with a blurry memory and a ringed finger. It does not, however, afford these very same rights to gay and lesbian couples who wish to marry within the confines of our geographic borders.” – US District Court Judge Michael McShane,
At one of the first Gay Pride Week marches held in Nashville the Fred Phelps tribe showed up. This was well before they became well known for picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers. Fred Phelps himself was in the picket line protesting what he called “Queers” and “Faggots” “Sodom and Gomorrah”. They taunted that march and every person in it from the beginning of it until the end, shouting insults and following the marchers from the start of the march until the very last marcher finished the march route. I will never forget how composed and calm the LGBT community was that day and how foolish, petty and wicked the Westboro Baptist church looked . I don’t believe in hell, most of us live some form of hell right here on earth, but if I did believe in hell my wish would be that Fred Phelps caught a few extra flames up the ass today. 🙂
13’s a lucky number!
From JMG: Late breaking news from the ACLU: “The landmark case to win the freedom to marry in Pennsylvania is expected to be decided on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.