Clinton Camp Fires Back Over Novak Column

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/Reuters

By REUTERS
Published: November 17, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Democratic rivals for president tore into each other on Saturday after a conservative columnist asserted front-runner Hillary Clinton claimed to have damaging information about Barack Obama.

The Clinton campaign denied the accusation, saying Obama's reaction to the vaguely worded column by Robert Novak played into Republican hands and showed the Illinois senator's lack of political savvy. Obama's team later said they took the Clinton campaign at its word but bristled at the idea they fell for Republican tricks and should not have fought back against "smear politics" in the race for the presidency in the November 2008 election.

Clinton, a senator from New York and the wife of former President Bill Clinton, has been the target of frequent attacks by Obama and some of the other Democratic contenders for the White House over her ability to deliver straight answers.

Novak, a syndicated columnist, wrote: "Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it." Novak did not specify the information or give more details about its source....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-usa-politics-o...

[durrrty libby]

1. "Obama's reaction to the vaguely worded column by Robert Novak played

into Republican hands and showed the Illinois senator's lack of political savvy."

Nailed it

[Rockerdem]

15. Huh??

There was no "vaguely worded" assertion in the Novak column. He wrote "Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama."

That's not vague ... it's pretty blunt.

The question is, is it true coming from Novak?

I'll make one thing clear on my part: if I ever find out that Hillary or her staff helped drive my man out of the primary with any effort bordering on the shady, I'm staying home next Novemeber. It's one thing to be bare-knuckled against Rethugs. It's another to undercut another loyal black party leader. Frankly, I don't trust the woman.

[rodeodance]

2. ha -this makes it to a Reuters news piece!

[rodeodance]

3. CLINTON'S ACTUAL RESPONSE HERE:

Forum Name Hillary Clinton Supporters Group
Topic subject Clinton campaign's response to Obamas statement on Novak hit piece...
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
445, Clinton campaign's response to Obamas statement on Novak hit piece...
Posted by rodeodance on Sat Nov-17-07 12:54 PM

Forum Name General Discussion: Politics
Topic subject Clinton campaign's response to Obamas statement on Novak hit piece...
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
3730742, Clinton campaign's response to Obamas statement on Novak hit piece...
Posted by SaveElmer on Sat Nov-17-07 12:49 PM


"Once again Senator Obama is echoing Republican talking points, this time from Bob Novak. This is how Republicans work. A Republican leaning journalist runs a blind item designed to set Democrats against one another. Experienced Democrats see this for what it is. Others get distracted and thrown off their games. Voters should be concerned about the readiness of any Democrat inexperienced enough to fall for this. There is only one campaign in this race that has actually engaged in the very practice that Senator Obama is decrying, and it's his. We have no idea what Mr. Novak's item is about and reject it totally. Instead of pointing fingers at us, Senator Obama should get back to the issues and focus on what this election is really about."



Democrats again fall for a rw disinformation campaign...

[Jim Sagle]

4. This is one DAMN good thing about Clinton that is NOT true about Obama: She's an unapologetic

PARTISAN DEMOCRAT. This is why she's my second choice, and Obama's below Biden, Dodd and Richardson in my estimation.

It's all good: Now that the empty suit has tubed, the REAL Dem (Edwards) gets to go 1 on 1 with the empty pantsuit.

[Rageneau]

5. HRC always hits back. That's why she'll win.

Above even political philosophy, I voters most prize someone who's ready to fight when fighting is called for. Neither Kerry nor Gore ever fought back during their campaigns. Bill Clinton did, abd so does Hillary. That's why she's going to win.

[AX10]

8. That is why I want Hillary over Obama.

You have to strike back. Gore and Kerry never did.

[Top08Gear_com]

31. Obama too timid

Obama has gotten stuck in the "Nice Guy" slot and is struggling between trying to keep all the supporters he's brought to his camp through this nice guy label, while still standing up strong enough to attract NEW supporters and convince others that he has the strength to lead.

It's a tough road and unfortunately for Obama, I'm not sure there's enough time left to turn the tide and show enough strength at this point.

[ohio2007]

16. But which does she prefer? diamonds or pearls? Isn't THAT the issue ?

planted softballs is no way to debate real issues.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/15/225040/11


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/questions...
I mean...
Why not demand an answer from ALL canidates the same question

[dave29]

6. Nice Triangulation.

Obama gets backed into a corner. If he doesn't respond, he's damned (looks weak). If he does, he's damned (looks inexperienced).

It's too bad that the other two corners of the triangle were Hillary Clinton and Robert Novak. Can't say I'm surprised in the least.

[maddiejoan]

7. Obama should have attacked Novak

That was his screw up.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

18. Clinton should have attacked Novak if he was spreading false stories about her

That she didn't looks awfully suspicious.

[maddiejoan]

22. Clinton responded to Obama

Because Obama attacked her.

Next.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

23. And said nothing to the guy who started a false story about her. Next. nt

[maddiejoan]

24. Why should she?

So it could be brought to greater attention?

you're really grasping.

[emilyg]

9. He looks weak now. Welcome to DU.

[aquart]

10. So you believe Bob Novak?

Because he's honest and trustworthy and only has our best interests at heart? Because this item doesn't exist anywhere else, does it?

BTW, I have this fabulous bridge that is going amazingly cheap because it only needs a few repairs and you know this government, they'll junk it before they fix it. I can let you have it for $29.99. But I only take PayPal.

[rAVES]

11. Anyone who wants can have damaging information on Clinton; Her record.,

[xchrom]

12. bob novak and others of his ilk must love this. nt

[ClintonTyree]

13. Why is Novakula still a "respected columnist"?

The guy is a proven liar and Reich-Wing shill. Why the hell do newspapers continue to give this dried up, lying old corpse space in their papers?

Damned Liberal Media!

[xchrom]

14. that's what i want to know?

you can't get more discredited than novakula -- and yet...

[wordpix]

19. and why isn't this repuke shill in JAIL for outing a CIA undercover agent?

that's where this criminal belongs

[la la]

27. Novak is

a gossip columnist--that's all.

If he can screw up the works, he will, with rumor and innuendo.

[ClarkUSA]

17. Clinton surrogates plant swiftboat story with Novak. Obama performs Clinton smackdown.

Nice defensive talking point from Hillaryworld, though. Fact, is -- what else are they gonna say?

Lesson: Don't f*ck with Obama, Hillary. He'll come right back atcha the next time you try this, too.

[durrrty libby]

26. lol nonsensical spin

[leftynyc]

30. You sound very confused

You really think Obama looks good in this? Taking Novak's word? It does show his inexperience. Novak played him for a fool and he bought it hook, line and sinker.

[0007]

20. Talk about taking a page right out of the Republican playbook!

I'm losing respect for Hillary by the minute.

[Peace Patriot]

21. All three--NYT, Clinton, Obama--thus legitimize Robert Novak, who should be

shunned and condemned, if not prosecuted for treason, for outing a CIA agent and an entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation network, putting all of its agents/contacts in peril of their lives, disabling all projects, and putting the American people and other people in danger from illicit weapons traffic. This is how our rotten political establishment works to oppress us all, but particularly to oppress the million innocent people whom Novak's pals slaughtered in Iraq, the thousands they have tortured--most of them innocent, but, really, who knows?, since they haven't been charged with anything--and the millions of Iraqi refugees and those suffering from civil chaos and vast corruption, brutality and fear.

They support and legitimize each other. They call Novak a "columnist"--when he is, in truth, a complete jerk, a government propagandist and a traitor to our country. They call Bush "President of the United States" when both of his elections were demonstrably stolen. They talk about Congress as if it were a legitimate, representative body, when--by means of an action of Congress*--barely a one of its members can prove that he or she was actually elected. And they all bow in reverence to the New York Times, a shit rag that LIED THROUGH ITS TEETH, day after day, on its front pages, shoveling disinformation from the Bush Junta to its readers, about non-existent WMDs, in order to shove this unjust, heinous war down the throats of the American people.

It is irrelevant whether Clinton has "dirt" on Obama. What is really going on here is that we are all being sucked back into the treason machine, and focused hypnotically on completely unreliable sources of information--both the NYT and Novak, both of whom have lied to us, repeatedly, and helped drag us into war, by lies, lies and more lies--and who seek to repair their shredded mantle of journalistic "authority" so they can lie to us again, on the next war profiteering project.

Novak not only outed a CIA agent and an entire counter-proliferation network, at Karl Rove's behest, this little worm is a disreputable character from way back, involved in McCarthyite "anti-communist" witch-hunts against union leaders, in the 1970s, and even against Chilean ambassador, Orlando Letelier, who had been car-bombed in Washington DC, after the fascist dictator Pinochet and the CIA toppled Chile's elected leftist government and killed its president, Salvador Allende. Letelier's body parts were strewn all over the streets of our capital, and Novak then tried to smear his reputation, postmortem--when he couldn't defend himself--as agent of the "communist conspiracy."

If Clinton and Obama were NOT both part of the massive shit pile of body parts and money that Washington DC has become, they would not confirm or deny something that Robert Novak wrote. They would simply say, "Consider the source." And if the NYT were not also steeped in carnage and corruption, they would not report it, or they would report it thus: "Fascist writer Robert Novak, known for his McCarthyite 'anti-communist' smears in the 1970s, and his sympathies with the heinous Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and whom some consider a traitor to the United States for his role in outing a CIA agent and an entire CIA counter-proliferation network, claims that the Hillary Clinton camp has 'dirt' on rival Barak Obama. Both campaigns issued a three-word reply to this latest Novak garbage: 'Consider the source.'"

But no, they all play the game that this McCarthyite traitor and evil-doer is a legitimate political commentator, because, in truth, they are all tools of the fascist/corporate junta that has seized our government.

[hayu_lol]

25. All one can say about Novak is this:

Perhaps, again this year in New Hampshire, Novak will be deep in his cups again and start a fight with someone who is willing to finish it.

Novak is brave, except when out in public where he is exposed.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

28. Obama is falling for RePUKE dirty tricks. Not ready for prime time nt

nt

[itcfish]

29. I Know Something Bad About

You but I am not going to say what it is. Nah nah nah. Does this sound like a 3rd grader or what? If Clinton knew something that would assure her nomination and it was not a personal issue (like a bj) I am sure she would have used it. This is politcs. Geez. Novak wanted to start a rumor and everyone fell for it.

[hayu_lol]

32. All parties to this should have recognized the source...

Bob Novak. He and his 'unnamed agents' story. He had no problem committing treason with Plame-Wilson but in this case, he used the 'unnamed agents' ploy.

If untrue, perhaps one of these involved parties should sue him and force his hand in court. Perhaps some of the unknown agents have names and connections...to Rove perhaps, or even higher.

[closeupready]

33. What sort of damaging information?

?? Is there any indication of what it may be? Is it the same story the LA Times is alleged to have?

Bob Novak is not credible, in any event.