I'm really sad and disappointed about this whole Sid Blumenthal thing.

[WilliamPitt]

No, this isn't a "concern" post. If you don't know what I mean here, look around. Looks like Mr. Blumenthal has been working hammer and tong to proliferate all sorts of right-wing psycho rumors about Senator Obama. Y'know, the ones that say he's a Manchurian candidate Islamofascist mole who hates America when not on drugs and intends to sell the Sixth Fleet to Osama etc etc etc.

I read a lot of his books, and did a long interview with him back in '03. This part jumps out:

WRP: A great deal of what the right puts out into the mainstream news media comes from think tanks like the Heritage Foundation. They have a fearsome machine for crafting and disbursing messages. Why haven't Democrats developed the same political infrastructure the right has?

SB: In the 1980s, I studied the rise of conservative infrastructure. I wrote a book about it that was published in 1986 called 'The Rise of the Counter-Establishment.' When I was a reporter with the Washington Post, the Post published many of my reports about this. It was considered to be a revelation by people, but the right had already been devoting decades to this, and it?s been now decades since I first did that basic reporting. The right's infrastructure is now far larger than, I think, all but a few people understand.

I believe they spend about one quarter of a billion dollars a year on this infrastructure. Their funding is highly centralized and coordinated; call it a 'Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy' if you like, but it is done through a small group of people who generally direct funds to dozens of right-wing groups including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Federalist Society, and so on. There is nothing like it beyond the right.

The reason for this is that, for may years, people thought the right was on the margins, on the fringe, not to be taken seriously. Part of that is because there is very little genuine scholarship going on over on the right. There are a lot of polemics, a lot of ideological sharpshooting, a lot of tendentious studies done that use and manipulate statistics. The Heritage Foundation doesn't have a single scholar of any standing. AEI is filled with the likes of Richard Perle and Robert Bork. Liberals, if you will, believe in the broad-based institutions of American society, including universities. The right wing is doing everything it can to polarize every single institution it can, from the media to the academy, and now trying to consume even religion in its ideological wars.

You can see that through the heavily-funded, carefully targeted splitting of religions by the right, such as the Episcopal Church over the gay bishop. All of that is funded and directed, part of a strategy. Do not doubt it. Now, the Methodists are targeted. The Southern Baptists convention was turned in the 1980s. Its very theology, on the question of abortion, was altered. It was altered directly by a political aide sitting in the Reagan White House as it was being re-written. Such is the priesthood of the believer.

Democrats have only lately come to this realization that there is such a conservative infrastructure, that it has an enormous impact on politics, and that it is fully integrated into, and even taken over, parts of the Republican party.

One of the glitches in the Democratic state of mind was that the accusations against the Clintons were somehow just about the Clintons. There had to be something to it, because where there is smoke, there is fire. There were so many accusations. How could it all be untrue? After all, the Clintons came from darkest Arkansas. There had to be something wrong, some dark spot in their background. And so the Democrats believed it was about the Clintons personally. Then Al Gore ran for President, an Eagle Scout. And he was transformed into a liar and an exaggerator, though the charges against him were lies and exaggerations. Then Tom Daschle, a mild person of integrity, was demonized as lacking patriotism. Then Max Cleland, the Senator from Georgia who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was conflated with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and was too stunned and shocked even to reply. He lost his seat, the one seat that was the margin in turning the Senate.

So, the Democrats have slowly and belatedly come to the realization that the whole campaign to grab power against them may not be about individual persons and their foibles. Maybe its about power itself, and the Republican impulse and will to power.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120803A.shtml

I don't have any bad feelings because he's working for Senator Clinton; I'd be frankly surprised if he wasn't. But he gets whackeed for driving drunk, and now he's taking pages out of the very same playbook he concentrated years of scholarship on exposing and denouncing.

Bums me out.

[flpoljunkie]

1. Bums me out, as well.

[PoliticalAmazon]

60. Me, too. When he had his lawsuit against Drudge for that bogus....

..."wife-beating" story, I put the connections together right away. Then later, when Sid's attory deposed Michael Ledeen, the evidence linking them was clear.

I expended effort circulating the truth behind the Drudge story, it's origins, and it's links to Scaife. I really thought Sid was a great guy, I admired his loyalty to the Clintons, and I was glad to spread the information.

Now to see him doing this, and with the same internet news sources that crucified him during the Drudge lawsuit...all I can think of is "what a fucking whore."

BTW, Scaife gave Joe Farrah his start with Newsmax and has funded Joe's efforts over the years.

Coincidence? YOU be the judge.

[zanne]

2. Well, he's dead-on about the conservative infrastructure...

I've been reading about the slow, methodical resurgence of the right since the the 80's. It does give me a sinking feeling when someone I admire "turns". I guess that's why they say we should never put anyone up on a pedestal.

[Pirate Smile]

3. I wonder where the smear e-mails really originated.

[4themind]

4. Maybe it's the old..

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"(in tactics). Disheartening to me to see this within the party,

[Adelante]

5. I'm not bummed out, I'm past it

Since February, I haven't expected anything but low, McCarthyite behavior from the Clinton camp.

[Pirate Smile]

6. Did you see this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

edit to add - this isn't the Mickey Kantor video.

[WilliamPitt]

7. *sigh*

[madrchsod]

8. so when will this farce end?

can the adults step in and end this so we can focus on john?

john who went to iowa and said he does`t believe in farm subsidies........

[mindfulNJ]

9. fer crissakes

what is it about Hillary that makes good Dems throw away their moral authority???


I just don't get it.

[tabasco]

68. Corrupted by wealth and power.

It happens to good people.

[Marnieworld]

10. Bummed too

It's really a turning point now. It's a time where people are choosing whether to fight like their enemy to beat them at their own game or to have the courage to reject the game entirely. I personally feel that if you fight like your enemy then you become your enemy and they have won already.

It's a question of courage and vision to challenge the game and fight from a different place. This isn't my first disappointment this year and unfortunately will not be the last.

[myrna minx]

11. I was captivated by his book The Clinton Wars. Now, I am so disappointed

I don't even know what to say. He of all people should know better.

[WilliamPitt]

24. Seconded

*Loved* that book.

[speedoo]

12. The enemy of your enemy....

is not always your friend.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. The corollary

Friends are only worthwhile if they hate my enemies as much as I do.

[Triana]

13. I'm disappointed and disgusted to the point of not even voting anymore

Why bother?

EDIT: But you know I likely will vote - even if I have to write in someone who is more suitable to me than anything on the ballot. If its initials are HRC - someone else's name will be written in by me. And this Sid Blumenthal thing is just another reason why.


"The Republican impulse and will to power" - key word: REPUBLICAN. Yet now a DEMOCRAT is doing it. Same way. For the same reasons. And the irony? The ABSOLUTE IRONY is that this candidate is running on a platform of CHANGE. When it really isn't. It's the SAME OL SHIT Republicans have been doing for DECADES.

That's NOT Change! It's REPUBLICAN.

And NOW it's being done by Democrats. And NOT even against Republicans, but against OTHER DEMOCRATS.

It's UNACCEPTABLE to me. It just IS.

[speedoo]

15. I am a lot more optimistic than you are.

Obama will be the our next President.

Hillary will soon be powerless.

[Triana]

18. I would like to see the Clintons GONE from the political landscape or at least...

...well faded. I think it would be an improvement.

[speedoo]

22. I agree. Since 2000, they have been betraying Democrats.

Maybe even before 2000.

[Triana]

25. I think LONG before 2000 - we just weren't so aware of it.

See the Kantor thing for evidence.

[TahitiNut]

34. As an independent liberal, I have to laugh. Wasn't the 1994 loss of COngress enough of a CLUE???

(sheesh!) That "third way" bullshit is DESTROYING the Democratic Party. Doesn't anyone notice there's no such thing in the GOP??? Can't ANYONE see a "political false flag operation" when they see it???

I held my nose and voted for Clinton twice. My fucking nose is bruised from holding it so much! No longer.

[eridani]

61. I think it's been since HRC decided to go for the presidency

In the 90s, Bill blocked quite a few of the nastier Rethug initiatives, but he unfortunately didn't give a rat's ass about building Dem and progressive institutions.

[RainDog]

14. I feel the same way

I respected him as a journalist and read his pieces on Salon and in the Guardian UK regularly. I don't have a quarrel with his wider view of conservatism. I think he does have insight.

However, race-baiting another democrat is Bush League. He has destroyed his reputation as a decent man, no matter what his political views. To me, this is just another sign that the Hillary campaign is morally void and intellectually worthless. I wouldn't vote for her for dogcatcher in any primary or in any election... including this one because she has not earned the right to run for president. She's already lost.

Blumenthal and other Hillarybots need to pack up and go home. Their time is over.

I am SO ready to be the "post-Clinton" democratic party!

[eridani]

62. The racebaiting damages ANY Dem in the general election

Whythefuck can't he SEE that?

[H2O Man]

16. Right.

Sad and disappointed, but not really surprised. He had played a similar role in feeding information to the media about Ken Starr. I thought that was fine, because Starr & Co were "enemies" of the democratic administration. Obama is Senator Clinton's opposition in the democratic primary. Using the most vicious of tactics in this context seems in very poor taste.

[newmajority]

17. Add me to the list of the disappointed

Wasn't that long ago that I would look forward to reading a Sid Blumenthal article, or listening to one of his guest appearances on Air America.

How could someone who was so right about the Chimpministration and the war, turn out to be so goddamn wrong?

But he did. And there's no excuse for this kind of betrayal.

Fuck off and die, Sid.

[Cha]

48. And add Sidney to the ones who have sincerely

disappointed this primary.

[peacetalksforall]

19. I hope this is the end of the DLC. Face it - most of us defended the

Clintons passionately. They will always be the President and First Lady.

I hope for the end of the DLC. Everything I've learned and guessed at has come true.

I also hope there will be a book one day from either or both of them about their mistakes after the White House.

Dems don't need her now, after this, and they definitely don't need the DLC.

The DLC is bringing us down - from the crappy advice and direction they gave Gore before and right after the election, to their stupidity handling Kerry, and all the long years of their disastrous repesentation of Dems on corporate networks - especially a few select ones. When you think about it, they enabled the right by their pitiful actions and activites.

Thanks for saving and finding this interview and sharing with us, Will. We had a reason to like Blumenthal at one time.

[Triana]

26. Oh God YES. Puhleeze let it be the end of the DLC.

That also, could only be an improvement.

[KoKo]

27. ..."and all the long years of their disastrous repesentation of Dems on corporate networks"

Well said....!

[grantcart]

21. they know that it will mean the end of their power

[anitar1]

38. I pray you are right, Grantcart. n/t

[Tinksrival]

23. This whole thing is really tearing me up.

I've just been an emotional wreck these past couple of weeks. All the outrage and disgust I have built up over the years for the right wing is real personal. I have watched my country being driven into a ditch and thousands pay for it with their lives. Through it I have never given up on the American people turning away from the lies and distortions and manipulations by MSM machine and the Republicans that feed it. The 2004 election was devastating. I almost lost all hope. Election fraud again, voter suppression, 527. The 2006 elections gave me hope again that the American people can work twice as hard to overcome the evil political machines that are destroying our country. So how do I feel now seeing the ugliness exposed in my own party...... SICK. If the Clinton campaign continues to work to suppress the vote and use 527 to outright smear it will destroy the Democratic party and it will crush the movement of millions of Americans to pull this country out of the ditch and take it back.

[LSK]

28. how much of it is the entitlement feeling of Hillary?

How many have felt that this is her time now. She was supposed to be the nominee. This was her turn to be President. The GOP had messed things up in this country, she had the Clinton machine, she had an angry electorate, everything was shaping out for her to waltz into the White House. Except for Barack Obama. How dare he ruin all our plans!!!

How many Clinton supporters feel this way? How many are desperate to elect her and how many are mad at Barack for standing in her way?

[PatGund]

42. Agreed

There's way too many of Sen. Clinton's supporters - here and Salon for example - that will state their support for her in almost exactly those terms. It's "her time", he needs to "wait his turn", etc....

[kdpeters]

29. Same here.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

30. I feel even more convinced

that winning the New York Senate was a path to the White House for Hillary.

[madrchsod]

31. winning? did`t they give it to her?

obama at least had state experience before he ran. he ran against a weak candidate because the right wing republicans dumped Jack ryan and decided to run keyes over the objections of the rest of the republican party

[Lucky 13]

32. This is why I don't know if I can, in good conscience, vote for her if she is the nominee

I will try. For sure. But it will only be with me overriding every gut feeling about her.

[WeDidIt]

33. Yeah, I still ahd a lot of respect for him, even with his Clinton support

but this is just sad.

[AZ Criminal JD]

35. Save your concern for the nuts who surround Obama.

[WilliamPitt]

36. How's it going in B-ham?

One of my favorite towns. Say hi to Vulcan for me.

[AZ Criminal JD]

43. I can see Vulcan from my house.

Thanks for the props for Bham.

[Barack_America]

37. Hypocrisy is always saddening.

And it's hard to know why people cave to it.

[mmonk]

39. It's his credibility he lost. Therefore his fault. Sad? Yes.

People get carried away and lose themselves sometimes in this atmosphere.

[poebango]

40. Can someone toss me a link please?

I can't find any article relating to this (specifically to S. Blumenthal). Can someone send me a link? I can gather what it's about, of course. I listened to SB give a talk at Stacy's Bookstore in SF in 2004 and I was so impressed with they guy. And also, like many of you -- always looked forward to his columns in Salon and thought he was a man of integrity. Sadly, this post says otherwise. I'm bummed too.

[MagickMuffin]

45. Here's a link for ya

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/sidney-blume...

[poebango]

46. Awesome - thank you!

[MagickMuffin]

49. Here's the link from DU posted yesterday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[txaslftist]

41. Screw Blumenthal.

I've read a number of interviews with him, and he's always been a bit of a prick, frankly. Now he's working for the Clinton's distributing crappy emails from sources he knows damn well are corrupt because the ends justify the means?

Whatever respect I once had for him, because he dared to expose things other journalists wouldn't touch, has gone out the window. He's sold his reputation to shill in the basest way for an unworthy cause. That was his choice to make, but once you pimp out your reputation that way, you're left with the reputation of a whore.

He of all people should have known that.

[MagickMuffin]

44. This quote stuck out like a sore thumb

"So, the Democrats have slowly and belatedly come to the realization that the whole campaign to grab power against them may not be about individual persons and their foibles. Maybe its about power itself, and the Republican impulse and will to power."

Now let's just replace some of those words, with Clinton and we'll see what difference it makes!

So, the Clintons have slowly and belatedly come to the realization that the whole campaign to grab power against a Democratic opponent may not be about individual persons and their foibles. Maybe its about power itself, and the Clintons impulse and will to power.


Upon hearing about this caused me to lose whatever respect I had for him, just like his candidate. I no longer respect any of them

[Coexist]

47. its really disgusted me.

[BlueCaliDem]

50. What troubles me here, William, is how little differene there is between the Repubs and the Clinton

...Dems aka DLCers.

Can it be that the Democratic Party has been infiltrated by candidates wearing the mantle of the Democratic agenda and ideas while, once in office {like Lieberman} become Republicans and/or Right-wingers?

These are the Manchurian-Democrat-Candidates; the party's Trojan Horse. They need to be weeded out and kicked out on the arses.

And to think I once-upon-a-time admired the Clintons...

Then again, didn't know Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Dubya, head honchos of our corporate-owned media, Arnold Scharzenegger and other political and propaganda alumni are all members of the secret "Bohemian Grove" in Northern California where it's rumored to be the place where deals are made to ensure the next president, governor, senator, etc.

Barack Obama is not a member, btw.

[Joanne98]

51. Made me think of Rush and "Operation Chaos" divide and conquer.

I wish we could do something about it, but the voters got to get smarter. If they are using these tactics on Obama, it's because they work. This has been the most disappointing thing for me. I was really hoping that the voters wouldn't fall for this crap this time. I was hoping they had become more savy. Silly me.

[graycem]

52. Keith O. is talking about this. n/t

[sniffa]

53. Dude, that DUI is ancient news

Oh wait...

[GetTheRightVote]

54. I am deeply sadden and shocked by this process as well.

[uberblonde]

55. Here's what Joe Conason had to say.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/05/02/blument...

May. 02, 2008 | First let me confess that I am now and have for many years considered myself a friend of Sidney Blumenthal's, the senior advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Salon columnist. I should also acknowledge here for the record that, like a number of his other friends, I receive daily e-mails from him on a wide variety of topics. Those e-mails, which have included everything from Doonesbury cartoons to YouTube videos, screen captures, poll results, right-wing screeds and the occasional scholarly article, must number in the thousands by now because sending those blasts has been a Blumenthal habit since long before he joined the Clinton campaign earlier this year.

If this were a more sane campaign, those mundane messages would be of little interest to anyone else. But now Peter Dreier, blogging on the Huffington Post, has suggested that Blumenthal crossed a line by sending out negative articles about Sen. Barack Obama that have appeared in the right-wing media. And Dreier, along with several other bloggers, also seems to believe that the recipients of those e-mails, especially the journalists, ought to have "exposed" Blumenthal for "spreading" the calumnies and criticisms that appeared in those articles -- which included some far-fetched smears of Obama and his associates.

<...> No doubt Sid assumed that his friends would keep his correspondence private, but he is also far too experienced to imagine that something sent out to a dozen people or more will remain "secret" for long. I cannot claim to know why he sent any particular article to any reporter he happens to know, but I can say that he never pushed or pressured me to write about any of that material. Although Dreier attempted to make a couple of tenuous connections between Blumenthal and material published by Joe Klein and Jake Tapper, the truth is that neither Tapper nor Klein was on his e-mail list, neither of them could be considered his friend, and neither of them communicates with him on any regular basis.

The clear assumption behind Dreier's blog post is that Blumenthal somehow endorsed the specific content of every negative story he sent out. But that assumption is logically flawed because among the items he has regularly sent out is a daily blogosphere roundup authored by Clinton staffer Peter Daou -- which invariably included negative posts about Clinton herself, her husband, her staff, her campaign, her finances and so on, as well as upbeat posts.

[susu369]

66. Big thank you for this link

Some bloggers accuse Blumenthal, a Hillary advisor, of spreading right-wing lies about Obama. But I get his e-mail blasts and the charge isn't fair.
By Joe Conason

[bigbrother05]

67. Thanks, beat me to it. Posted this to another thread earlier.

[CitizenLeft]

56. me too. I bought his damn book. Weighs a ton.

Very disappointed.

[KoKo]

57. Maybe "Sid" like some of us is "honestly torn" between Candidates and he's

so loyal to the DLC...he just can't "cut loose?"

What about all of us who lost family member and friends because of our support of the Clintons for YEARS against Ken Starr and Mellon-Scaife's WITCH HUNTS? Reverend Falwell (of the Religious Right) putting out Video's to his FLOCK ...saying Hillary "Murdered Vince Foster and her OP's Dumped his body in a DC Park?" And, that's not the worst of it....

But, now we go against Sid who was one of the few voices against Bush II just like we trash Paul Krugman and others over "candidate differences."

It's time for us Dems to think about who "nurtured" the Grassroots/Intenet....and then move on...but don't dishonor those who see "fallen to us" just because they support the person they had to "fight for all these years" and are wondering who this "new Obama thingy is."

I'm voting for Obama in NC Primary...just so you know I'm not for Hillary...but I'm not wanting to "trash the folks who brung ya' to the dance," either.

[RaleighNCDUer]

58. He may have come to believe in fighting fire with fire,

but frankly, water works better.

[Bread and Circus]

59. Reminds of the moment in Animal Farm when the pigs are having chow at the table w/ the humans

[McCamy Taylor]

63. The RW oppo against Obama is everywhere---DU doesnt want to see it.

I did a 4 part journal about The Press vs. Hillary Clinton and a 3 part journal about The Press vs. Obama. There was a part devoted to the right wing media's attack against each candidate (people like Novak, Rush, Fox) fro Jan. 2007 to present for Clinton and for Obama.

The Right Wing Media vs. Obama journal was the least read journal of all. I think 8 people posted replies. It was like no one wanted to know that Obama was already the target of a coordinated right wing smear. To admit that it was going on would remove one of his best selling points as a presidential candidates.
The Obama campaign is trying to spread a myth that the right wing will not try or be able to attack him. The truth is that they have been defining him in the eyes of the independents and Republicans for a year and a half now.

Is it possible that this guy we are talking about is responding to what the Obama camp is doing when they talk about Monica and Vince Foster and Travel-gate? They are saying that the RW will bring the old Clinton stories up this fall and therefore the SDs can not nominate Clinton.The corollary is that they will not dare to slime Obama.But---and this should come as no surprise to anyone--they have been sliming him all along.

[KoKo]

65. Agree...and the "Powers that Be" network is very strong for OP's

They work against both Dem Candidates... Remember the "Powers that Be" who advised Gore about how to deal with Florida....old line Dems and Repug Ops and how they screwed it up for him. It's not all Repugs...it's the "Powers that Be" who work from within against Dems. That's not tinfoilhat...if we watched carefully both Gore and Kerry's Campaigns and the results. And, if we look at why Hillary is running and how Obama managed to move up so fast. The "Powers that Be" always have to keep control so that things don't run too far amuck. And, they got total control with Bush II...so they aren't looking to give that power back too easily...just the appearance of giving some of it back will do.

[2rth2pwr]

64. Any link to your first accusation?

"Y'know, the ones that say he's a Manchurian candidate Islamofascist mole who hates America when not on drugs and intends to sell the Sixth Fleet to Osama etc etc etc."

If you were exaggerating, any real items that he spread that were untrue?

[TragedyandHope]

69. Throw off the chains of Rovian influence

[K Gardner]

70. I'm surprised by nothing out of the Clinton Camp.. absolutely nothing.

[MasonJar]

71. Well, Will, some of us support Hillary Clinton!