Hillary around for 16 years: 1200 pages of RNC oppo research; Obama, only 3 years: 1000 pages

NJSecularist

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Fri May-09-08 12:07 AM
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Hillary around for 16 years: 1200 pages of RNC oppo research; Obama, only 3 years: 1000 pages

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/08/998470.aspx

From MSNBC's David Shuster
Two Republican officials at the Republican National Committee who are involved in "opposition research efforts" in preparation for the general election say the RNC's oppo research dossier on Sen. Clinton runs more than 1,200 pages in length.

According to these officials, the book includes "previously undisclosed information about Hillary Clinton's connections to the Whitewater scandal, travel office firings, and Democratic fundraising efforts." Given that the book has not been shared with us, we've been unable to confirm this assertion. Furthermore, the Republican officials would not describe the nature of the "new information."

However, I was not directed away from a front-page story in today's Washington Times about memos/documents from the estate of Sam Dash, Ken Starr's ethics adviser during the early stages of the Whitewater investigation. The Dash Whitewater memos and documents have been turned over to the Library of Congress (where they were presumably available to the Washington Times reporter/researcher). The documents reportedly show that prosecutors concluded that Hillary Clinton concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for the Savings and Loan at the heart of the Whitewater investigation. The allegation that she concealed and misled is not new, and was sourced by reporters who covered the investigation in the 1990s (including me) to "attorneys close to Starr" or "sources in the office of the independent counsel."

The documents from Dash's estate, however, mark the first available "documentary evidence" that Ken Starr's office drafted a criminal indictment of Senator Clinton, also known as a "pros memo" and debated verbally and through written memos whether Clinton should actually face charges. The documents indicate, according to the Washington Times, that prosecutors in the end decided not to charge Sen. Clinton because of their concern about the strengths of their evidence and the likelihood of obtaining a conviction of a sitting first lady. But such memos, documents, and etc. about the internal debate in the office of the independent counsel could be a gold mine for negative ads, etc.

By the way, to put the RNC's opposition research effort into context, I'm told the dossier on Senator Obama is 1,000 pages in length and that Republican researchers spent a few weeks in Chicago recently collecting information on Obama's ties to the Weather Underground" and separately to Tony Rezko (who is currently on trial for federal corruption charges).

Let's analyze the facts: Hillary has been in the Republicans' crosshairs for 16 years, ever since Bill's first election in 1992. She has 1,200 pages of opposition research. That is 75 pages per year.

Now, regarding Obama: He has been in the Republicans' crosshairs for three years, ever since he was elected to the Senate. Given that he has 1000 pages of opposition research total, that is 333 pages per year.

What does it say about Obama's shady connections that his enemies have accumulated opposition research at the pace of 333 pages per year? What else do we not know about Barack Obama?

Not to mention that, most likely, a good amount of the opposition research that has been compiled by the RNC against Hillary has already been used and is already well-known considering the Republicans have been attempting a coordinated hit-job on her for almost 2 decades.

How many October Surprises does Obama have for us?