Clinton Insiders Fear Secret Service Records Could Damage Campaign

Even as Hillary Clinton's operatives were dropping hints that Republicans would exploit Barack Obama's youthful drug use, some Clinton insiders privately worried about her own vulnerability because the Bush administration possesses detailed knowledge of her movements - and her husband's - over the past seven years.

Because of Sen. Clinton's unique status as the first former First Lady to run for President - and because her husband was succeeded by a Republican - she is the first candidate to have both her and her spouse be subject to regular, long-term surveillance by an Executive Branch agency controlled by the opposing political party.

Since they left the White House in 2001, Bill and Hillary Clinton have been under the protection of the Secret Service, formerly a branch of the Treasury Department and now part of the Homeland Security Department. Records are maintained showing where they go and whom they meet.

Homeland Security is under the control of Michael Chertoff, a longtime Clinton nemesis dating back to his work as a Republican lawyer on the Senate's Whitewater investigation in the 1990s. In 2003, Sen. Clinton cast the sole dissenting vote against Chertoff's nomination as a federal judge in protest against his abrasive conduct during the Whitewater inquiry.

Though Secret Service records are supposed to be closely held secrets, a source close to the Clintons told me that it is believed that senior Republicans have received regular briefings about movements of the Clintons that might prove embarrassing if released during the general election campaign.

Click here to read more about Hillary's potential vulnerability, and the tightrope her campaign walked attacking Obama last week, on Consortium News.

Comments

[bbln]

01:33 PM on 12/25/2007

Nixon wiretapped and eavesdropped on his opponents; Bush II has the Patriot Act to listen to the masses - who's to say, Secret Service records or not, that he and the Republicans aren't listening in on the DNC? Wouldn't put it beyond them.

The issue isn't Secret Service records, it's throwing these bums, crooks and liars out and hopefully the public will be smart enough to see through any smokescreen they put up.

[splashy]

02:46 AM on 12/23/2007

Seems to me that since the Clintons KNEW that they were being watched that they would do everything clean.

This looks like an "oooh, there might be something there" type of thing, once again, that doesn't mean ANYTHING.

[Evolin]

12:38 PM on 12/22/2007

How sad!! Trying to destroy Hillary's candidacy will not help the Democrats or the nation. So many misinformed people and so much propaganda against HRC, will damage the country, but Hillary is clean.
Hillary is competative, but just a decent person trying to get the nomination - mostly defending herself against slander.
She deserves this nomination as she has shown her strength and compassion for our country.
I believe she will include and incorporate most of the other contenders for this position. Giving Obama, Edwards and others positions in her cabinet. This will give Edwards and Obama more needed experience to help further their careers. Biden, Dodd and Richardson will be great assets for her and the country as a whole,as either VPs or cabinet members.
I believe HRC's Presidency will be a great inclusive one that lifts up the middle class and makes decent health care a reality.
Some folks are so clouded by the constant barrage of misinformation that her overall goodness is mis-portrayed to them.

[dogwud]

02:27 PM on 12/21/2007

"...some Clinton insiders privately worried..."
This is such unattributed BULL! Who? What? Where? When? The only thing in this story is the writer's provacative answer to WHY? This isn't news, it belongs on FOX or Drudge!.

I'm very dissapointed.

[ignorantwillyharper]

10:22 AM on 12/21/2007

If Hillary gets to the Whitehouse, maybe she can bring her younger brother in to her administration. I seen where he is in the rears to the tune of $156,000.00 to his ex-wife (Barbara Boxer's daugther) for Child support and alimony.

The whole family is corrupt.

[Kontessa]

08:58 AM on 12/21/2007

What's good for the goose, is good for the gander, so the old saying goes.
If records are going to be opened up on the Clintons, they absolutely have to be opened up on the Bush regime's activities too. And we all know, the longer they stay in the game the more corrupt and totally compromised they become, that's a given.
One of the smartest was big crybaby, poppy Bush, who USED our govt. to line his pockets and those of his family. Is there a Bush spawn who isn't leeching off of the Govt. in some fashion? The Bush family ... they're all such proud, upstanding parasites!

What are the Clinton's worried about anyway? Bill's philanderings? The Clintons have brought squarley upon their own shoulders their troubles, just as every other pollitician who decides to willingly put themselves up for election. And, the voters have a duty of expect honesty and integrity for the sake of their very lives from their elected leaders. Look at the thousands upon thousands of people Bush is responsible for being killed!
As for Hillary's husband, who has his big face in every aspect of her campaign....with her blessing I presume, just remember when he was with Monica ... what if she were a agent for another country and choose to blackmail him? None of these people are martyrs, they bring their troubles on themselves.

[reactionrynihilist]

08:12 AM on 12/21/2007

How obsessed are they? Republicans held regular meetings where they discussed the whereabouts of the Clintons? I am no fan of the Clintons, but this obsession is unhealthy. Open up the visitor logs of both administration and then we will have something to talk about.

[syllepsis]

01:16 AM on 12/21/2007

Charming, the Clintons and Bush are LBJ and Nixon wiretapping each other.
I thought Hillary was one of those prudes who didn't like 1968. She will ensure that next year we will revisit it at the Democratic National Convention.
Abuse of the secret services is not what the Founders had in mind, people.

[outnow]

08:28 PM on 12/20/2007

Files are leaked, but only when "necessary." Valerie Plame was outed so it can and does happen. There is a long history in this country for you youngsters out there where files were kept on people for political reasons. Who has forgotten the files kept on MLK by the FBI. J.Edgar Hoover was around keeping files for 46 years.

Robert Parry has made this assertion about Bill Clinton giving the Bushes slack for about 15 years. This is no recent contrivance on Mr. Parry's part.

I spoke to a former secret service agent who volunteered information about the private life of LBJ. Gasp!!!! Instant jail time. Not!

The recent exchange between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush only confirms what Mr. Parry is trying to tell you. They cover each other and embarrass each other for different reasons at different times.

Check in with Daniel Ellsberg sometime and ask about his psychiatric records that were stolen from his doctor's office when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the NYT.

Regarding the Bushes and the Clintons, there's plenty of dirt to go around - but that just depends on what you mean by dirt. Timing is everything. Just stick around.

[Tsunami]

07:22 PM on 12/20/2007

President Clinton and Senator Clinton are the last best hope of the USA. If there were something new to report, we'd know it alredy. And even so, so what? The Clinton years were great years and the next Clinton years will be even better!!

[HearNoWeasel]

06:55 PM on 12/20/2007

The full article makes another point: Bill Clinton has a history of appeasing Bush Senior.

Bill had a lot of dirt on Bush Sr., but chose not to expose it. He short-changed justice, to the country's detriment. Bush Jr. would not have been able to run had Bill pursued Bush Sr.'s scandels.

What's the likelihood the Bushes have dirt on the Clintons that the Republicans can use once Hillary is nominated? High. What's the likelihood President Hillary will forgive and forget the crap Bush II has pulled, especially when Bill now goes around saying he and Papa Bush will travel the world together? I don't know, but I want a candidate who will condemn, reverse, and prosecute GWB's crimes.

How do I know she won't signal him that she'll be as magnanimous as Bill, in exchange for not getting swift-boated before the election? She bashes GWB now, but that doesn't mean she won't make a deal with him about what he craves - avoiding accountability for his high crimes - in return for discression.

Looking at the history between these two families is a better indicator of what might happen than guesswork about how much dirt there actually is. Republicans will make mountains of molehills with any D candidate, but their First Family is especially familiar with the Clintons. I'll bet they're drawing up a list of "talking points" right now as they plot how to inure Junior against jail time. Hillary knows this and maybe she's got her own insurance policy all figured out. The two sides can work out a satisfactory agreement, and if you hear Bushies like Rove talk up Hillary as a D candidate ("She's a moderate"), you should be suspicious.

Maybe I'm doing Hillary injustice, but all that aside, the article is excellent and has nothing to do with Clinton vs. Obama. Every Hillary fan owes it to themselves to read it and reflect on the facts it reports, even if they come to very different conclusions.

[Rubiconski]

06:47 PM on 12/20/2007

The politics of Hope vs. the politics of Hope, Arkansas

Hillary Just Wants to Rule The World

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6035347

[BrighterStar]

06:47 PM on 12/20/2007

Hillary will be safe from the production of these records because there is not someone like her or her husband in the whitehouse. Does anyone think that if the shoe was on the other foot the records would already be out. The fact is that Bush just has a lot more class than the Clintons.

[kfdan]

05:10 PM on 12/20/2007

The role of the Secret Service is to simply protect former and present executive branch members and their families and nothing more. Any information that agency might hold as to who, what, when, where, and how should be maintained for security reasons only!
I have no doubt the Clintons have enemies in the present White House. However, it is certainly clear that the Clintons have far more in common with the Bush family than meets the eye!
Keep the campaign clean!

[MysticInd]

05:03 PM on 12/20/2007

Let's be serious here.

The neocons want Hillary to be the nomination because they have so much ammunition on her.

It's so blantantly obvious. Whatever she has been doing plus what the current JA have made her do will sink her campaign like a torpedo!

The only hope of Dems is to impeach C and B. So all their war crimes and abuse against our Constitution are releashed is our only hope.

Let's get on with it.