Bradley: Bill Clinton's Financial Backers Could Pose Big Problem

Though known for his soft-demeanor, former senator and current Obama supporter Bill Bradley let off a bit of steam at the Clinton campaign during an appearance on NewsHour Wednesday night.

Calling into question the known unknowns (channeling my inner-Rumsfeld) of former president Bill Clinton's financial backers, Bradley raised the specter of down-the-road quid-pro-quos and one-hand-behind-your-back general election fights against Sen. John McCain. As he explained to host Jim Lehrer:

"I think Barack Obama has a much stronger chance of beating John McCain in the general election. I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband's unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library.

And the reason that is important -- you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed.

These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don't want things to explode in a general election against John McCain."

Here is the video:

Tip of the hat to goldmj at Daily Kos for first noticing this.

Comments

[CraigMM]

So, let me get this straight.

An Obama aid goes to Canada and tells their government not to pay attention to what Obama is saying, it is just to get elected.....and HRC is the one who will do anything to get elected.

Obama lies about the meeting ever taking place.....and HRC is the one who will say anything to get elcted.

Another Obama aid calls Hillary a "Monster".....and HRC is the one who is negative.

The facts are just not supporting this "story" that the MSM and blogs want you to buy into. Obama is the negative candidate who will say or do anything to steal the election. The voters are finally starting the see the true Obama and they like HRC better!

[catalysis]

I wouldn't call it "stealing" when he is actually beating her in the popular vote and delegate count. That's called winning, my friend.

[Independent voter]

You are operating on old news.

http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/03/03/2008-03-04T000047Z_01_N03391783_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-OBAMA-UPDATE-1.html

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9rwO9WjyXz5a-SfrETivAeTEnnw

[JavaCityGal]

Isn't it funny that Hillary people get all indignant about NaftaGate, until you point out that is was actually Hillary framing Obama, and then they're like "oh, okay, that's alright then".

[PhyloSeFiser]

You've got the story all wrong.

Here's a pretty good synopsis:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-loeb/did-clinton-win-ohio-on-a_b_90254.html

[JavaCityGal]

NAFTAgate came out of the Clinton camp to frame Obama, story has been all over the place today --you are behind the times.

[richcpl]

Yes, you really need to read the Canadian media more closely. And by the way, who ever thought we'd now have a complaint about Canada? I'd like to see this story in the U.S. press, although the NYTimes today seemed to say that the hillary angle was debunked. Too bad. She probably did start it anyway.

[sunshower7]

Yes, the reasons why HIllary tried to frame Obama and refuses to show her IRS records are no longer a secret.


While Senator Obama fought successfully to increase our investment in renewable fuels rather than nuclear fuels, the Clintons received $31.3 million from financier Frank Giustra, . a director and major shareholder of UrAsia Energy Ltd,. a Canadian based corporation which invests in uranium mining and nuclear reactors in Kazakhstan and around the world.

Clinton acknowledged this in a NY Times article, January 31, 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[uffa]

And who took oneo CANADA's most powerful and influential businessmen to Kazakhstan to seal a deal????

[Canukistani]

To use the familiar expression, I believe this lie is no longer operative.

[Redmom]

Hillary said she was going to stand up to the Saudis.

How can she?

They have bought Bill Clinton.

[Independent voter]

Exactly right!

[JavaCityGal]

exactly right Redmom!

[JavaCityGal]

Clintons have been bought and paid for by the Arabs

[BlackWidowPilot]

While Chimpy holds hands with his Saudi pals, and "Hundred Years War" McCain wants to *continue* the Bushevik legacy of corruption, venality, and war for oil and empire based upon over 900+ documented lies about WMDs.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Purple Girl]

HILLARY HAS FORCED OLD BILL SUPPORTERS TO QUESTION HIS PRESIDENCY AND HIS LEGACY!!!
I've already began my rounds of Apologies to those I've spent the last 18 yrs fighting to defend the Clintons. And I've got a Lot More Crows to Eat!
No one can be madder than someone who thought Hillary would be a No Brainer when she finally went for the big Win. A fore gone conclusion.
but then she took her seat in th eseat an don the Armed Services Com (con) and she started talking, then voting, then paving the way for the very admin we demanded be held accountable for their Crimes. Yet she says nothing more about indictments for false intell, wiretapping, torture, suspecion of habius Corpus and Due Process.... She has Proven she is basically Dick In Drag. After tha t'Luncheon ' with W. she seemed to jump ship- did she eat a 'hotdog' with W. too?
This is not the woman I supported and defended in the '90's- She has Been Re Tooled! No differnet from the Criminals Now in the Executive Branch. Was Her Luncheon a Crowning Ceremony by the Corps??? The official placing on her head by the outgoing 'Royality"????
I now am committed to keeping HER out of the WH. I will not vote for Mac either (obviously) But i will work to cut the legs out from under her by sending NEW MI Public Servants to Congress with the instruction to seek out past and present Enemies of the State for Prosecution for Election Fraud, Treason, War crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. I'll push to send REAL DEMS, Real Patriots, Real Public Servants!! Her name is near the top of the list

[armadillious2002]

Let's have the truth - come out with those tax returns. Enough with all this under the table bullshit.

[JavaCityGal]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/09/wus609.xml

Very interesting article, may explain a thing or two about Hillary reluctance to release her tax returns and donor list. Brief excerpt:

"The Wall Street Journal reported that one of his partners in the global investment fund is an entity connected to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, also believed to be a major donor to the Clinton presidential library.

Mr Clinton’s ties to the sheikh have already put him at odds with political stances adopted by his wife.

Two years ago, she was outspoken in her denunciation of the Bush administration’s plan to sell control of six major US ports to Dubai Ports World, but it later emerged that her husband was advising the Arab emirate how to handle the furore."

Hmmmm....national security at risk for donations...don't think the Republicans will take too kindly to that.

[k6007]

Alan Greenspan called Bill Clinton 'the best republican prez. we've ever had.'
you know what, he's right.

His wife, MSNBC's very own Andrea Mitchell Greenspan, is the best Repug, mouthpiece in the business.

[SoonerThought]

I always pick the wrong horse: In 2000, Bradley. In 2004, Clark. In 2008, Biden. Could it be my "wrong" picks were right?

[atlantajoe]

No!

[rollingdivision]

Between Clinton and Obama, the best choice for would have been Edwards, Biden or Richardson. No dirty Bill money, no dirty Rezko money, no Arkansas and White House skeletons, no Chicago political machine skeletons, no lying about lobbyists.........

[PhyloSeFiser]

Look deeper into the Resko story. There's nothing there.

Check this out.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/29/171056/015

[dutchess2]

Obama is not involved in Rezko's problems. Any funds Rezko donated to Obama campaigns
has been returned, and his is not a person of interest in the trial and indictments of Rezko.

There is more to question in the picture of Hillary and Bill with Rezko at the White House... a picture like is always done for big doners...

We need to find out what the circumstances were for that little cozy looking group...think?

[WilliePilgrim]

Bradley could be quite right, but isn't that really more of an indictment agains the system of campaigning that has evolved over the history of our political system? Are we to presume that the money flowing into Obama's campaign, or the campaigns of any other candidate, are somehow innoculated against influence? If Obama is elected and one day has a library in Chicago, does anyone seriously believe that there won't be big influence money pouring into that?
I genuinely like Bradley and admire his insight but I can't see any significant difference between any of the candidates once they reach a level of national prominence. I would appreciate his perspective more if he also had a plan to address the problem of corruption and influence instead of simply attempting to paint one candidate with the brush of suspicion while coloring his preferred candidate with an unsullied palette.

[Schnitzel]

If the choice is between Hillary and Mcain I'll probably vote for Nader. It kind of depends, though. If Hillary steals the nomination I'm going to tell the Hillary phone bank robots "Look, I'll make a deal with you: If you don't call me again I'll vote for somebody who has no chance of winning like Nader. If you DO call me again I'll vote for McCain."
I've been faithfully voting Democratic since 1984 but there's absolutely NO CHANCE I will ever vote for Hillary. I suspect many Obama supporters feel pretty much the same.

Personally, I didn't support Obama because I thought he was such an amazing candidate -actually I see him as pretty much being a long shot -, I supported him because Hillary makes me phsyically ill. I don't think she'll win in the fall and even if she does, I think she'll be a horrible president that Republicans will successfully be able to run against for the next 30 years.

On the remote chance she does win it would be a case where, for the Democrats, winning would be losing.

[PigsOnSoma]

Sadly that pretty much sums it up. I supported Edwards, and care neither for Hillary nor Obama, but the Clintons are beginning to make me feel ill. Especially now with this NAFTA thing comming out, and her 'support' for McCain over Obama. What a twisted family....

[riverhouse]

When over half the voting public says they would not vote for Hillary Clinton under any set of circumstances, you know she can't win a general election. The independents will go to McCain, who will come off as affable, dependable, experienced. The GOP will flood the voting booths to vote against Hillary, while the young, African Americans, and the disillusioned will simply sit it out and let McCain take the White House. If he pickes a good vp, then the GOP will be in power again for years. It's painful to see the Democratic Party come apart like this, but divisiveness and dirty politics are hallmarks of every thing the Clintons touch. They truly don't care about anything but themselves, and they are determined to destroy the Democratic Party just as the party is poised to benefit from 8 years of neocon warmongering by forcing a neocon warmonger like Hillary into the fray. There's no question but if given the choice between the Bobsey Twins, McCain and Hillary, McCain is going to win the election.

[FZliveson]

All you idiots who say; "If Hillary gets the nod, I'll vote for Nader" are...idiots.
That's like saying, "If Joe invites Gail to the prom, I'll kill myself."
Nader is smart but, when it comes to political savvy, he's like a bite into an unripe persimmon (pucker up...this ain't no fun) If "Nader" and his countenance is what you get from living
true to the life he campaigns for, I want no damn part of it. He's a spoiler, no less than
Rossperoh. Nader is stoopid. If he had even picked some articulate blonde sex-puppy from
a good-named university as a VP candidate last time, he would have had enough votes, just from drunks alone to getfederal funds matching this time. But no... he had to stick his philosophy in our faces andget only enough to screw up somebody elses chances and we ended up with Dubya.
Nader is scum with a good line of bull.

[natasyenehc]

The media and the people need to demand that the Clinton Pardon / favours list and the "contributors"-cum-bribers" to Clinton campaigns, library, etc are fully disclosed. Hilary Clinton can not go yapping about how the media should scrutinise Obama more carefully and then when a perfectly valid request for transparency from her is required her camp goes all ballistic trying to win sympathy with references to KEn Starr.

It won't work Hilary. Maybe with the uneducated people of Ohio, but the rest of the country including the good people of Penn will see right through this nonsense.

Let's have an equal playing field. Either gight on your own merits, but it you are going to go negative, then don't turn into a cry baby (the biys are ganging up against me crap) and try and escape the heat.

[Independent voter]

The media is afraid of the clintons and will not push these issues.

[follyeoa]

Typical--damaging questions with no proof!

[Darkbane]

Bill Clinton as president perjured himself to avoid telling the truth........Proof will be difficult to obtain but you have to admit as scandal ridden as the Clintons have been, its not really a stretch.

[in4success]

It hardly matters now. Ohio is where it mattered for four or five days, and Ohio is done.

But there's still some movement on the story about assurances to the Canadian government over rhetoric on NAFTA that killed Obama. One story ">out of Toronto today seems to confirm that the conservative Prime Minister's very conservative chief of staff started the ball rolling by telling reporters that Clinton aides -- not Obama -- had provided assurances that the rhetoric was hotter than the reality.

A lot of murk on how it shifted to Obama. But there's also a theory percolating that the story -- really, a pretty unusual invasion of domestic politics by a foreign government -- was "a bum rap cooked up by Canadian rightwingers" to hurt Obama and produce a long slog that will help the GOP.

[kingfishstew]

This is a serious issue. Can't do anything about it now, but if Obama does win, this meddling in our domestic politics by the Candaian right wingers must be addressed.

[Canukistani]

Yeah, a lot of us don't like them meddling in our affairs either, but unfortunately, we're stuck with them for now. They're certainly as evil as your crew, but at least they don't have as much power.

[Canukistani]

..."a bum rap cooked up by Canadian rightwingers" to hurt Obama and produce a long slog that will help the GOP."


Now this I'd believe. If Bush has any fans abroad, then Harper is certainly one of them. I'm sure he'd be happy to do what he could to help out the Republicans. This actually sounds closer to the truth than any of the other stories floating around.

[pertello]

Election Fraud Against Obama In Ohio: More Comes Out
News Type: Event — Thu Mar 6, 2008 8:38
Should Republicans be permitted to commit voter fraud, openly admit it and not suffer any consequences?

Butler County in southwest Ohio is the most Republican county of all Ohio's 88 counties. 26 county offices and none of them are held by Democrats. Yet, the strangest thing happened on Tuesday... the Butler County Democratic Party increased in registered members by over 200% and now has more registered members than the Republican Party. Hillary Clinton won this county in the Democratic Primary by 10%.

Barack Obama won only 5 out of 88 counties in Ohio and those counties were the ones where Democrats are abundant. Yet Hillary Clinton won the state by only 10%. I have been told directly by Republicans here in Ohio that they voted for Hillary for the express purpose to either cause a split convention or to get her nominated because they know she is the weakest candidate against John McCain. To a person they will all be returning to voting Republican in the general election. To a judge monitoring the elections, Marilyn Hatfield, numerous Republicans taking a Democratic ballot said they were voting for Hillary "because of that thing Rush said." (Source: Hamilton Journal News, 3-6-08)

If one knows Butler County as I do, having run a campaign here and worked on campaigns my entire life, they will know that the city of Fairfield and West Chester and those surrounding areas are the staunchest strongholds of Republican voters in the county. This is where the farce of Republicans destroying a Democratic primary becomes obvious. These Republican strongholds are colored nearly totally blue, indicating that more voters took Democratic ballots than Republican ones. Since Clinton won Butler County by 10% it can safely be concluded that the majority of Republicans voted for her.

One has to ask himself "Why would a Republican, someone that hates Hillary Clinton from her years as First Lady to perhaps the most polarizing president of the modern era, vote for her?" You needn't wait long for an answer. Republicans have supplied plenty. She is the weakest candidate, they want to vote against her in the general election and need to make sure she'll be there and conservative media moguls told them to.

The law in Ohio, the Ohio Revised Code, is very clear on what Republicans have done. ORC 3513.20 says:
Before any challenged person shall be allowed to vote at a primary election , the person shall make a statement, under penalty of election falsification, before one of the precinct officials, blanks for which shall be furnished by the board of elections, giving name, age, residence, length of residence in the precinct, county, and state; stating that the person desires to be affiliated with and supports the principles of the political party whose ballot the person desires to vote; and giving all other facts necessary to determine whether the person is entitled to vote in that primary election. The statement shall be returned to the office of the board with the pollbooks and tally sheets . . . .
3599.36 Election falsification reads:
No person, either orally or in writing, on oath lawfully administered or in a statement made under penalty of election falsification, shall knowingly state a falsehood as to a material matter relating to an election in a proceeding before a court, tribunal, or election official, or in a matter in relation to which an oath or statement under penalty of election falsification is authorized by law, including a statement required for verifying or filing any declaration of candidacy, declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, nominating petition, or other petition presented to or filed with the secretary of state, a board of elections, or any other public office for the purpose of becoming a candidate for any elective office, including the office of a political party, for the purpose of submitting a question or issue to the electors at an election, or for the purpose of forming a political party.
Whoever violates this section is guilty of election falsification, a felony of the fifth degree.
A person that commits election falsification can face six to twelve months in prison as well as a $2,500 fine according to Ohio sentencing guidelines (Source: http://www.clelaw.lib.oh.us/Public/Misc/FAQs/Sentencing.html)

The greater question is, what are we as Democrats going to do about this? Are we going to prevent Republicans from flooding the last few primaries and trying to nominate our weakest candidate? Are we going to tolerate Republicans disenfranchising voters of Barack Obama and openly admitting to committing election fraud in Ohio? Are we going to allow the Republicans to game our system and stack the deck in their own favor politically by choosing the Democratic nominee?? The answers to these questions will answer whether this party is able, whether it is even fit, to win the White House this year. A party that allows its opponents to choose its nominee and openly laugh about it cannot be an effective governing party.

[kingfishstew]

Yes, I think the real question we're deciding is whether or not the Democratic Party is fit for the White House. One candidate, Hillary Clinton, is fit for Versailles perhaps. She'd make an excellent autocratic Sun Queen on the throne of Pre-Revolutionary France, but not a president. Not enough peasants to push around here.

[Tator]

HAHAHAHAHAHA suddenly you moonbats are questioning how the Clintons raise money? This is sort of like a fool standing in the rain and wondering why they are getting wet.

What goes around, comes around...all the Clinton's illegal money laundering of the past was OK as long as it worked against your enemies, but now that YOU are the Clinton's enemy you see they turn on you....SWEEEETTTTT!!!