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

[najablah]

Where are the tax returns??? I am planning my future career and want to know how much I can anticipate making of a uranium deal in Kazakhstan­...

[rudyinbama]

Bill Bradley?
Is there not a single loser left who is NOT on the Obama bandwagon?

[BNL]

Yeah...lik­e the favors that Obama owes to guys like Rezko and his middle eastern cohorts? I think Obama should be very careful when trying to go after Hillary on tax returns and insisting on transparency. I'm sure we would all love to see the paperwork on his house sale, and more information on how many fundraisers he had with Rezko. There's still a lot that Obama is hiding and it will be fun watching the media go after him. The Chicago Sun Times isn't finished with him yet, and it's six more weeks until PA primary!

[Monkeytime]

Have you ever bought a piece of property? The "paperwork" is a mater of public record. What do you think he's hiding? what are your real, actual questions.

What do you have? Nothing. Innuendo and conjecture.

If you want to play innuendo & conjecture, hope about the Bill Clinton Rape case. No charges were ever filed, but hey according to your rules that doesn't even matter.

In a gripping account punctuated by sobs, the Arkansas woman told "Dateline NBC" that in her Little Rock hotel room, Clinton suddenly "turned me around and started kissing me, and that was a real shock. I first pushed him away. I just told him 'no.' . . . He tries to kiss me again. He starts biting on my lip. . . . And then he forced me down on the bed. I just was very frightened. I tried to get away from him. I told him 'no.' . . . He wouldn't listen to me." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/broaddrick022599.htmm)

Why do you guys want to do this?

[DeanLowe]

Are you saying Hillary had something to do with Bill's alleged actions? She's his wife not babysitter.

[Krazime]

Obama's house purchase has been investigated for the last two years, and they have stated numerous times, there was nothing illegal.
But the hillary sheeple are still trying create something with innuendo and total distortions.

The clintons are deceitful liars, just like the bushes.
She claims 8 yrs in the white house in her 35 yrs of experience, but they won't release the records. The slime is just oozing our of every crack and crevice.

[SallyLee]

Obama in 2008 is my clean Gene from 1968. Yes I was alive and very active then.

[FZliveson]

And....McC­arthy lost because he was a NICE GUY. At that same time, I was campaigning for RFK in L.A. (met him the day before he was shot) and RFK was on his way to the White House. Why, because he showed the tough, necessary to garner the true respect of the people. McCarthy was a much more physically presentable version of today's Dennis Kucinich; well respected for the most part, but a bit of a chuckle over beers. It's the beer n' sports folks and the not so brainy housewives who turn the tides, not the college educated..­.as OHIO just showed us. The day Obama throws a real hard punch to the gut or a swift kick where the sun doesn't shine is the day his tide will turn. I hope he has that in him. If not....McC­ain light at best.

[lobear00]

Its very sad that the supporters of Hillary Clinton are so misinformed. Maybe most of them don't know how to read, and if they do they should go online and read her voting record. Its very interesting how a Democrat so she claims"(Hillary) why she always votes Republican. Does Hillary even know who she really is.
Its just so hard to believe that a DEMOCRAT WOULD ALWAYS VOTE AS A REPUBLICAN". A DEMOCRAT WOULD VOTE REPUBLICAN. GO FIGURE!! And is this the type person we really want sleeping in the White House and answer the phone at 3:00 AM in the morning. GO FIGURE!!

[Susan1968]

I hate to break it to you kids but foreign governments have donated to the Presidential libraries of:

George W. Bush
Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter
Nixon

Donors can request to remain anonymous too. I have no idea what revealing the donors "proves."

Quote:

The royal family of Saudi Arabia gave the Clinton facility in Little Rock about $10 million, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush, according to people directly familiar with the contributions.

"As president, he (Clinton) was beloved around the world, so it should come as no surprise that there has been an outpouring of financial support from around the world to sustain his post-presidential work," a foundation statement said.

Spokesmen for Kuwait and Taiwan confirmed that each government has given the library $1 million. Both governments also donated to other presidential libraries. Kuwait contributed at least $1 million to the library of former president George H.W. Bush, and Taiwan gave $2 million to the Ronald Reagan library.

The Reagan library does not disclose its donors, a spokeswoman said. The Bush and Jimmy Carter libraries have made a very broad disclosure. Except for a few donors who asked to remain anonymous, the Bush contributors have been named publicly, and the names of the largest among them are either chiseled into a wall or onto the bricks of a walkway at the library in Texas. The Carter library also has a wall of founders.

Bush's large foreign donors include Kuwait, Japan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The family of Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, contributed $1 million or more.

Carter's donors include the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.

The Clinton library has also received large donations from Americans and American entities. The Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable Trust has pledged $4 million, a person familiar with the gift said. The Wasserman Foundation of Los Angeles has given between $6 million and $7 million. Casey Wasserman, the foundation's president, has long been close to Bill Clinton.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402124_pf.html

[Monkeytime]

Wow! if you replace Carter with HRC you'd have a really awesome club.

[JavaCityGal]

Here here! Anyway, what other presidents have done is irrelevant, it's Hillary on the ticket now. Millions of dollars going into the Clintons pockets from Dubai and Arab Shieks--bet it's not without expectation of some type of return for the money.

But if we use the "other presidents" statement.­...other presidents have released their tax returns...­..where's Hillarys?

[JavaCityGal]

I couldn't care less what other presidents have done, Hillary is the one running. If it's so innocent, why hide the tax returns, hmmmm? We shall very soon see.

Dubai is known to be anti woman, anti children, anti worker and anti Semite. Clinton claims to be against these things, but she happily accepts millions of dollar from them eh?

[Georgiapundit]

Obama can promise to the super delegates that if this has to go to the convention and the super delegates award the Clintons with the nomination, the Democratic Party will come out of its convention without its base and will be divided for the next 25 years.

Hillary appears to be telling the super delegates that if they come off the fence and support Obama before the convention without the party seating Michigan and Florida then they will take it to the convention and if they cant ultimately have the nomination then the party will go down with them.

[terraprieto]

As soon as Rush Limbaugh helps get Hillary onto the Democratic ticket, I'm sure he will begin every day's show with something like this:

It's 3 am. The red phone is ringing. Hillary Clinton picks up the phone, ready to save the world. Hello?

"It's me, honey. Sorry about this, but we've got ourselves a bimbo eruption. I need you to mobilize the fight-back team."

THEN he will spend an hour or so ranting about the Clinton's shady financial deals with Dubai and various Arab sheiks. As far as I know, none are named Bin Laden. As far as I know.

[JavaCityGal]

Oh but that's just the start. Can you just imagine the field day that Rush and his kind will have with the Clintons in financial bed with Arab Shieks and Dubai. Why would these groups give the Clintons millions of dollars -- out of the goodness of their own heart. I think not.

[only1Demvoter]

tierra - Joe : Lush Limpballs ??

You two are posting on the wrong Party's weblog !


-ralph

[NORKAY]

Mr sore loser, Bradley, still moaningover the fact that Al Gore showed that he was a "lightweight" and unfit to to be President and seething over the fact that the Clinton's did not back him . He was a vicious and agressive opponent and did not spare the rhetoric and slime thrown at Gore. To Prove his weakness , he almost lost to a nobody when he ran for Senator in New Jersey, on the strength of his weakness, she later became the Governor of the State and then a miserable Secty of Energy in the Bush administration. Thank you , Bradley, go back into the closet where you have been the past few years, your ill suited advice is not needed and totally uncalled for.

[mponti]

I've been surprised that the January 31, 2008, New York Times article, "After Mining Deal, Financier Donated to Clinton" by Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr. Nary a word on the MSM.

The article offers insight into how the Clintons have amassed enormous wealth since he left office....­No, it's not about speaker fees and book deals. HRC claims to fully vetted, but little is known about what the Clintons have been up to since he left office.

Here goes, per NY Times:
Clinton accompanied Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra to meet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent. The results was a major uranium contract for Giustra.

A few teaser quotes for you:
* "Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. (Frank) Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which friendship with the former president has its privileges­."

* "As Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign has intensified, Mr. Clinton has begun severing financial ties with Ronald W. Burkle, the supermarket magnate, and Vinod Gupta, the chairman of InfoUSA, to avoid any conflicts of interest. Those two men have harnessed the former president’s clout to expand their businesses while making the Clintons rich through partnership and consulting arrangemen­ts."

[cranberry11]

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

"Questions over Hillary Clinton's family wealth" from the UK Telegraph newspaper

some excerpts:

"The couple left the White House with $2 million in legal debts in 2001 but are now worth between $10 million and $50 million."

"Mrs Clinton can put half the funds held jointly with her husband towards her presidential bid under campaign finance laws.

By contrast, her rival Barack Obama emphasised last week that he released his annual tax returns, which break down earnings and assets in detail.

“I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from,” he said pointedly.­"

"But newspaper investigations have uncovered many foreign contributors, led by Saudi Arabia, and an overlap between library benefactors and Hillary Clinton campaign donors, The New York Times reported."

"“The vast scale of these secret fund-raising operations presents enormous opportunities for abuse,” said Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat, who has introduced legislation requiring the disclosure of donors to presidential libraries"

[JavaCityGal]

Great article, thank you for posting. Another interesting 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.

[Araxiel]

All of these stories lie just beneath the radar of the MSM. Yet, somehow, the Clintons get a pass almost every time. Even the recent Canada/NAFTA story was botched -- it apparently was the Clinton machine that assured the Canadians, yet that story got mangled by the MSM, and probably cost Obama many votes in Ohio.

The Clintons are among the worse political families that I can recall. They are shameless, mediocre, immoral, and arrogant. Obama could lose unless his surrogates go after Clinton hammer and tong. The "kitchen sink" strategy she employed before Ohio and Texas can be used effectively against her. Nice doesn't work in defeating the Clintons. It's like the line from the Untouchables, uttered by Sean Connery's character, Malone: "He pulls knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way and that's how you get Capone. Now.....Wh­at are you prepared to do?"

Just substitute the word Clinton for Capone and the case is made. For God's sake, fight them the way they're fighting you!

[Xander]

You know the first thing that came to mind when I saw that picture of Clinton?

Way to keep your pimp hand strong, Bill!

He's such a player:

[rollingdivision]

"One of them's mad and the other is wholly unscrupulo­us."

[Bacowall]

I have finallly come to that conclusion!!

[PLUMPLUM]

That name gave you away. Mi know seh yuh com from di Rock. We use fi seh, gwe fram mi, yuh mussi com bac a wall. Yuh so fool-fool.

Just wanted to laugh a little. Walk good.

[Susan1968]

My buddies below are upset that I chided Sam Stein's sloppy journalism and they insist I state facts.

But there are no facts in Sam Stein's piece above. Go read -- Bradley is talking about "unknowns.­"

You can't report on "unknowns.­"

This entire blog entry is innuendo. Bradley is just speculating,

"What if donors to the Clinton library ..."

"What if their tax records show ..."

Where are Bradley's facts?? Not one.

I would think that Mr. Obama, as a Harvard lawyer, would know that a lawyer should never ask a question he doesn't know the answer to.

The Obama camp has sent out these surrogates with a lame kitchen-sink strategy..­. talk about the "unknowns.­"

Well, this can backfire.

What if Hillary's tax return turns out to be squeaky clean?

What if the donor list to the Clinton library is squeaky clean?

Obama has just spent months launching his attack on something he can't prove. And when the Clintons release these documents, Obama looks goofy for making a big deal about it.

Harvard lawyer indeed. Did you know the UNI-BOMBER also graduated Harvard. Now that's a fact.

[Monkeytime]

Do you really believe those tax returns are going to look good? Do you really think she'd leave herself opened to being hammered by Russert if the picture is rosy?

If they are clean, she's done herself a tremendous disservice by not releasing them sooner.

[JavaCityGal]

Susan tries real hard for Hillary Rove Clinton, I give her credit for trying, but she is dead wrong. Why would someone say that they won't release their tax returns until they are the Democratic nominee? Think about it everyone..­...

[JavaCityGal]

Ah....but this is just setting the stage for the facts yet to come....tr­ust me on this

Where are Hillary's tax returns? Where did the Clinton new found wealth come from after the White House? They have not been vetted since leaving. Perhaps the American people would wonder what favors are expected in return for millions of dollars to the Clintons from Dubai, Arabs and Islamic organizations. Ask Dick Morris -- Clintons advisor of 20 years. He knows a thing or two - doncha think?

[jsinclair]

Well, the library donor relationships already don't look "squeaky clean" (see above NYT story about Kazakhstan deal for just one example).

As for the tax returns...­.I remember all the other paperwork that either was lost or missing or delayed. None of it every turned up "squeaky clean".

But if, remarkably, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Clinton's tax returns over the past 5 years, then it will be very puzzling why so much effort and time has gone into keeping them out of the public eye. Really, I'd be glad if there's nothing sleazy there, but I would wonder, "why not just show them sooner, then?"

It seems unlikely they will be uninterest­ing--unles­s they've found a way to hide everything (blind trusts, etc.)

[jkbowman]

So, Hillary can call Canada, but she can't call H&R Block. Now that we know she concealed information from voters in Ohio, is there any reason to trust her here?

[LAcarlito]

It is about time that the Obama surrogates took the baton and ran with these GOOD and CORRECT question. Unlike the crap Clinton is doing. The ARE the questions the ReThugs will raise in the fall when it is too late to get Obama back (if Hillary is the nominee.

Now it is time to keep the drums beatings straight through the PA primary. Do NOT let up!!