Architect Of Vast Right Wing Conspiracy "Reassesses" Hillary

"To Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Richard Mellon Scaife qualifies as a charter member of the 'vast right-wing conspiracy,'" the New York Times notes, "having bankrolled an elaborate multimillion-dollar campaign throughout the 1990s to unearth damaging information about the couple."

But in a striking about-face, Mr. Scaife now says he has changed his mind -- at least about one half of the duo.

"I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today," he wrote in an opinion article published Sunday, amid her campaign for president. "And it's a very favorable one indeed."

His sudden conversion from fervid Clinton basher to lukewarm Clinton fan occurred after Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, sat down for a 90-minute interview with reporters and editors of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper owned by Mr. Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking fortune.

Here's a taste of Scaife's op-ed:

Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.

Sen. Clinton also exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues. Her answers were thoughtful, well-stated, and often dead-on.

Particularly regarding foreign policy, she identified what we consider to be the most important challenges and dangers that the next president must confront and resolve in order to guarantee our nation's security. Those include an increasingly hostile Russia, an increasingly powerful China and increasing instability in Pakistan and South America.

Like me, she believes we must pull our troops out of Iraq, because it is time for Iraqis to handle their own destiny -- and, more important, because it is past time to end the toll on our soldiers there, to begin rebuilding our military, and to refocus our attention on other threats, starting with Afghanistan.

On domestic policy, Sen. Clinton and I might find more areas on which we disagree. Yet we also agree on others. Asked about the utter failure of federal efforts to rebuild New Orleans since the Katrina disaster, for example, she called it just what it has been -- "not just a national disgrace (but) an international embarrassment."

Comments

[billrott]

When you lie with dogs....

[strifeknot]

The rightwing is finally starting to acknowledge Hillary is one of them. What other reason to you need to not vote for her?

I was telling my Democratic friends since 1991 that the Clintons were taking them for a ride, but they wouldn't listen.

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

I wish I had listened.

[OldKnute]

Why not support Hillary?

She holds nearly every position Scaife would have her focused. Let’s not forget, according to GOP polls, that Hillary is beatable come November. A McCain landslide is Predicted.

Get it!!!

Come out in support of the opponent who is most vulnerable. Hillary is an open wound for the Dems.

About every attack the RNC has backwatered against Obama, has come to naught. His childhood, his faith, his father, his color, his family, his friends, his education, his patriotism, his ability to raise funds, not black enough, now white enough????

The more they bash Obama, the stronger he becomes. The more he is attacked the more we see of what the man really is made of. The,,, CHANGE,, that Obama has spent his whole life fighting for, his wife Michel, (a walking talking genius) his kids, his commitment to America.

Obama does NOT want to see Corporate America regulated into the stone age and unable to compete. He is advocating a PRUDENT exit from Iraq with a critical eye on al Qeada and the international threat extremism poses to the world, in particular, the Islamic Mid-East countries.

Hillary straddles the fence, in that, she is vulnerable to claims of flip-flopping, attacks on credibility. She only pulls from her base, that is NOT reaching across the isle, that is NOT narrowing divisions.

GOP Strategy?

Support the one,,,,,,,, you can BEAT.

JMO

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[MajorKong]

We truly live in interesting times.

[lynnn]

Yea and it is just getting started!

[fedupwiththis]

Murdock, now Mellon-Scaife. When are you Hillary lovers going to get what she is all about? Do they need to paint a picture? This is the kiss of death as far as her candidacy is concerned.

[joecharles]

This ole cynical neo-fascist must be very afraid of an Obama presidency!

[SCG]

Yep.

" I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. "
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Link:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/franklin_d_roosevelt.html

[lynnn]

Maybe it goes back to that D.C. power elite cult "The Family"

[dollphingurl]

i wholeheartedly concur. there is something fishy going on.

[Adagio]

Reading the comments here, I am amazed and saddened at how few get it. There is only one reason Scaife, et al are praising Hillary and that is because they want her to be the Democratic nominee, not the President. How transparent does that have to be? Can you really doubt that as soon as she won the nomination they would all turn on her like a pack of rabid wolves? To believe otherwise is... naive seems like too soft a word... maybe a "suspension of disbelief"?

[Titonwan]

"Stupid" has been working for me...

[DRaymond]

And funny thing, that was the interview when she made a point of re-energizing the Rev. Wright matter, intentionally throwing a piece of red meat at the audience most likely to make a big point of it.

[toobias]

why is it wrong for Hillary to be bashed each day by the medias and also from the obama campaign,and when she responsds she get lambasted all over again,I always said it is good for obama to talk trash its good for hillary,one is not any better then the other

[sandtats]

Why??? Because it wasn't until February, after having won 11 straight contests, out raised her by 10's of millions; after having accrued more states, delegates and a lead in the popular vote, that he was given one ounce of serious consideration, while "she who will not be denied," the inevitable, unbeatable, annointed one was being given a free pass! Obama, day after day, was labeled the "empty suit," the "how dare he" Washington outsider. That was the MSM's mantra; Obama was nothing more than an entertaining diversion en route to the coronation. And besides,especially of late, she's proven herself to be the lying, self absorbred, narcissicist we all remember from the 90's; now it's her turn to have the heat turned up under for a change. Shame on you HC for lying, for throwing a fellow Democrat under the bus, lauding McCain over Obama re: C in C bona fides; win at all costs, that's our Hillary.

[M.S. Bellows, Jr. - Huffpost Blogger]

In December Bill Clinton asked top HRC campaign officials "why aren't we attacking [Obama]?" In February, when she realized she was losing, her campaign had the gall to announce it would be "throwing the kitchen sink" at Obama. Clinton herself said attacking other Democrats was "the fun part" of the primary. Only in response did the Obama folks say, very clearly, OK, if she's taking the gloves off we will too." (In response to which, the Clinton folks keep saying Obama started it!)

If Obama has done any negative campaigning against Hillary, it's only in response to her starting it; it's NEVER used a Republican talking point against her, just Democratic ones, so as not to injure her chances in the general if she wins the nomination somehow; and it shows that he learned from John Kerry's mistake in failing to counter "Swiftwate­r."

[EspritDeVoltaire]

More proof she's really a Right Wing extremist at heart, Rove tactics, Bush pandering, Religious Right suck-up, now endorsed by Limbaugh and Scaife.

What I don't understand is why don't the Clintonistas' heads explode from the cognitive dissonance?

[new logic]

more inportantly "what's in it for him" What have the Clintons promised this neocon for his endorsement.
H&B release your tax records

[dollphingurl]

d'accord!!!

[ChrisS13]

If she's such a Republican then why do the Republicans hate her so much??? I'll answer for you since you are so drunk on Obama Koolaid. She's not a Repub. it's more Rove type BS that Obama Nation likes to spout on about. You are all an embarrassment to your own self respect with the BS rhetoric you spew on a daily basis. And WHEN Obama loses the general, you won't have to go far to place the blame. Just look in the mirror.

[nippersdad]

Only, there are a lot of us who distrust Hillary that view Obama as a compromise, a third or fourth choice. I am no member of the "Obama Nation", yet those who seem most "cult like" seem to all be Clintonistas. I thought that her husband was one of the best Republican Presidents in recent memory, I see no reason to believe that she would be any worse than he was. I still, however, view her as a Republican.

[frappe]

Mr. Scaife, kindly reserve your opinions for those who might listen -- the Rush Limbaugh ditto-headed lamebrains.

[mommadona]

"I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today," he wrote in an opinion article published Sunday, amid her campaign for president. "And it's a very favorable one indeed."

AHA!

HILLARY IS A PART OF THE VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY!

SHE'S BEEN A MOLE ALL ALONG!

YEAH, BABY......

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich

[Jacee]

I always thought that she was the one that outed Bill's tryst with Monica. Wouldn't be the first time that he cheated on her, humiliated her and we all know what she does when she gets pissed.

'Shame on YOOOUUUUUU­......'

[lynnn]

Interesting idea.

[britethere]

Now that RM Scaife is engaged to Tammy the Hooker he feels he has more in common with the Clintons. The clintons we know will use anybody for anything..­.Prostitut­ion !

[OverIt]

I don't think Hillary is really a closeted Republican but she is definitely a DINO --- Democrat in Name Only, in the sense that the future of the party means very little in her master scheme.

The problem with Hillary and the reason that so many Right Wingers/Republicans are so enamored with her lately is NOT that she SHARES their values and morals... but that they KNOW she will SELL OUT her own values and morals in order to get the POWER that she seems to relish more than the good of the American people.

POWERLUST --- in addition to all sorts of other -lusts --- has always been the Clintonian fatal flaw.

[Hallucinocynic]

One doesn't sell out their own values. It only becomes apparent that those weren't their real values in the first place. As has been demonstrated in virtually every national campaign, politicians say the words they believe Americans want to hear. The only honest politicians are those who are professionally suicidal - Truman inherited the WH and took positions that many in his own party were against, such as civil rights, because, as he put it in private conversation, "let 'em get rid of me."

This is why pols like Bradley and Kucinich never have a chance to win a nomination, much less a general election, and this is why America remains a hollow symbol for what we could be.

[OverIt]

I have to agree with you on a visceral level. In essence, ow dedicated can one be to an ideal if one will toss it out for personal benefit?

Perhaps I should rephrase..­. I believe that if Hillary had a genie that would grant her every political wish, she would be president and would, in fact, deliver on EVERY SINGLE campaign promise and policy point of her campaign.

The problem is that I also believe she would drop any of these promises and policy objectives like a hot potato if she felt is would increase her dismal chances at the presidency.

[SCG]

$caife ha$ one value a$ hi$ top concern, and it's not your$.

[foreffectivegovernment]

SCG: So does George Soros and he is backing Obama. Check him out as well. It's all about POWER and we are the pawns.

[toosinbeymen]

The kiss of Death.

[joeblow]

Pardon my cynacism, but Mr. Schaiff seems to be doing in print what Rush Limbaugh is doing over the airwaves. His faint praise is perhaps a ploy to get Pennsylvania voters to vote for Hillary just to exacerbate or compromise Democrats hopes and dreams.
He may in fact have experienced a conversion, but I, for one, am taking it with a grain---no, make that a block---of salt.