'Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy' Leader's Newspaper Backs Clinton

PHILADELPHIA — Could it be the "vast right wing conspiracy" is having second thoughts? Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton's impeachment in 1998.

It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state's primary Tuesday. Most of the state's major papers have endorsed Barack Obama.

In its endorsement, Tribune-Review editors said Obama is too inexperienced to be president and that his recent comments about bitter voters living in small towns showed a lack of respect for middle-class values.

"In sharp contrast, Clinton is far more experienced in government _ as an engaged first lady to a governor and a president, as a second-term senator in her own right," the paper said. "She has a real voting record on key issues. Agree with her or not, you at least know where she stands instead of being forced to wonder."

Clinton met with the Tribune-Review's editorial board, including Scaife, last month. Afterward, Scaife wrote an editorial titled "Hillary, Reassessed," declaring how impressed he had been by the former first lady.

"Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her," Scaife wrote.

In the 1990s, Scaife helped support conservative groups and publications investigating Bill Clinton's financial dealings and sex life.

Scaife spent $2.3 million to fund a series of articles by The American Spectator magazine that dug into Bill Clinton's behavior as governor of Arkansas.

The magazine reported that Clinton had asked state troopers to help procure women for him and that he had sexually harassed a state worker named Paula Jones. Jones's legal case against Clinton helped launch an independent counsel investigation that eventually exposed his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton famously defended her husband at the time, saying the allegations were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" heavily funded by Scaife.

Comments

[William1950]

The one and only reason that a conservative newspaper is endorsing Hillary is that they think she will LOSE in the general election..­.. and that Obama will WIN ...

[Bertha40869]

I don't even know what to make of this farce of an endorsement. People all over the world (who, I might add, know more about our politics than some of our own citizens do, but I digress) are paying attention to this, and I am sure that Hillary isn't fooling anyone outside of the U.S. borders. It's a shame that people are blindly following her like sheep to the slaughter. Who said again that Obama supporters are sipping the Kool-aid?

[CTmom13]

Told Ya Hllary Clinton IS REALLY A REPUBLICIAN!!! So is Sen Liebermann

[bison1]

Is Hillary apart of the "vast right wing conspiracy?

[halyscomet]

Depends on what would make her look most favorable, if such were possible.

Even then, she would lie about it...

[sp3akthetruth]

depends what the definition of "is" is...

[WFV]

So let me get this straight: She welcomes an endorsement from people who did whatever they could to impeach her husband, and slams an organization that was formed to defend her husband.

I can't wait to vote Tuesday and hope everyone in Pennsylvania will too. Maybe we can shut both of her mouths by handing her a big fat loss. She's gotta go.

[LittleSanityLeft]

Get your friends and neighbors together, every vote counts!

[Testtubebaby]

How in the world can anyone dismiss this ...good grief is right

[ddlrid]

"Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her," Scaife wrote.

****

Boy, to be a fly on the wall for THAT conversation! Hillary Clinton, now OFFICIALLY a member of the vast right wing conspiracy. McCain/Clinton '08

[mommadona]

"They LIKE me...they really, really LIKE me!"
~The other Flying Nun...~

[ljsfolly]

Funny how things work out. These people are happy to talk about Bill wanted them to pimp for him but eh newspaper has become her friend? Weird crap when she has bitched about the right wing conspired againest her and Bill since she and he lied about the sex and Monica in the white house. Make me wonder what kind of deal she has struck with them as we have learned she doesn't nothing without somehting changing hands.

[thymetwo]

Makes you wonder what kind of deal she made with that devil

[Nonamnesiac]

Hillary has an incredibly limited world view. She is a warmongerer and a true believer. She has bought, hook, line and sinker, the neo-Con world view. She has even signed on to commit my family to further wars in the Middle East -- and has her military aged daughter on the campaign stump pushing to put my family in harm's way.

If you analyze her closely, especially prior to the past few months, but if you look closely even the past few months, she is a female version of Lieberman, except slightly to the right of him on domestic issues.

[kettletop]

I don't think that is true that she is a warmongerer nor has she bought the neo-Con world view. She is playing at polititcs the way she knows how to. It isn't pretty, nor nice, but she see it as just the way things are and anyone who tries to tell her otherwise she pegs as naive.

She voted for the war because she thought it was politically the best move for her at the time. Everything she does is seen through that lens of what's in it for Hillary?

Your family in harm's way is a consequence of her hubris and ambition, but not any malice on her part. I believe she truly does want the troops back home, because that would be good for her career.

Whether or not she is a Lieberman will be determined when she loses the nomination--does she then try as an independent like Lieberman or does she have a pity party and fade away or does she cheerfully and convincingly back OBama? If I am right about her, she does the latter. Because that is what would be good for Hillary.

[Denni]

As Ann Coulter said of Clinton, "HIllary is our girl".... The RW is welcomed to her!

[moda31]

"they like me! they really really like me!"-Hillary "DINO" Clinton

[colingav]

I think he's sincere, Hillary has gone so far right to create a difference with Barack that she's able to truly appeal to this kind of person.

[LoloZ]

No surprise, for one Hillary is more conservative and hawkish than she'd like us to believe. And two, of course they want Hillary, because she will be more easily defeated. Like she said herself, she has lots of baggage and even though they've been through it there is much more there than when Bill left the white house. It's a veritable treasure trove waiting for the Republicans.

[RThM]

Wow. Endorsed by Richard Mellon Scaife. Is she even a Democrat any more? f she had any she would not have this scumbag as her endorser. She would walk right out of his newspaper.

[SLone08]

Makes sense to me... a Republican newspaper endorsing a Republican candidate. What's so strange about that?