Friday April 18, 2008, 4:02 pm
At a small closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party -- and MoveOn.org in particular -- for many of her electoral defeats, saying activists had "flooded" state caucuses and "intimidated" her supporters, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by The Huffington Post.

"Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."

Senator Clinton's remarks depart radically from the traditional position of presidential candidates who in the past have celebrated high levels of turnout by party activists and partisans as a harbinger for their own party's success -- regardless of who is the eventual nominee -- in the general election showdown.

The comments also contradict Clinton's previous statements praising this year's elevated Democratic turnout in primaries and caucuses, and appear to blame her caucus defeats on newly energized grassroots voter groups that she has lauded in the past as "lively participants" in American democracy.

"You've been asking the tough questions," Clinton said in April of last year at a MoveOn.org sponsored Virtual Townhall. "You've been refusing to back down when any of us who are in political leadership are not living up to the standards that we should set for ourselves... I think you have helped to change the face of American politics for the better... both online, and in the corridors of power."

Senator Clinton's criticism followed MoveOn's endorsement of Barack Obama in early February.

In a statement to The Huffington Post, MoveOn's Executive Director Eli Pariser reacted strongly to Clinton's remarks: "Senator Clinton has her facts wrong again. MoveOn never opposed the war in Afghanistan, and we set the record straight years ago when Karl Rove made the same claim. Senator Clinton's attack on our members is divisive at a time when Democrats will soon need to unify to beat Senator McCain. MoveOn is 3.2 million reliable voters and volunteers who are an important part of any winning Democratic coalition in November. They deserve better than to be dismissed using Republican talking points."

Howard Wolfson, communications director for the Clinton campaign, verified the authenticity of the audio. When asked if Clinton's statement suggested dismay over high Democratic turnout and elevated activist energy, Wolfson replied: "I'll let the statement stand as is." But he elaborated on Clinton's charge that these same party activists were engaged in acts of intimidation against her supporters: "There have been well documented instances of intimidation in the Nevada and the Texas caucuses, and it is a fact that while we have won 4 of the 5 largest primaries, where participation is greatest, Senator Obama has done better in caucuses than we have."

The disclosure of Clinton's remarks disparaging the prominence of party activists in the caucus process comes after she repeatedly suggested that Obama's electability had been compromised because he had allegedly offended other key Democratic constituencies.

This story was developed in cooperation with OffTheBus to which reporter Celeste Fremon is a regular contributor.

Friday April 18, 2008, 4:30 pm
WOW! That's all I can say!

Friday April 18, 2008, 5:28 pm
BMutiny ... wasn't MOVE ON organized to defend Bill Clinton against the "right wing con$piracy" Hillary was screaming about?

What irony in $hrillary's comments ... especially when people disagree with her.

$hrillary is GeeDumbya Bu$h in a dre$$, errr, I should've written pat $uit.

Friday April 18, 2008, 11:27 pm
Hillary and Bill don't like young voters, they don't like Democratic party activists, they don't like educated voters [who overwhelmingly support Obama], they don't like the Democratic Party leadership [especially Nancy Pelosi], they don't like African-Americans supporting Obama, they don't like the caucus states, they don't like California elitists [although they spend a lot of time raising money from California elitists] and they certainly can't like the 35,000 people who turned out tonight to hear Obama in Philadelphia. But they sure do like those 60+ working class women.

Is it any wonder that Hillary has managed to take a 30-point polling advantage and in just four months transform it into a 5-point disadvantage?

The Clintons have managed the worst Presidential campaign in modern polling history---it is the political equivalent of the sinking of the Titanic, yet she claims she is ready to run the government on Day One. This woman can't even run a political campaign, why should anyone trust her with running the government?

Friday April 18, 2008, 11:30 pm
Amen, Blue.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 8:20 am
I have to agree that Hillary is certainly dividing the Democratic Party, and the Republicans are lovin it to use a McDonald's ad slogan. She should be trying to unite the party rather than critisize MoveOn.org. I don't believe any of their activists intimidated anyone at her caucuses or primaries for that matter. Hillay's downfall is for her not telling the turth, and other gaffes she made during some of her speeches. Bill Clinton is doing more harm than good. Like McCain she would be an extension of the Bush Administation and I believe we've all had enough of those criminals running our country. Hillary lied about the 3:00am ad that is nine yrs. old, lied about Bsonia, and lied about thowing her book bag across the room in anger. It is a well known fact that she has a strong dislike for Nancy Pelosi, and I don't believe Hillary supported the impeachment of Bush/Cheney? If I'm wrong then let me know and I will correct this statement. She is still undecided about what she would do to end the war in Iraq, which she voted for, and Obama did not. She is now becoming a disgruntled candidate who seems bent on destroying the Democratic party as Bill Clinton did during his second term in office. Way to go Bill.

Noted, thanks Blue B.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 11:32 am
Hillary Clinton is slamming party activists in general, and she uses Move On as an example. How many Move On members live in Iowa? Enough to bring her to third place there?

She has lost the core of the democratic support tonight. No candidate can win without the party activists, they are the heart that pumps blood up in the body.

It is hard to reconcile this statement with the claim by her supporters that she leads among registered democrats. Now, if you think about it, that isn't exactly a reason to think she's a lot more electable -- the democratic base is going to support the party nominee, so the one group she cites a lead in are actually the easiest ones for Obama to pull on behind him when he unifies the party next month -- but going after the party base is a recipe for disaster.

Moreover, she is again using the Republican talking points. If she wants to run as McCain VP, she is doing well. But is she wants to run as democratic nominee...

Saturday April 19, 2008, 11:33 am
Hillary Clinton's Donors Are on the Attack Again Don't these rich people have better things to do? Just a suggestion, but it might be a wiser use of their time to raise the money to pay off Hillary's debts, which were $8.7 million at the end of February...

Saturday April 19, 2008, 11:34 am
Hillary Clinton Slams MoveOn With Karl Rove's Lies Jane Hamscher: I've tried to stay out of the pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other progressive organizations -- this is completely unacceptable.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 2:25 pm
"HuffPo Catches Hillary Dissing MoveOn

From the gigantic red letters and extremely unflattering photo of Hillary on the front page of Huffington Post today, you might have thought a security camera had caught her raiding the First National Bank of Scranton. But no. Turns out that a couple of months ago, she said a few things about certain liberal activists, particularly MoveOn, that were not entirely nice. Particularly about some tactics involved during the caucus contests.

Yep, thats all it is. On the audio, her voice is calm and her thoughts are quite reasonable. What a big load of nothing. And besides, as MoveOn does not exactly have a great reputation among the public at large, a Hillary vs MoveOn storyline might not be that bad. Personally, I think HuffPo might be in a bit of a panic that Hillary could win decisively in PA".

Sometimes you OBama people really are a bit too much...as for the "party activists" seems moveon.org has been contacting people who have left because of supporting Obama, trying to get them to come back.

by the clip from above is from www.taylormarsh.com you might want to go there and broaden your horrizons or just stop drinking the kool-aid all together. BTW I was an BO supporter until Jan. I started seeing some behaviors that I felt were not Presidetnial or Statesman like at all.
OH and for any of you who would have the courage to check out anytihng he has said about himself or his work in the legislature state or federal- I might suggest going to factcheck.org (like his having authored 900 bills...not)or you could also go to www.obamaunveiled.com I'm sure you'll find much there as well.
Have a good day.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 2:41 pm
Kerry, just a reminder of the $hrillary lie$ and why no one trusts her any more:

It has already been pretty well established that there is nothing that Hillary Clinton won’t do to get elected, be it racist comments, slandering her opponent and pretending she has all this experience, when in truth it is only experience with failure and experience in lying. Now for the granddaddy of them all…her lie about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia.

FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Mrs. Clinton has been caught telling a whole string of lies. She claims that as first lady she “helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act.” Actually, Senator Chris Dodd was the author and worked for its passage beginning in 1986, which is six years before Bill Clinton was elected. It was passed twice by Congress during the presidency of President George H.W. Bush, and vetoed both times. When Clinton ran for present, he merely promised to sign the FMLA.

Bill Clinton signed the FMLA only 16 days after being sworn in on February 5, 1993 - and there is no evidence whatsoever that Hillary played any role in helping it get passed by the Democratic Congress. Given that Bill Clinton promised to sign it during the ‘92 campaign, Hillary can’t even argue that she even helped persuade him to sign it.

NAFTA

All through debates and her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has been saying to everyone, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning." Now that we know from 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that Hillary Clinton was an ardent advocate for NAFTA. She held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval. Hillary Clinton was in the thick of the maneuvering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement.

Now official records of her time as First Lady show that Clinton was the featured speaker at a closed-door session where 120 prominent women were lobbied by Clinton to pressure their congressional representatives to approve NAFTA. ABC News reporting on the session reveals that "her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA" and that "there was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time;" these details have now been completely confirmed,

She lied to voters and the result was her win in Ohio…

Then, of course, there's BOSNIA ... watch the video ... so you can hear Hillary condemn herself as a liar:

HILLARY CLINTON'S HYPOCRISY ON VIDEO (UPDATED)... The most effective part is that is was entirely in her own words. Occasionally there are questions ...the audience, but there is no announcer coming in and dubbing over or reading statements, this is straight from the source

Saturday April 19, 2008, 3:49 pm
Who Will Be Thrown Under the Clinton Bus Next? Without Move On, she would not be Senator Clinton. She would be the wife of disgraced-and-removed former President Clinton. It's a pattern, of tossing aside key supporters, when she believes the political situation calls for it.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 4:41 pm
For Clintons, a Time to Find Truest Friends

Another reason Hillary Clinton is losing may be explained in tomorrow's NY Times. The Clinton campaign seems to spend a lot of time figuring out which disloyal Democrats to hate -- and to what degree they should hate them. The Clinton campaign is on life support and they are busy making an enemies list.

Last year, word was that Team Clinton basically went around to donors and others with a clear message, which I'll paraphrase here:
Get on the bus, NOW. If you don't get on the bus, NOW, you will never get on the bus. This is the winning bus and we're going to remember who didn't get on early because when you try to get on, there won't be any seats left.
Despite the warnings, a lot of people took a different bus.

It does sound like the crew at the Clinton HQ puts a lot of time into tracking who, in their minds, has screwed them over. John Kerry is currently at the top of the hate list (a top Clinton supporter says Kerry is now "dead" to the Clintons):
Mr. Kerry, his top aides and family members have received varying degrees of tongue-lashing from Clinton surrogates, chiefly two top fund-raisers — John Coale and Peter Maroney — with previous close ties to Mr. Kerry.

(Quick aside: Mr. Coale is married to Greta Van Susteren from FOX News. Oh, and for what it's worth, they're both Scientologists.)

Now, I'm just saying that it might have behooved the staffers, fundraisers and consultants associated with Team Clinton to put some time into being decent to those who could have helped them. However, Team Clinton took a different approach -- and look where it got them. The arrogance of that campaign, and the sense of entitlement, permeated everything they did. John and I learned first-hand that if you weren't 100% with them every step of the way, even if you went far out of your way to help them on numerous occasions, you were persona non grata - not needed. Not that we ever wanted to be needed by Team Clinton, but we saw how they treated people who ever strayed from the reservation. And we weren't the only ones to experience the special charm that is Team Clinton. Lots of political types -- and reporters -- we've spoken to have similar stories of how they too were mistreated by the campaign. It's a window into the character of the campaign, and its leader - and it isn't pretty.

This arrogance and vindictiveness of the Clintons is important to understand. It helps explain why Hillary won't get out of the race even though she can't win it. The world revolves around Hillary and Bill. They're willing to destroy anyone who gets in their way. And if the majority of the Democratic voters, the majority of the states, and the majority of the delegates get in their way, then they'll be on the top of the list. Right after John Kerry.

Labels: hillary clinton

Saturday April 19, 2008, 5:56 pm
Report: Hillary Clinton Slams Democratic Activists at Private FundraiserSen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had harsh criticism for the "activist base" of the Democratic Party during a private fundraiser for her campaign

"We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party," said Clinton, heard on an audio clip at Huffington. "MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers.

"[T]hey are very driven by their view of our positions," continued Clinton, "and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."

Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, which officially endorsed Obama's candidacy this February, released the following statement to Huffington in response to the report:

Senator Clinton has her facts wrong again. MoveOn never opposed the war in Afghanistan, and we set the record straight years ago when Karl Rove made the same claim. Senator Clinton's attack on our members is divisive at a time when Democrats will soon need to unify to beat Senator McCain. MoveOn is 3.2 million reliable voters and volunteers who are an important part of any winning Democratic coalition in November. They deserve better than to be dismissed using Republican talking points.

Reaction among progressive bloggers has been swift.

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake writes that she's "tried to stay out of the [Clinton-Obama] pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other progressive organizations -- this is completely unacceptable. 'MoveOn opposed military action in Afghanistan' is a Republican talking point, articulated specifically and purposefully by Karl Rove."

Quips Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (a.k.a. Kos) at Daily Kos, "Well, for a campaign that has morphed into nothing but 'Republican talking points,' it shouldn't come as any surprise."

Jonathan Singer at MyDD says that "even more astounding than Clinton's specific attacks on MoveOn, a grassroots organization founded to defend her husband against the Republican power-grab that was the 1998 impeachment, an organization that is made up of more than three million activists, most of whom are diehard in their loyalty to the Democratic Party, is the fact that Clinton is maligning the Democratic base, specifically those who have been driven to the polls at least in part in response to the Iraq War."

Oliver Willis writes, "You don't become the nominee of the Democratic/progressive movement by undercutting the Democratic/progressive movement."

The full story is available at this link.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 6:58 pm
We need real candidates. I support Cynthia McKinney, Alan Keyes and Carol Moseley Braun.

Saturday April 19, 2008, 7:26 pm
Everytime I think MAYBE Hillary might have something going for her, I read something else about her that I'm not happy with!

Saturday April 19, 2008, 9:02 pm
Alan Keyes, are you kidding, Mr. Barker? And who has what ax to grind with the Clintons, who knows what the real truth is about anything. All I know is Maya Angelou is for her and that is enough for me, and also Elton John, Obama is ok but he will get creamed by the dirty republicans in November mark my words.

Sunday April 20, 2008, 6:33 pm

Fear Not.... Hillary and the deregulated corporate military empire in washington will save us all from our totally unnecessary freedom.