My jaw dropped last night during NBC Nightly News, when Tim Russert raised an eyebrow about the setting in which Hillary made her Wright attacks yesterday:
The setting in which she did this is particularly striking. It's a newspaper in Pittsburgh owned by Richard Mellon Scaife who described by her allies as the godfather of the vast right wing conspiracy. The man who raised questions about the suicide of Vince Foster, the death of former party chairman Ron Brown, who funded investigations of Troopergate and Whitewater. It was that setting where she decided to offer the comments about Reverend Wright.
Scaife had lunch with Bill Clinton and donated to his Foundation. His minion Chris Ruddy interviewed Bill Clinton and wrote a puff piece about him in NewsMax.
This is a bigger story than if Bill Clinton and Ken Starr decided to become best friends forever. This is like OJ and the Goldman Family developing an alliance. What is going on?
I believe this is the underplayed story of the campaign season and I wrote a bit about the odd relationships between the Clintons and the Clinton-haters in a previous diary, which you may want to look at for reference.
Why is this important?
The investigations that hounded the Clintons are an undeniable part of our country's history. They were a source of major distraction during the Clinton administration. The scandals led to the impeachment of a US President. As a result of these attacks, progressives such as myself would forget about the ways that the Clintons sold us out on issue after issue in the 90's and rally to their sides as they fought the evil right wingers.
Why, after all of that, would Bill Clinton be granting Ruddy an interview?
Why would Ruddy do a puff piece?
Why would Scaife donate to the Clinton Foundation?
Why would Hillary choose to make the Wright attacks with the rabidly partisan right wing editorial board of Scaife's Newspaper?
Is it credible that figures like Scaife and Ruddy have "seen the light," and become Clinton allies?
Is it credible that Bill Clinton is merely buttering these people up like he did with Rupert Murdoch in exchange for more favorable coverage? Or Rush Limbaugh in exchange for crossover votes? The Arkansas Project is an order of magnitude worse than anything done by Fox News, the New York Post, or Rush Limbaugh. The people accused the Clintons of murder, folks!!!!
I was surprised that Tim Russert raised an eyebrow last night and called the setting "striking," but look around the mainstream media landscape and there is no interest in pursuing this story.
When it is Barack Obama, guilt by association is ok and they hound the Wright and Rezko stories endlessly.
But when the Clintons appear to have developed a cozy relationship with the very people who they claim to have persecuted them over so many years, an article of faith among hard-core Clinton loyalists, there is little media interest in elucidating the nature of this collaboration.
Why is that?
Why is the media not doing its job and leaving one of the biggest stories of the year uninvestigated?
Where is the outrage?
Can anybody clue me in here? I am very puzzled.