Like any good country doctor, Howard Dean has always had a knack for cutting through half-truths and innuendo and bringing the discussion back down to terra firma. The reports that Hillary has literally dozens and dozens of "fossil fuel lobbyists" giving her money is about as credible as the Wash Post's retracted smear about hundreds of FBI agents investigating her. Listen to what Dean says:
(Ironically, this outtake is being circulated by Republicans and Sanders supporter who apparently haven't actually watched the video are are relying on its deceptive title.)
Hillary took some money from some people who lobby for fossil fuels but that's not all they do and they don't work for fossil fuel companies. They probably are Washington people who collect money for candidates running in the Democratic Party. A lot of that money is going to the Democratic Party and Bernie has not contributed anything to the Democratic Party…
And although it takes longer than 60 seconds to get through the Washington Post’s detailed take-down of Sanders’ deception, it’s definitely worth it:
“When a lobbyist represents a number of different kinds of clients, it’s a little disingenuous to say that the money was bundled by ‘lobbyists for the oil and gas industry’ without a big caveat,” said Viveca Novak, editorial and communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics.
CRP is generally considered the gold standard for tracking campaign contributions, but the Sanders campaign rejects its method of counting.
As to the claim that Hillary has received donations from a “fossil fuels” Super PAC:
...this figure reflects funds provided by just two lobbyists with somewhat tenuous links to fossil fuels...
Just how tenuous? Very. Check out Ninox’s excellent diary for the deets.
Sanders is not only going negative, he’s doing it in a misleading way, and trying to damage the Democratic front-runner with innuendo. And the fact checkers at the Washington Post agree:
The Sanders campaign is exaggerating the contributions that Clinton has received from the oil and gas industry. In the context of her overall campaign, the contributions are hardly significant. It’s especially misleading to count all of the funds raised by lobbyists with multiple clients as money “given” by the fossil-fuel industry.
Three Pinocchios