UPDATED: Hillary & Richard Mellon-Scaife, Part Deaux: Oh, the Irony

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Tuesday March 25, 2008 · 9:52 PM PDT

2008/03/25 · 21:52

Update #2 at the end of the diary.

I'm pretty sure that hell has officially frozen over. Hillary Clinton may have single-handedly reversed global warming today by sitting down with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Review-Tribune, which is basically Richard Mellon-Scaife's personal vanity newspaper.

Certainly not that Richard Mellon-Scaife you're probably thinking to yourself. Not the Richard Mellon-Scaife that funded the Arkansas Project, which spent millions of dollars attempting to tie Bill and Hillary Clinton to the death of Vince Foster.

She wouldn't sit down with the paper that specifically hired a "journalist" to write stories for the Tribune-Review challenging the conclusion that Foster's death was a suicide, would she?

jthomascronin

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Tuesday March 25, 2008 · 6:32 PM PDT

2008/03/25 · 18:32

With each passing day it becomes more nauseatingly clear that the swath of destruction surrounding Hillary and Bill Clinton can only exponentially increase. They are both driving the bus and everyone around them is getting thrown under it.

Of course, this is nothing new. My first recollection of then-candidate Bill Clinton was the introduction of his letter to COL Eugene Holmes, written in 1992. It was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, which was a run-of-the-mill sleazy tactic to attempt to tar Bill as a draft dodger. The one passage of the letter, which was quite thoughtful, most often cited was the following sentence: "I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system."

jthomascronin

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Monday March 24, 2008 · 6:45 PM PDT

2008/03/24 · 18:45

As the election cycle joylessly grinds on, it's wonderful to have the occasional opportunity to enjoy a hearty laugh. Possibly even a chortle or two.

Luckily for me, I have a transcript of Hillary Clinton's stab at attaining the endorsement of the Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board. Actually, it's just the part where she's confronted with her categorical falsehood--excuse me, I mean when she "misspoke" about her trip to Bosnia. Since everyone knows this story every which way by now, I'll just write about her comments today.

jthomascronin

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Sunday March 23, 2008 · 7:05 PM PDT

2008/03/23 · 19:05

When I re-read Sen. Obama's speech the other day, I was struck by a particular passage that has generally escaped media attention. Referencing the anger that lingers in the African-American community, Barack Obama stated: "That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change."

I was particularly struck by the passage because, although I don't think it was meant to relate to the Clinton's either directly or indirectly, it seemed to so effortlessly describe one of the largest obstacles that I have always held regarding both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

jthomascronin

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Friday March 21, 2008 · 4:09 AM PDT

2008/03/21 · 04:09

Barack Obama makes me think.

Not just in a passing, superficial manner, but rather in a more contemplative, searing fashion--which I've done quite a bit in the past two days; at least as as much as the old bean will allow. Every once in a while "words" can have that type of transcendent effect. And I've come to the conclusion that I have just been made a witness to something historical; something transformational.

I hesitate to write the previous few sentences due to their self-evident ridiculousness. In fact, I wanted to wait a while to digest things a bit. Generally, I tend to avoid hyperbole by throwing up my semi-detached retro-ironic shield. Usually, it's OK for me to like something; even to think that something portends greatness. It gets a bit trickier if I were, heaven forbid, actually moved by something. My snark radar begins flashing. But then add a dollop of widespread acclaim and I'm usually out in front leading the backlash.

jthomascronin

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Wednesday March 19, 2008 · 3:42 AM PDT

2008/03/19 · 03:42

The blast was loud and seemed more distinctive than normal. Too loud, in fact; almost jarring, and it immediately snapped me out of my gauzy morning, pre-coffee haze. Although I don't remember exactly what time it occurred, it certainly wasn't after eight in the morning; probably closer to seven. I grabbed my interpreter, hopped in our team's Ford Ranger, and headed up to the front gate.

I was stationed at a Provisional Reconstruction Team facility in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, at the time. The facility/base was located off the main thoroughfare that connected Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan's largest city, with Kabul, the capital. In what seemed to me to be a bit of a cruel irony, it was at one time referred to as the "Silk Road."

jthomascronin

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Friday March 14, 2008 · 10:13 PM PDT

2008/03/14 · 22:13

Not that I'm easily shocked or taken aback, but I thought I would share a few comments from today's "Jeremiah Wright is Stepping Down" story at Politico.

Get ready for some mind-numbingly inane discourse from the knuckle-draggers. I guess marrying their sisters, cooking up some 'shine in the shed, and saving up for shoes is not keeping them sufficiently busy. Let's start off with a few of the more obvious ones.

jthomascronin

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Thursday March 13, 2008 · 9:27 PM PDT

2008/03/13 · 21:27

Although I don't believe that democrats are going to go over the cliff with Hillary Clinton, it will be white knuckle time for me in the next five weeks.

No sense in making the same arguments about why nominating Sen. Clinton is a colossally bad idea; suffice to say that if it happens, the Democratic Party's chances to win the presidency will look like the puff of smoke at the end of a Wile E. Coyote free-fall.

Obviously, it's not necessarily in the best interests of the long-term health of the Democratic Party to join Sen. Clinton in going over the side of the cliff. Let's just hope we all figure it out before we look down and and see that there's no ground beneath us.

Democrats have a historic opportunity in this election. Not just in the race/gender context, but rather to build a thirty to forty year progressive coalition. Here's hoping we don't blow it.

jthomascronin

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Thursday March 13, 2008 · 4:17 PM PDT

2008/03/13 · 16:17

Full Disclosure: I am an unabashed supporter of Sen. Barack Obama. I am also a Counterintelligence Agent in the army guard, have been deployed, and was awarded two Bronze Star Medals for my service in Afghanistan. I hope that doesn't come off as a kind of chest thumping aggrandizement, but rather, merely some base-line credibility with which to address these issues.

I joined the military in November, 2001. Like many others, my response to the September the 11th attacks was to look inward and find an avenue through which I could contribute to my country [sorry Karl Rove--it wasn't to seek therapy]; to play a small role in achieving the broad ideals on which the United States was founded, but has often fallen short.

Regardless of how one views my decision to enlist in the military; I did so because I felt mobilized to serve a cause greater than my own self interests. I did so because I ardently believed that I had not contributed enough to what I felt was one of the fundamental notions of American life: creating a better future for the next generation of Americans.

Maudlin? Perhaps. Naïve? Probably. Sucker? Maybe.

Poll

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How important is a politician's Iraq policy in securing your vote?

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Racial Politics

jthomascronin

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Tuesday March 11, 2008 · 9:02 PM PDT

2008/03/11 · 21:02

Many people have consistently accused Sen. Clinton of running a campaign straight from the Republican Party play-book, although lately that means the 3 a.m., national security nonsense and not the racial nonsense. But now, it seems increasingly clear that we're dusting off Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and having a go at the working class white racists that formed the core of George Wallace's support in 1968 and 1972.

The not-too-subtle message underlying Geraldine Ferraro's recent unhinged comments is a typical lowest common denominator bait and switch. It's the type of politics that attempts to scare up a few votes by laying the blame for whatever is wrong in someone's life somewhere else.

jthomascronin

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Monday March 10, 2008 · 9:15 PM PDT

2008/03/10 · 21:15

Imagine my surprise when I went to the ABC News website and found the following popular vote totals for the Democratic Party presidential primary:

Barack Obama--13,602,437
Hillary Clinton--13,599,882

Man . . . as Harold Ickes has incessantly repeated: "This thing's as tight as a tick." Except that, it really isn't. At least not in the context that with which the MSM is pushing the back and forth narrative.

As Max Fletcher noted in a thorough article posted today on Open Left, the actual popular vote count currently stands at:

Barack Obama--13,335,159
Hillary Clinton--12,629,468

For those of you counting at home--as I'm sure many of you are as opposed to the MSM; that is a difference of 705,691 votes.

Of course, even the real number only tells part of the story.

jthomascronin

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Monday March 10, 2008 · 6:14 AM PDT

2008/03/10 · 06:14

Although I don't believe that democrats are going to go over the cliff with Hillary Clinton, it will be white knuckle time for me in the next five weeks.

Democrats have a historic opportunity in this election. Not just in the race/gender context, but rather to build a thirty to forty year progressive coalition. Here's hoping we don't blow it.

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UPDATED: Hillary & Richard Mellon-Scaife, Part Deaux: Oh, the Irony

Under the Bus: The Increasingly Sad Clinton Legacy

Hillary: "I Took Her Stuff & Then I Left"

How Hillary Clinton is "Complicit" in her "Condition"

The Audacity of Barack Obama

Romantacizing War

Get Ready For The Repugs' Onslaught

Burning Down the House

Why Iraq Still Matters [One Reason Among Many]

Racial Politics

The Popular Vote Fallacy

The Democratic Party Ascendancy is not Inevitable