I searched for this story on the site but didn't find anything. If I missed an earlier post, please let me know and I'll delete this diary.
In the Memphis Daily News on Friday, an article was published which gives deep insight into just why some Superdelegates are not backing Hillary Clinton and a possible reason why a lot of them are, and maybe why some are noncommittal.
Supposedly, Congressman Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, an uncommitted superdelegate, was contacted by the Clinton campaign in hopes that they could woo him to commit to her campaign. The story posted on the front page of The Hill newspaper said that Davis had turned down an invitation to meet with her team.
"He says that's not true," U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., told The Daily News about Davis' refusal to meet with Clinton. "But that's on the front page of The Hill. I told him he might as well go ahead and endorse Barack (Obama), because once Hillary sees that he's a dead man anyway."
Oh, it gets better. Cooper dishes on Hillary's dirty tactics. More below the fold.
We all know the story of how in 1993, Hillary Clinton was tasked with bringing about health care reform. She says she worked with Congress to get a bill passed, but I'd never heard this story before. Apparently, Congressman Cooper had already written a health care bill.
"They turned up their nose at my bill, and that's fine. But then they constructed this secret 500-person task force to draft a whole new bill - and I knew it would go nowhere," Cooper said. "So I went privately to the White House to warn (Hillary Clinton). No publicity. No nothing.
"She brought in a camera to record the meeting. And she has not released the memos on this meeting. She immediately declared war on me. I warned her we didn't even have the votes (for her bill) in our subcommittee. She said, 'We're going to (politically) cut your legs off.' I've never gotten such a cold reception as I got from her."
Team Clinton then set up a war room to go against him and defeat his Senate bid in 1994. He says they hired a former Nashville reporter to head the war room. But during this time, President Clinton was as nice as he could be to Rep. Cooper, playing golf with him, running with him, and asking him to hang out at the White House.
Cooper is the state chairman of Obama's campaign in Tennessee. He's also my Representative and was nice enough to send me a letter thanking me for registering to vote in Tennessee this year. I thought that was a nice touch. Of course if he'd known I'd voted for Obama, he may have even signed the letter personally. [Update 4: Wasn't him. I found the letter and discovered it was sent by my State Senator Joe Haynes instead.]
But I digress. Here's what he says about Hillary's supporters:
"I respect Hillary supporters because they haven't had the chance to get to know her like I have. She does not have the political skills of her husband. Or Barack. You need somebody who can bring people together. She criticized my health care bill because it wouldn't achieve universal coverage until 1998. Well, today we'd be celebrating the 10th anniversary of having every American with insurance." (emphasis mine)
So, ladies and gentlemen, be sure to thank Senator Clinton for killing Cooper's bill. Amazing.
Go read the entire article at the Memphis Daily News. It's eye-opening.
[Update] (h/t to bumblebums) Story in NYT back in February gives even more details on how Cooper's bill was killed: The Cooper Concerns
[Update 2] Wow, thanks everybody! I think this is only my second or third Rec list diary.
[Update 3] Here's one previous diary on the subject: Clinton's History Against Universal Health Care by broskeeto
[Update 5] Thanks again for all the rec's and great comments! I've got to go do the dishes and laundry now (a mother's work is never done), but I'll try to check in again later. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Including Hillary. :)
[Update 6] It's after midnight here so I'm going to bed now. I'll check back in before work Monday morning to try to respond to any more comments, but I won't be able to monitor the diary during work hours tomorrow so if this stays up on the Rec list during the day, I'll not be able to address any further comments until Monday evening. Thanks again for the great discussion in the comments.