The Old Eighteen

Richard Mellon Scaife endorses Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has finally received the much-coveted (well, by her and the Republicans, anyway) endorsement of Richard Mellon Scaife, the guy who funded much of that "vast right-wing conspiracy" that she and her husband had to contend with during his administration:

It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state's primary Tuesday. Most of the state's major papers have endorsed Barack Obama.

In its endorsement, Tribune-Review editors said Obama is too inexperienced to be president and that his recent comments about bitter voters living in small towns showed a lack of respect for middle-class values.

"In sharp contrast, Clinton is far more experienced in government — as an engaged first lady to a governor and a president, as a second-term senator in her own right," the paper said. "She has a real voting record on key issues. Agree with her or not, you at least know where she stands instead of being forced to wonder."

[...] In the 1990s, Scaife helped support conservative groups and publications investigating Bill Clinton's financial dealings and sex life.

Scaife spent $2.3 million to fund a series of articles by The American Spectator magazine that dug into Bill Clinton's behavior as governor of Arkansas.

The magazine reported that Clinton had asked state troopers to help procure women for him and that he had sexually harassed a state worker named Paula Jones. Jones's legal case against Clinton helped launch an independent counsel investigation that eventually exposed his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton famously defended her husband at the time, saying the allegations were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" heavily funded by Scaife.

I think this pretty much cinches Hillary's metamorphosis from Democrat to Karl Rove Republican.  When you're cozying up to the people who spent most of the 1990's using every dirty trick in the book to destroy your husband when he was president, you've really sunk about as low as you can go.

Republicans + Hillary = Love

Hillary Clinton may be estranging herself from more and more Democrats with the increasingly desperate and divisive tactics that she is using to try and steal the party's presidential nomination, but she has won over the hearts of some prominent Republicans and is returning the love in kind.  After appearing before the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to kiss the ring of its owner, Emperor Palpatine Richard Mellon Scaife, Hilary won a glowing review from him in a recent opinion article:

Sen. Clinton came to the Trib anyway and, for 90 minutes, answered questions.

Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her.

Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.

Sen. Clinton also exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues. Her answers were thoughtful, well-stated, and often dead-on.

[...] Does all this mean I'm ready to come out and recommend that our Democrat readers choose Sen. Clinton in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary?

No -- not yet, anyway. In fairness, we at the Trib want to hear Sen. Barack Obama's answers to some of the same questions and to others before we make that decision.

But it does mean that I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today than before last Tuesday's meeting -- and it's a very favorable one indeed.

Yes, that would be the same Richard Mellon Scaife who funded much of the attack machine that nearly derailed Clinton's presidency during the '90's, even pushing the idea that the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered.  Which makes it all the more revolting to hear statements like this from Clinton surrogates:

“I never thought I would utter these words, but I would like to shake his hands for keeping his mind open despite the predisposed prejudice toward her,” said Lanny Davis, a longtime Clinton supporter who served as President Clinton’s lawyer during the late 1990s.

Hillary has been getting a lot of love lately from the right wing: from Rush Limbaugh, who has urged his Republican dittoheads to cross over and vote for her in Democratic primaries, and from unfair and imbalanced Fox News, who Clinton crony Ed Rendell praised during a recent appearance on the network:

"I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present, Fox has done the fairest job, has remained the most objective of all the cable networks," Rendell told host Steve Doocy. "You actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right."

Fox's "objective" coverage of Barack Obama has included comparisons between his former pastor Jeremiah Wright and Adolph Hitler, which makes total sense if you overlook the little details, like the whole "killed six million Jews and touched off the bloodiest war in human history" thing.  But the love from Fox has hardly been limited to positive news coverage: Hillary Clinton has received over $191,000 in political donations* from employees of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), including $6,500 from News Corp's owner, Rupert Murdoch, who ranks up there with Scaife in right-wing villainy.

As Democrats, we should start asking ourselves some hard but necessary questions about why we're allowing our nomination process to be dragged out in a divisive and destructive way by someone maintaining such a cozy relationship with the very people we're supposed to be joining together to fight against this November.

* Source: Open Secrets (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)