How Hillary will fight assaults from the Right

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: GOP hawks circling Clinton's campaign
Conservative attacks come early. She says she knows how foes think and how to defeat them.
By Stephen Braun, Times Staff Writer
February 17, 2007

....Hillary Clinton's longtime spokesman, Howard Wolfson, dismissed the early GOP moves with characteristic terseness: "One thing people know about the Clintons is they know how to fight back."...

Clinton campaign insiders say Web-savvy staffers are immersed in monitoring suspected enemy blogs and websites and conservative cable TV and radio talk shows.

Clinton also reportedly spent lavishly to hire a large team of opposition researchers headed by Judd Legum, previously research director for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank headed by former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta.

Clinton allies say she helped launch Podesta's group in 2003 and played a key role in starting Media Matters for America, which describes itself as "monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." Run by David Brock, a former right-wing muckraker who once targeted the Clintons and now defends them, Media Matters was a latecomer to the Swift-boat volleys of 2004 but now has a full staff of researchers.

Brock said the emerging conservative efforts targeting Hillary Clinton operate as an "organized defamation industry" using "the same tactics in mutually reinforcing ways, often with the same funding, with a vast media echo chamber at their disposal."...

Clinton intimates said she would also eventually rely on veterans of her husband's administration such as James Carville and Paul Begala to run interference on television, and on the street-fighter instincts of longtime political aide Harold M. Ickes for behind-the-scenes advice.

"We tend to think the blogs will drive a lot of the news," Ickes said recently.

"Even if you think it's completely false or outlandish, you ignore it at your peril."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hillary18feb18,0,3735952,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[blueinindiana]

1. Go Hillary!

It's the only way you can fight these pigs is to hit them in the mouth!

You have to debunk this this shit before it has time to grow legs.



Kerry laid down and took it look where it got him!

[Tellurian]

5. Yep, you're absolutely right!

hmm.. I have a few ideas of my own..

[blm]

11. Bill Clinton had Kerry fighting FOR him in 92. Where were Clinton's fighters

standing up for Kerry when it was his run?

Kerry and others in Congress were pummeling Bush1 for years without let up. Then Kerry defended Clinton on the draft-dodging smears.

Kerry had Clinton spending Bush2's term supporting him publically on every major military decision - so did Hillary. They and their team didn't exactly show up to help Kerry's fight.

And Wolfson fought for Lamont as hard as he fought for Kerry - maybe Clinton's team will only REALLY fight for the goals they really want. They sure didn't show up for Kerry as promised, and sure didn't do the job for Lamont, either.

BTW - ever hear Bush defend himself? Nope. People did it for him. Giuliani, McCain, and Dole were out there almost every night on cable shows. Where were the bigname Dems showing up to counter them?

[tblue]

2. I'm glad she's preparing herself to fight back. Rapid Response and preemption are critical in this

day and age. But I hope she's careful with Carville, considering who his spousal unit is.

[babylonsister]

3. Wow! The Clintons started Media Matters, too? That might be her downfall, too. nt

[illinoisprogressive]

4. She's busy doing underhanded to her opponets. And then boo hoos when

someone on the right says something. She is playing underhanded ball right now.
Harry reid is neutral so won't endorse anyone so, she goes and hires his son a few days after she paid 200,000 to a pastor and political S. Carolinian to trash Obama and endorse her. I hear Obama one upped her at a rally today throwing it back in her face.

[Tellurian]

6. Well, to avoid rumors..Lets suppy us with a link..

you know- put up or shut up!

Otherwise, I'm not in the mood!

[papau]

7. For the record - That S. Carolinian was offered same cash by Obama and Edwards - it was a firm that

he runs a PR firm. As hotline noted 5 candidates wanted his services and his endorsement - and the contract offered by Clinton to his firm was not the highest value offer on the table.

The fellow is well respected as someone whose vote can not be bought.

So sliming Hillary or Jackson seems like underhanded crap being thrown at Hillary.



http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/02/an_endorsement.html

Yesterday, Jackson confirmed that he had decided to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton, less than six days after his public relations firm, Sunrise Enterprises, agreed to a contract with Clinton's campaign worth at least $10,000 a month through the 2008 elections - a total of $210,000. (The contract has not been signed.)
A few days before that, Jackson was deep in negotiations with Steve Hildebrand, a senior strategist for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. On the table was a contract worth in excess of $5K a month, beginning on 3/15/07. Separately, Obama was personally soliciting Jackson's endorsement.
There's no question that the contract and the negotiations are legal. Sunrise is the oldest political consulting firm run by African Americans in the state and its services were in demand: at least five candidates, including Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Joe Biden, reached out to Jackson.

[oasis]

9. Unsourced and unsubtantiated slanders against Dem candidates will not be tolerated.n/t

[benny05]

8. Luckily

Media Matters is pretty objective. I don't know at this juncture that they will fall in line for Clinton each time. Oliver Willis, one of Media Matters' employees, has been pretty even with most of the candidates, albeit I think he leans towards Obama on his own blog. I think he has a right to support whoever he wants on his blog.

[libneo]

10. Unfortunately, a lot of rumors against Mrs. Clinton start here at DU

either by republican trolls, or by rival people ( meaning Obama, Edwards,etc).

[uppityperson]

12. Speaking of those sorts, I am glad you are no longer among us.

[Hekate]

13. Go, Hillary. Fight those slime-weasels tooth and claw. It's the only way. nt

[DemCam]

14. Another reason she's strong.

thanks for this article. helps assuage the bashing from our comrades.