Clinton Gang Behind Media Hits on Dean?
Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean is plummeting
in the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire after a series of reports tarnishing
his image have appeared in the press.
Capitalizing on the Dean plunge is none other than the hand-picked candidate
of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Gen. Wesley Clark, whose poll numbers are
skyrocketing as the media ignore one outrageous Clark blunder after another.
Is it a coincidence that Dean's political problems seem to have exploded as
ex-president Clinton and his minions take a more active role in Clark's
campaign?
On Tuesday the New York Post's Fred Dicker reported that Clinton was
personally calling potential donors on Clark's behalf - despite the
ex-president's public pledge to remain neutral.
On Wednesday the Clark campaign announced that a boatload of new staffers -
Clintonistas all - would be added to his campaign to supplement the already
bulging ranks of ex-Clinton officials running his operation.
That same day a confidential letter written to Clinton by Gov. Dean in 1995
was splashed across the front page of USA Today. The Vermont Democrat was urging
the then-president to take unilateral military action in Bosnia - a position
that makes his anti-war stance in Iraq seem more than a little hypocritical.
Speculation about how the press got their hands on Dean's private missive
centered on Clinton. "I'd have to guess that Clinton leaked it himself, as part
of his continuing effort to derail Howard Dean's campaign to clear the way for
Hillary in 2008," posited top radio talker Rush Limbaugh.
Wednesday night the Dean campaign suffered another blow when ABC News ran
with a story that some are calling Howard Dean's "Troopergate."
In fact, the allusion to Clinton's earlier use of security guards to procure
sex partners bore no resemblance to the Dean imbroglio, in which the Vermont
governor is said to have once helped a state trooper in a child custody dispute
who was later charged with wife-beating.
For those who have bucked the Clintonista machine in days gone by, it must
seem like a case of deja vu. Clinton sex accuser Kathleen Willey, for instance,
had the same thing happen to her when the White House decided to release her
personal letters to Clinton in 1998.
Others, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, saw ugly details from their
private lives suddenly splashed across the front pages, as happened just days
before Giuliani decided to end his Senate bid against Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani's replacement in the race, Rep. Rick Lazio, was immediately targeted
by the Clinton Securities and Exchange Commission, which launched a probe into a
meager $16,000 profit on a Lazio investment.
While there's no smoking gun connecting Clark's campaign to the "unfortunate"
revelations that have hit Dean in recent days, two of Clinton's most effective
dirt diggers do indeed currently work in the Clark campaign.
Bruce Lindsey, referred to in press accounts as Clinton's "consigliere,"
joined the Clark team early on. Lindsey's most memorable accomplishments include
digging up information to discredit witnesses who corroborated Paula Jones, and
tamping down stories of Clinton's friskiness aboard his 1992 campaign plane.
Mickey Kantor is also now helping Clark in his battle against Dean. Past
press accounts have detailed Kantor's efforts in securing out-of-country work
for former Clinton paramours such as Elizabeth Ward Gracen.
Other veterans of the Clinton scandal wars now working for Clark include
ex-Sen. David Pryor, longtime Clinton friend Skip Rutherford, Rep. Rahm Emanuel
and Chris Lehane, who, before joining the Gore campaign in 2000, co-authored the
written version of Hillary's vast right-wing conspiracy fantasy, then-titled
"The Communications Stream of Conspiracy Commerce."
Lehane's partner in that endeavor, Mark Fabiani, is also on board the Clark
train. When he wasn't helping Hillary spin her conspiracy theories, Fabiani was
the White House press secretary in charge of scandal management. (Yes, the
Clintons actually needed a press secretary dedicated to answering scandal
questions.)
With so many veterans of the Clinton attack machine currently working for
Clark, Dean shouldn't be surprised that he faces a deluge of investigative dirt
spread throughout the media as he comes down the home stretch in Iowa and New
Hampshire.
The only question is: Will Dean connect the dots and call the Clinton gang's
bluff? Or will he allow himself to be steamrolled by the former president and
his minions?
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