Presidential Campaign Gets Even Sleazier

hillary-clinton-lesbian-sex-claims

It is bad enough that the election campaign has become dominated by stories of Donald Trump sexually assaulting women. Now the National Enquirer is preparing to run a story on Hillary Clinton:

Hillary Clinton is a secret sex freak who paid fixers to set up illicit romps with both men AND women!

That’s the blockbuster revelation from a former Clinton family operative who is sensationally breaking ranks with his one-time bosses to speak to The National ENQUIRER in a bombshell 9-page cover story — on newsstands Wednesday.

The big question is whether they have any evidence of this. Before entirely dismissing the story, we have to keep in mind that they turned out to be right about John Edwards.

Even if the story turns out to be true, there are two key differences between this story and the stories on Donald Trump. First, we have multiple reports regarding Donald Trump, with some people corroborating the stories, and with Trump’s own statements lending credibility to them. Secondly, as far as we know, any actions Clinton is going to be accused of are consensual, in contrast to some of the stories about Trump.

There have been claims that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian from conservatives for quite a long time, without evidence. If the Enquirer does provide evidence to confirm this, it is not all that terribly significant as long as the story is only about consensual sex. We certainly can’t blame Hillary for cheating on Bill. However, it would be an interesting footnote to Clinton’s history of opposition to same-sex marriage until it became politically more convenient to change her view, and Bill’s history of running an anti-gay ad when politically convenient, but this type of hypocrisy is hardly unique from politicians.

Wingnuts Say The Darndest Things: Pat Robertson Gives Marriage Advice

So this is what conservatives mean by family values?

Responding to a question from a viewer, Robertson said that married men “have a tendency to wander” and it is the spurned wife’s job to focus on the positive and make sure the home is so enticing, he doesn’t want to stray.

“I’ve been trying to forgive my husband for cheating on me,” the viewer writes. “We have gone to counseling, but I just can’t seem to forgive, nor can I trust. How do you let go of the anger? How do you trust again?”

While Robertson’s co-host hedged on the question, calling forgiveness “difficult” and spousal infidelity “one of the ultimate betrayals,” Robertson got right to the point.

“Here’s the secret,” the famous evangelical said. “Stop talking the cheating. He cheated on you, well, he’s a man.”

The wife needs to focus on the reasons she married her spouse, he continued.

“Does he provide a home for you to live in,” Robertson said. ‘Does he provide food for you to eat? Does he provide clothes for you to wear? Is he nice to the children… Is he handsome?”

And some people were surprised that Mark Sanford was reelected in a Republican district.

In related news, The Hill reports that John Edwards is hitting the speaking circuit, although they only mention one event. He  will address PMP Marketing’s annual client retreat in Orlando. I doubt liberals will have much interest in hearing more form him, but perhaps he can start speaking to evangelicals. The religious right probably would have no problem forgiving Edwards for cheating on his wife, but they would have difficulty forgiving him for running with John Kerry.

John McCain Was Not The Only Recent Candidate Who Had Bad Experiences With Running Mate

Lacking the desire to actually look in detail at the issues, many journalists are concentrating on stories about Romney’s potential running mates. Reports often stress the importance of not repeating John McCain’s mistake in choosing Sarah Palin, but McCain was not the only recent presidential candidate who made a mistake in running mate The New York Times reports that John Kerry’s staff also has advice for Romney:

Ms. Myers has sought advice from previous presidential campaigns, including aides to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry’s 2004 race, who warned against picking a candidate with unchecked ambitions.

Kerry’s office also blasted Romney for claiming that Kerry only released two years of tax returns when he actually released returns for five years when running for president, with earlier returns released when running for the Senate:

“As Senator [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan once said, people are entitled to their own opinions, but they’re not entitled to their own facts,” said David Wade, Kerry’s chief of staff and the Democrat’s national spokesman during the presidential race eight years ago.

“The Romney campaign needs to stop getting their facts wrong about John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry,” Wade added, saying Kerry had put a total of 20 years of tax returns into the public domain by the time he ran for president.

John McCain denies recent speculation that he picked Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney after seeing Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Steve Schmidt says that Romney’s wealth but not tax returns were a factor in the decision:

“Sen. McCain got caught flat-footed answering a question about how many houses he owned. In fact, they were Cindy McCain’s properties but that distinction was lost in the political optics and we knew it would be a big liability that the presidential and the vice presidential candidates together owned more than a dozen homes. It was like something out of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit. I mean, come on.”

 

Edwards Asking To Keep Sex Tape From Being Destroyed

I am trying to figure out a good explanation for this move by John Edwards:

Ahead of his federal trial involving alleged campaign finance violations, John Edwards is asking a judge to keep a sex tape involving him and his mistress from being destroyed.

In a request filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, Edwards asks that the court issue a stay in a settlement last week about the video involving Rielle Hunter and his former aide, Andrew Young.

Hunter sued Young and his wife in 2010 over the tape and other personal items the couple claimed she abandoned in a box of trash. Hunter lived with the Youngs in 2007, while she was pregnant with Edwards’ baby.

The Youngs agreed to give up their claim on the property, which has been in a courthouse vault. A Superior Court judge ordered that it be destroyed within 30 days of the settlement.

Edwards 2008 Campaign Still Exists And Spending Money

John Edwards’ political career ended a long time ago, but it turns out that his 2008 campaign is still in existence. It is even spending money, despite owing taxpayers more than $2.1 million in matching funds:

Federal election officials say John Edwards owes taxpayers more than $2.1 million in public matching funds received after he dropped his 2008 run for the White House, yet disclosure reports show his failed campaign is still spending freely.

Edwards’ hopes for the Democratic presidential nomination imploded in a sex scandal four years ago that left him facing criminal charges. But reports filed last week show his 2008 primary campaign spent $836,712 in 2011 on airfare, hotel rooms, cell phones and other expenses…

John Edwards Reportedly Has Life-Threatening Heart Condition

Just in from CNN:

A federal judge disclosed that former presidential candidate John Edwards has a life-threatening heart condition, a court source tells CNN.

Edwards had sought a delay in his criminal corruption trial, scheduled to begin later this month.

Update: More information here.

Fallout From Weiner’s Sexting Continues Including Bizarre Suggestion That This Vindicates Breitbart

The country remains obsessed with Anthony Weiner’s weiner pics and sexting, apparently finding this to be a far more urgent issue than the economy or health care. Pressure is mounting on Weiner to resign from members of both parties. Ideally the question of whether Weiner is fit to represent his district in Congress could be settled by the vote of his constituents, but it is understandable that Democratic leaders would want an end to this distraction. To Democratic leaders, attempts to retake the House are the prime consideration. Anthony Weiner’s behavior was wrong but there are worse things a Congressman can do, such as vote to destroy Medicare.

As Weiner’s reputation has justifiably been seriously damaged, there has been a strange response from some to rehabilitate Andrew Breitbart. Should Andrew Breitbart get credit for being right this one time on Weiner, or should he be further condemned for making public  a comparatively  trivial sex scandal which was limited to consenting adults on line with no actual physical contact or violation of the law? Is Breitbart a crusading journalist, or is he just scum for making public pictures which should have remained private?

There is a strange double standard here if one thinks Breitbart was vindicated. After a long and distinguished  career of delivering hard news, Dan Rather was forced out of CBS due to using one poorly chosen source in a story. After a brief career of intentionally distorting the news, Andrew Breitbart is suddenly being treated as credible because he was finally right on one story.

Dan Rather and Watergate. Andrew Breitbart and Weinergate. Hardly any comparison in terms of journalistic accomplishments.

When the  National Enquirer turned out to be right about John Edwards, they might have enhanced their credibility in terms of searching out sex scandals, but this did not give them any credibility with regards to political coverage.  Similarly, Breitbart is no more credible than he was before in his political smears.  Weiner just made it too easy for Breitbart this time. It was foolish of Weiner to make it so easy for Breitbart by actually engaging in such behavior. He saved Breitbart of making things up, as he usually does.

The initial picture from Twitter showed Weiner’s weiner covered.  More recently Weiner’s uncovered weiner from Andrew Breitbart’s phone became public. In a case of very unfortunate timing for the couple. It was revealed yesterday that Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, is pregnant. Next will Breitbart release  ultrasounds displaying  the fetal genitals?

Weiner: More A Case Of Stupidity Than A Major Scandal (So Far)

Anthony Weiner has admitted to sending the picture of his (covered) weiner over Twitter, and of similar behavior with other women he communicated with on line. As scandals go, Weiner’s is fairly small. As Steve Benen wrote:

On the Political Sex Scandal Richter Scale, I’m still not altogether sure why this even registers at all. Given what we know, Weiner shared adult content with women he met online. They were adults and the interactions were consensual. He didn’t commit adultery (Ensign), he didn’t hire prostitutes (Vitter, Spitzer), he didn’t solicit anyone in an airport bathroom (Craig), he didn’t pretend to be someone else in order to try to pick up women (Lee), he didn’t abandon his office for a rendezvous with his lover (Sanford), he didn’t leave his first two wives after they got sick (Gingrich), he didn’t have a child with his housekeeper (Schwarzenegger), there’s no sex tape (Edwards), and no interns were involved (Clinton). He’s not even a hypocrite — Weiner has never championed conservative “family values,” condemning others for their “moral failings.”

This assumes that there isn’t anything more to this. Nancy Pelosi has called for an ethics investigation of Weiner. Assuming that there are no minors and there are not more explicit pictures, my guess is that this is not a career ending scandal, but at very least will be a career stalling one. As can be seen in Steve’s list, the less severe sex scandals do not necessarily end careers, but I doubt he will be elected to a more competitive spot in New York anytime soon. (Elliot Spitzer might even beat him–time does seem to make these scandals less important to voters).

While Weiner’s transgressions appear to be relatively minor (at least so far), they were rather stupid. It is amazing how often we see similar patterns in politicians. Was whatever pleasure Weiner received from sexting with young women really worth all of this?  I would ask whether this will dissuade future politicians (which can be from either party) from doing anything so foolish, but the answer, based upon the past history of sex scandals in Washington, is clearly no.

Quote of the Day

“Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a maid. She kept the child secret for 14 years. John Edwards is going, ‘Why can’t I meet a chick like that?'” –Jay Leno

The Blogosphere vs. Barack Obama

I feel like the we have returned to the days of the 2008 Democratic Primary as a number of liberal bloggers (primarily but not entirely Clinton supporters) have spent the day bashing Obama. The latest round of this got underway with a blog post from Peter Daou (who worked for Hillary Clinton) and was picked up by the usual suspects. Others, such as Ezra Klein and Steve Benen, put the dispute into perspective, with Steve referring back to a recent post which outlined many of the liberal accomplishments under Obama which some on the left often ignore.

From a political perspective, Daou is overstating the problem when claiming that liberal bloggers such as “Glenn Greenwald, John Aravosis, Digby, Marcy Wheeler and Jane Hamsher” are “bringing down the Obama presidency.” Most people haven’t even heard of these bloggers, and polls have shown a very high level of support for Obama among liberals and traditional Democratic voters. Many liberals can handle acknowledging Obama’s accomplishments and showing some understanding of the political situation he is working in while also disagreeing on some issues.

On the other hand, we have seen a number of signs that this criticism is getting under Obama’s skin (along with that of close associates like David Axelrod). It is a safe bet that they are surprised by the amount of criticism they are receiving from those they expected support from. However to claim they are bringing down Obama is absurd. I think that Obama, as well as the Congressional Democrats, face far more problems due to the apathy towards voting from the average voter who is disillusioned by the slow progress on the economy than they are harmed by those who are upset by compromising of progressive principles.

This is not to say that all of those engaging in the Obama bashing today are sore losers among the Clintonistas or that there is no validity to their complaints. Those such as Glenn Greenwald who concentrate on civil liberties issues do have more to legitimately complain about. Even here a bit of perspective is needed from those who claim that Obama is worse than Bush. Obama is well aware that should there be another terrorist attack on his watch the right will blame it on any areas where they could argue Obama let up on the “war on terror.” This could easily result in a right wing backlash with greater restrictions on civil liberties.

It is of value for bloggers such as Greenwald to point out the problems with Obama’s policies but more of a sense of perspective is needed. Some of Obama’s decisions have been wrong, but we are hardly living in a dictatorial police state, or even in a state as bad as we would have under the Republicans as some on the far left claim. (It is also notable that the tea party supporters who attack Obama for a number of imaginary offenses have largely been silent on these issues).

I also could not help but think, seeing how many primary opponents of Obama are leading the attacks, that most likely either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards would be far to the right of Barack Obama on these issues based upon their past records.

While advocates of a single payer system have many valid arguments, it was disappointing during the health care debate to see some such as Jane Hamsher distort the Democratic plan as dishonestly as was done by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Besides, there was zero chance that a single payer plan would pass.

Obama’s mistake here it was more on selling reform as opposed to the type of reform which was passed. The Democrats were delusional to think opposition to health care reform would vanish after passing it, especially when most of the benefits won’t be seen for a couple more years. I don’t buy the argument being made by some that initially pushing for an agenda which is further left would lead to more liberal results, but on health care I do believe that it could have affected public perception of the plan.

Obama antagonized many liberals for quickly shooting down any chance of a single payer plan and also played into the hands of Republicans who falsely claim that his plan represents a government takeover of health care. Imagine if Obama had started out saying there are basically four ideas which might be considered:

  1. “Socialized medicine” where there will be a government run health care system and government bureaucrats run the system.
  2. A single payer plan, like Medicare, in which government pays instead of private insurance companies, with health care facilities remaining in private hands.
  3. A mixed plan similar to the Republican counter-proposal to the Clinton health care plan with controls over what insurance companies could do, exchanges to promote sales of private plans, etc.
  4. Continuing the status quo where bureaucrats from the insurance companies often make the decisions and where many people are denied insurance coverage entirely.

Obama then could reject both socialized medicine and the status quo. When he ultimately went with #3 it would be more accurately framed as a moderate option to the status quo and not a radical plan. Maybe such framing would have even made it easier to push for the public option, which would still be a long way from the rejected choice of socialized medicine.