LAT "Top of the Ticket" political blog: Sit down for this: Richard Scaife paper endorses Hillary Clinton
ALLENTOWN, Pa.--The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by longtime conservative Republican Richard Mellon Scaife, endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in Pennsylvania's balloting on Tuesday. The conservative newspaper's endorsement raised some eyebrows given the, well, stormy history that the wealthy Scaife has had with the Clintons.
Allies of former President Clinton accused Scaife of bankrolling opposition reporting of the Clinton White House. His paper was a persistent critic of that president, especially during the Whitewater investigation, and Scaife was a presumed prominent member of what Hillary Clinton once called a "vast right-wing conspiracy" trying to sink her husband's administration.
Interesting, however, that the reaction of both Clinton politicians was to ultimately meet with their conservative critic, whatever their lingering personal feelings. Sen. Clinton has also appeared regularly on Fox News and Fox News Sunday, Democratic bete noires. As several recent Ticket posters have pointed out, her opponent, Barack Obama, declines to appear on Fox, although he has said he'd meet with the president of Iran.
Scaife's paper paid tribute to Clinton's courage in its endorsement editorial today, saying her decision to sit down with the newspaper last month "was courageous given our longstanding criticism of her." "That is no small matter: Political courage is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it; Obama has not. She has a real record. He doesn't. She has experience of value to a president. He doesn't," the newspaper's editorial endorsement added....
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But some wonder if the Scaife paper's endorsement is perhaps a backhanded push for Clinton in the way that Rush Limbaugh urged votes for her in the belief that she would be easier for Republicans to defeat in the fall....
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/04/sit-down-for-th.html