As Clinton Runs, Some Old Foes (Scaife) Stay on Sideline....

[KoKo]

February 19, 2007
As Clinton Runs, Some Old Foes Stay on Sideline
By David D. Kirkpatrick

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Back when Senator Clinton was first lady, no one better embodied what she once called the “vast right-wing conspiracy” than Richard Mellon Scaife.

Mr. Scaife, reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, spent more than $2 million investigating and publicizing accusations about the supposed involvement of Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in corrupt land deals, sexual affairs, drug running and murder.

But now, as Mrs. Clinton is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Scaife’s checkbook is staying in his pocket.

Christopher Ruddy, who once worked full-time for Mr. Scaife investigating the Clintons and now runs a conservative online publication he co-owns with Mr. Scaife, said, “Both of us have had a rethinking.”

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,” Mr. Ruddy said. “In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today.”

As for the conservative response to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, Mr. Ruddy said, “The level of intensity and anger toward Hillary is not getting to the level that it was toward Bill Clinton when he was president.” He added, “She has moderated and developed a separate image.”

-snip-

For every conservative who says Mrs. Clinton will feel the wrath of the movement’s grass-roots organizers later in the campaign, particularly if she becomes her party’s nominee, another expresses doubt that Clinton foes can ever be revved up
as they once were.

Some of her former antagonists say that terrorism and war have made the political battles of her husband’s administration — gay men and lesbians in the military, the White House travel office Monica Lewinsky — seem remote, if not trivial.

“I think the country is burned out on it,” said Cliff Jackson, a lawyer in Little Rock, Ark., who helped set in motion several scandals involving accusations of philandering by Mr. Clinton. Mr. Jackson said he had no plans to oppose Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, and in a personal blog he recently praised her husband’s post-presidential efforts to fight AIDS Africa.

The level of animosity that a Clinton candidacy could arouse is a pivotal question in the 2008 campaign.

Mrs. Clinton has made the anticipated attacks against her a staple of her fund-raising appeals, saying she will need money to fight back. But that expected onslaught is also a linchpin of other Democrats’ arguments that she is too polarizing to win.

-snip-

But Mr. Keene and many other conservative fund-raisers and organizers acknowledge that the grass-roots hatred for Mrs. Clinton and her husband has subsided substantially since they left the White House.

National efforts to raise money to stop Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaigns in New York in 2000 and 2006 never got off the ground. Nor did plans to raise money for a “counter-Clinton” library in Little Rock. And conservatives note to their consternation that at the moment the woman they treat as the incarnation of 1960s liberalism appears to be campaigning as the least liberal of the Democratic front-runners.

more..........
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/us/politics/19clinton.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fK%2fKirkpatrick%2c%20David%20D%2e&oref=slogin

[Demeter]

1. Yeah, I Read That With a Mixture of Contempt and Suspicion

The only factual item was that Scaife isn't spending, and even that is subject to future verification.

Personally, I think he and his ilk are keeping their powder dry. That Scaife should have any regrets about the assassination of the Clintons is doubtful, that he should opine that Bill wasn't all that bad is laughable, and that he'd let Hillary run without his finger in the mess is unbelieveable.

It is possible that somebody talked him into waiting, too. Chips being called in, etc.

I personally would like this type of person evicted from the process altogether, if not out of the country. Stick to voting one ballot, and take your character assassination skills somewhere else, Dick.

[KoKo]

4. I read it that they might be keeping powder dry for Gore run....

figuring that they can always go after Hillary later if he doesn't run. Will the American people fall for their Campaign of Lies once again...is the question.

I'd like to think that this time their efforts will fall on deaf ears. But, the evil these people have wrought like the NeoCons seems to not have boundaries...so we will have to guess that the result will be a low voter turn out because the Media will repeat the lies and people are already so discouraged that another election will be manipulated. Also,unless the voing machine problem is addressed and fixed ....we might have another election that is filled with disillusionment.

[blm]

2. Rewarding Bill for staying loyal to Poppy Bush and guarding secrecy and privilege

Bill's book proved to them that Clintons can be trusted to cover up for BushInc.

Heck - no one has worked harder to REHABILITATE Poppy Bush and his legacy MORE than Bill Clinton has the past 6 uears.

That is just so EXTRAORDINARILY kind of Bill, isn't it?

http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[Emit]

3. Those thoughts went through my head, too.

What a turn around for Scaife and Ruddy.

On a side note, for those who may not know, the online publication the author refers to that Scaife and Christopher Ruddy runs is NewsMax.

[Tellurian]

5. First and foremost Scaife is a businessman..

Most likely he's reeling from many investments gone bad with Bush and his cronys. He's probably still smarting from the $2+m he spent for the failed take down of Bill Clinton because he's never recouped his money. ha! ha!

If anything, Scaiffe's motivation for keeping his checkbook in his pocket this time around is his subtle way (v/v his attorney Gutnick) of saying,...'I'm interested in doing a little business...whatdya think?' If one of Bill's loyalists gives Scaife's surrogate Gutnick, the nod...He just might come knockin'! I wouldn't trust the dirty bugger for a minute. I'd make damn sure I had the upper hand over this hypocrite into eternity.

At one time, I brokered many meeting with these estate types. They're all the same. They have tons and want tons more..mostly out of boredom. Something to do, something to look forward to, and something to talk about at the country club. ehh!

[KoKo]

6. He has so much money...he can spend it anywhere he likes...it's a FORTUNE

and Bush's Tax Policies have allowed it to GROW ..not decline. :shrug:

When he comes in he can come in big! He only spent a few cents on Clinton Hunting...and he had so much help he didn't have to chip in more than a couple of MIL.

[Tellurian]

7. No doubt about it!

Scaife would like to be on the side of a winner. (for a change:)) Guarantee, Bush has soaked him for so much money..and placated him ad infinitum, with the the good fortune of his Tax Advantage. By now, Scaife must be pulling his hair out by the ruts and forbidden everyone in his household from uttering the name of a moron resembling a low plant with many branches that arise from or near the ground.