Buzzflash: How Hillary Clinton betrayed the Children's Defense Fund for Political Gain

[antigop]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/034

Hillary Clinton has clearly, succinctly, and repeatedly challenged Barack Obama and John Edwards to let voters judge them or her by their records. Hillary Clinton has included her 8 years as First Lady in her 35 years of political experience, so it is appropriate to take her up on her challenge.

In this post, we will just examine one of the claims Clinton has made about her record, per her request to look closely at not just words, but her actions.

In the hot and testy debate in South Carolina, Clinton countered Obama's correct assertion that she served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart (followed by years as a corporate attorney for the Rose Law Firm) by saying, in essence, that when Obama was wet behind his ears, she was working and being inspired by the legendary Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund. That is true until you get to the issue of results in public office.

NOTE: I will not respond to this thread as I have real work to do. I am not paid to post on DU all day.

<edit> fixed typo in title

[TwilightGardener]

1. Someone gets paid to post on DU all day? D'Oh! I've been working for free!

[KoKo]

20. This was written by Buzz Flash Owner...Mark Karlin and he add's his own personal

experience. This is not to be discounted as some weirdo paid poster. This is a BuzzFlash Editorial

And..it's an excellent read including an Amy Goodman Interview about the issue.

[David Zephyr]

2. K&R.

Bill and Hillary Clinton paved their ambitious climb to power with betrayals of those who helped them along.

Primary Colors is a book and film I would recommend.

It's not about how Bill and Hillary reacted to their enemies, but how they betrayed their friends and supporters in their self-absorbed climb.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. It was also fiction

It was an excellent movie. Travolta became Bill Clinton.

--p!

[David Zephyr]

12. Written by someone who had first-hand experience with the Clintons.

Only the names were changed.

[Dogmudgeon]

15. He also tried to hide his identity

Why Joe Klein did it, who knows? But he gave some rambling answers about why he did so.

--p!

[David Zephyr]

17. He still knew a lot about the Clintons when he wrote the "fictional" book.

And the common thread throughout the book is how the Clintons betray their most loyal friends over and over.

[KoKo]

21. Joe Klein didn't write this! Buzz Flash Owner ..Mark Karlin wrote it...

:shrug: what are you talking about?

[David Zephyr]

23. Klein wrote "Primary Colors" referenced in my post #2 upthread.

I didn't say the article was written by Klein.

Everyone should read Primary Colors and see what those who worked with the Clintons first hand experienced: betrayal.

[KoKo]

24. ah...I didn't catch the post of the "K&R" to see they posted about Joe Klein's book.

sorry. The thread went off on tangent that looked like Joe Klein wrote the article for BuzzFlash.

I though Mark Karlin's article was great. I was going to post it, myself, but something else came up. I was glad to see it here. Just didn't want folks to think Joe Klein wrote it.

[David Zephyr]

25. It was a good article indeed.

So will John Edwards upset the Clintons in South Carolina on Saturday. I think he will.

[KoKo]

26. Maybe second..... Clinton's work magic...

so don't count them out.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. It's another blogger blaming Hillary for Bill's actions ...

... then calling her a liar, accusing her of killing children, and finally chucking the kitchen sink at her.

This is getting kind of old. Those Obama folks will say anything to win!

--p!

[KoKo]

22. It's Buzz Flash Editorial by the owner of the site!

[sandnsea]

5. welfare reform - a Reagan idea n/t

[Adelante]

6. This has got to smart

In a July 2007 interview with Amy Goodman, Marian Wright Edelman had this to say about the "welfare reform bill" and Hillary Clinton:

AMY GOODMAN: Marian Wright Edelman, we just heard Hillary Rodham Clinton. She used to be the head of the board of the Children’s Defense Fund, of the organization that you founded. But you were extremely critical of the Clintons. I mean, when President Clinton signed off on the, well, so-called welfare reform bill, you said, “His signature on this pernicious bill makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children.” So what are your hopes right now for these Democrats? And what are your thoughts about Hillary Rodham Clinton?

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Well, you know, Hillary Clinton is an old friend, but they are not friends in politics. We have to build a constituency, and you don’t—and we profoundly disagreed with the forms of the welfare reform bill, and we said so. We were for welfare reform, I am for welfare reform, but we need good jobs, we need adequate work incentives, we need minimum wage to be decent wage and livable wage, we need health care, we need transportation, we need to invest preventively in all of our children to prevent them ever having to be on welfare.

And yet, you know, many years after that, when many people are pronouncing welfare reform a great success, you know, we’ve got growing child poverty, we have more children in poverty and in extreme poverty over the last six years than we had earlier in the year. When an economy is down, and the real test of welfare reform is what happens to the poor when the economy is not booming. Well, the poor are suffering, the gap between rich and poor widening. We have what I consider one of—a growing national catastrophe of what we call the cradle-to-prison pipeline. A black boy today has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, a black girl a one-in-seventeen chance. A Latino boy who’s born in 2001 has a one-in-six chance of going to prison. We are seeing more and more children go into our child welfare systems, go dropping out of school, going into juvenile justice detention facilities. Many children are sitting up—15,000, according to a recent congressional GAO study—are sitting up in juvenile institutions solely because their parents could not get mental health and health care in their community. This is an abomination.

That is a staggering indictment, from the woman Hillary Clinton regularly mentions as her mentor, of a gap between Hillary Clinton's words and her record. It reflects upon a political decision that she and Bill made to leave many children behind in order to ensure a second term. (The "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act," as it was cynically called, was signed in August of 1996, just about three months before the '96 presidential election.)

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/24/childrens_defense_funds_marian_wright_edelman

[EFerrari]

8. If you use the Google, you find articles that describe HRC as

being eager to jump on the reform bandwagon. Doesn't reflect well on her at all:

A 'Formal' Welfare Role For Hillary?

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov. 25) -- Just what is a "formal role" exactly?
hillary clinton

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told TIME magazine in an interview this week that she wants such a role in the welfare debate. "I want to travel around and talk to people about what is happening on the ground," she said in TIME's Dec. 2 issue. "I intend to speak out about it and write about it." (Transcript of TIME Interview)

But White House press secretary Mike McCurry said he's not aware of any movement in that direction. He said President Bill Clinton "does expect her and other experts on child welfare to help him and help the administration successfully implement welfare reform," McCurry told CNN. "She has a formal role: she is the first lady of the United States of America."

President Clinton seemed to have surprised his wife and his staff in September on ABC's "20/20" when he said he'd like his wife to take an active role in improving the welfare law that he signed earlier this year. "That's the first I've heard of it," Mrs. Clinton said. "Sounds like an exciting..."

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/9611/25/2hillary.welfare/index.shtml

[Cha]

7. I'm not paid to post on DU all day either..

and thanks for the info, antigop.

More snips~
"As a result of Morris's "triangulating" advice, the Clintons embraced some cold-hearted measures, including what became called euphemistically "welfare reform." In fact, the progressive and children's advocate community considered it a Draconian measure that would punish poor children if their moms didn't find work. The Clintons, both of them, supported it, and Bill Clinton signed it into law.

Among those who ardently and eloquently opposed the Clinton "welfare reform" bill was Marian Wright Edelman. Her husband, Peter Edelman, quit his high-level job at the Department of Health and Human Services in protest when Bill Clinton signed the bill. He was deeply upset about what the legislation would do to helpless children.

In a July 2007 interview with Amy Goodman, Marian Wright Edelman had this to say about the "welfare reform bill" and Hillary Clinton:

AMY GOODMAN: Marian Wright Edelman, we just heard Hillary .."

[EFerrari]

9. Image, meet reality. n/t

[Cha]

10. hilary has all the so-called experience to

vote for the IWR but Obama's common sense told him the war was bogus from the start.

Give me Obama everytime.

[William769]

11. Well if Obama had the common sense, why is he still authorizing it?

[Cha]

13. That's you hilarys lies..Obama doesn't "authorize"

as you say...sport your lies for someone who gets sucked in by the bilarys.

[karynnj]

14. He has no vehicle to either authorize it or de authorize it

[Blarch]

16. the poster knows that

he just likes fucking dead horses.

[EFerrari]

18. I have problems with both of them. I guess I'm just a big old pinko.

Wish it would settle down but it doesn't look like this race will get any cleaner. :(

[Adelante]

19. a big old pinko

That's you :hug: