Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama

[SoFlaJet]

Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama
Posted May 1, 2008 | 03:34 PM (EST)

Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term "vast right-wing conspiracy" used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives that sought to destroy the Clinton White House where he worked as a high-level aide. A decade later, and now acting as a senior campaign advisor to Senator Clinton, Blumenthal is exploiting that same right-wing network to attack and discredit Barack Obama. And he's not hesitating to use the same sort of guilt-by-association tactics that have been the hallmark of the political right dating back to the McCarthy era.

Almost every day over the past six months, I have been the recipient of an email that attacks Obama's character, political views, electability, and real or manufactured associations. The original source of many of these hit pieces are virulent and sometimes extreme right-wing websites, bloggers, and publications. But they aren't being emailed out from some fringe right-wing group that somehow managed to get my email address. Instead, it is Sidney Blumenthal who, on a regular basis, methodically dispatches these email mudballs to an influential list of opinion shapers -- including journalists, former Clinton administration officials, academics, policy entrepreneurs, and think tankers -- in what is an obvious attempt to create an echo chamber that reverberates among talk shows, columnists, and Democratic Party funders and activists. One of the recipients of the Blumenthal email blast, himself a Clinton supporter, forwards the material to me and perhaps to others.

These attacks sent out by Blumenthal, long known for his fierce and combative loyalty to the Clintons, draw on a wide variety of sources to spread his Obama-bashing. Some of the pieces are culled from the mainstream media and include some reasoned swipes at Obama's policy and political positions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/sidney-blumenthal-uses-fo_b_99695.html

[SoFlaJet]

1. and yesterday I wrote this....

SoFlaJet (1000+ posts) Thu May-01-08 03:59 PM
Response to Original message
14. I'm EXPECTING to hear about
some Clinton staffers working behind the scenes for McCain after Obama wins the nomination...somebody mark this thread and mark those words. We WILL be reading about it on the Huff Post this summer-watch

[Kittycat]

2. We already know Penn - or at minimum his Company is.

[reflection]

4. Good call! n/t

[Yossariant]

3. And yesterday, I wrote this;

When the right wing touts Obama, there is thread after thread praising the likes of Noonan, Kristol, Goldberg, Sullivan, etc and lauding Obama's ability to "reach out."

But when the right wing attacks Obama, it's dirty politics.

:rofl:

Poor, poor Obama.

Poor, unelectable Obama.

[SoFlaJet]

5. I see you rolling around the floor laughing

but we'll see which camp is laughing last...me thinks it won't be that of The Monster