She is lining up the sun the moon and the stars, especially the progressive stars to make her run. Why exactly? Power. Most interesting is Hillary has ordered the State Department to not cooperate with FOIA requests from media on the successes during her reign as SecState. What is she hiding beyond the obvious?
Many news agencies and advocacy groups have been trying to get State Department documents about Clinton with little success, leading to accusations that the stonewall is politically motivated.
The AP reported in December 2014 that it had several outstanding FOIA requests on Clinton’s schedule, calendar, and other records from her four years as secretary of state. One of those requests was over four years old. The state department also rejected the AP’s request for expedited processing—a fast-track for FOIA requests afforded to journalists working on newsworthy stories in the public interest. It would perhaps be prudent for media to file FOIA request on Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s Chief of Staff.
THE POLITICO’s Mike Allen has given us inside look at the nascent Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Allen’s piece is the latest in a long line of stories explaining how formidable the 2016 operation will be, and assuring us that Hillary has learned from her disastrous failure in 2008. Here are five things we’ve learned about the campaign thus far:
1. Hillary loves power even more than she loves money
Allen reports that Clinton “never really hesitated” in deciding to run for president again. The likelihood that she will run reportedly went from 98 percent to 100 percent late last year.
The decision is somewhat puzzling, given Hillary’s well-document obsession with making money, and “getting houses.” She has made millions on the public speaking circuit since quitting her job at the State Department, and has even scoffed at public university students who have protested the use of taxpayer funds to pay her exorbitant speaking fees. (After all, she already offers universities a special discounted rate of $300,000.)
Her decision to forgo millions in future speaking fees is a curious one, which can only be explained by an even greater obsession with power and self-aggrandizement.
2. So many white bros
The Daily Beast’s Tim Mak notes that some Democrats are beginning to express concern about the conspicuous male whiteness of Hillary’s campaign. Pretty much everyone she has hired for a top role is a white dude:
One operative quipped that the top levels of the campaign are in danger of looking like “white dudefest 2016.”
“If Hillary doesn’t begin hiring well-respected African-American or Hispanic political aides in top positions,” said a senior African American Congressional aide, “I would imagine that people will really start to wonder if she is serious about covering her left flank. If that is the case they will look for a candidate who is eager to demonstrate that senior level inclusiveness is a high priority.”
Allen’s report notes that the campaign is already beginning to discuss potential running mates, and at the moment, two white dudes—Sens. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) and Tim Kaine (D., Va.)—are “dominating the early speculation.”
3. Hillary is obsessed with Hillary, and afters decades in politics, still has thin skin
Allen reports that Hillary 2016 is determined to have a better relationship with the reporters, people she has previously described as having “big egos and no brains.” At the very least, Allen writes, she wants “to have a ‘good cop’ role to help her get off on a better foot with the journalists who will help shape her image.”
That may be easier said than done, given how obsessed Hillary seems to be with reading (and nitpicking) stories about herself:
Advisers know that Clinton doesn’t like or trust the press – and feels that it’s mutual. She remains a voracious consumer of news about herself, occasionally complaining about an article’s tone or omissions.
One of the few top campaign positions yet to be filled is that of communications directors. Potential hires include Karen Finney, whose MSNBC show “Disrupt” was cancelled last year.
4. Hillary possesses an “instinctive insularity,” according to dozens of close aides who won’t stop speaking to the press anonymously
One of the reasons why Team Clinton wants to hire a media-friendly liaison is to serve as “a counterweight to the instinctive insularity of Hillaryland.” This information was relayed to Allen via a number of anonymous aides close to Hillary who have spoken to a number of different reporters over the past several weeks about how awesome Hillary 2016 is going to be.
5. Why she’s running
Actually, the rationale for Hillary’s campaign remains unclear, beyond the fact that she became a grandmother last year, and that made her think a lot about the future. According to Allen, now that a campaign architecture is in place, Team Hillary finally get work “developing her message,” whatever that may be.
*** There is much more you need to know. Hillary has a spy unit and it was created a few years ago. What kind of spy unit? Well American Bridge is an intel army, spying on all of her opposition. “American Bridge PAC spent last week spying on the private conversations of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The group also plans to spy on the private lives of GOP delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention wherever the convention is located, but Politico reports ABPAC has issued the following threat if the GOP selects Las Vegas as its host city. American Bridge has set up this website at “SinCityGOP” and announces (bold print supplied):
While the Republican Party debates where to hold the Republican National Convention in 2016, American Bridge is preparing our team of researchers and trackers to capture the action no matter what city they choose.
In making their selection, Republicans would do well to remember that Las Vegas is already the city with the most cameras per capita of anywhere on the planet. What’s another two or three dozen American Bridge trackers added to the mix?
And if the RNC does choose Las Vegas, this is the site for all the action. What happens in Vegas… will go right here.
American Bridge was founded by Clinton ally David Brock and is funded by longtime Clinton supporter and billionaire George Soros. American Bridge PAC president Brad Woodhouse boasted that the group’s “trackers” at CPAC had been “in the hallways capturing conversations and that kind of thing.” Meaning? Meaning Hillary’s American Bridge is about invading privacy. CPAC’s today, someone else’s tomorrow. Yours.
The news of “capturing” private conversations at CPAC follows on the heels of multiple congressional investigations into the Obama-run IRS, which has been using the government to ask Tea Party groups about the contents of their members’ prayers, what books they read, and the contents of private phone calls and media interviews. A second controversy has erupted over the NSA collection of “metadata”—including the phone numbers of all Americans.
The news of Clinton’s high tech spies peering into private conversations at CPAC and set to peer into the private lives of GOP delegates comes as the privacy of American citizens has erupted as a major political issue in both the 2014 and 2016 campaigns.” More here.
