Clinton 1992

---new tag in honor of being right on family leave re covidsee hillary, whitewater, bimbogate ark pjt, fdn for newer819 bak
William Jefferson Clinton (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_name" title="Birth name" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">né</a> Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">president of the United States</a> from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Arkansas" class="mw-redirect" title="Governor of Arkansas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">governor of Arkansas</a> from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_general_of_Arkansas" class="mw-redirect" title="Attorney general of Arkansas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">attorney general of Arkansas</a> from 1977 to 1979. A member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Democratic Party</a>, Clinton became known as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrat" class="mw-redirect" title="New Democrat" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">New Democrat</a>, as many of his policies reflected a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrist" class="mw-redirect" title="Centrist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">centrist</a> "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way" title="Third Way" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Third Way</a>" political philosophy. He is the husband of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton" title="Hillary Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Hillary Clinton</a>, who was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_senator" class="mw-redirect" title="United States senator" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">U.S. senator</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York(state)" title="New York (state)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">New York</a> from 2001 to 2009, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_State" title="United States Secretary of State" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">secretary of state</a> from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election" title="2016 United States presidential election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); overflow-wrap: break-word;">2016 presidential election</a>.clinton was born and raised in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas" title="Arkansas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Arkansas</a> and attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University" title="Georgetown University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Georgetown University</a>. He received a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Scholarship" title="Rhodes Scholarship" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Rhodes Scholarship</a> to study at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College,Oxford" title="University College, Oxford" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">University College, Oxford</a>, and later graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_Law_School" title="Yale Law School" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Yale Law School</a>. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governorships_of_Bill_Clinton" title="Governorships of Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">two non-consecutive tenures as Arkansas governor</a>. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Governors_Association" title="National Governors Association" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">National Governors Association</a>. Clinton was elected president in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_United_States_presidential_election" title="1992 United States presidential election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">1992 presidential election</a>, defeating incumbent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Republican</a> president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush" title="George H. W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">George H. W. Bush</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_politician" title="Independent politician" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">independent</a> businessman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot" title="Ross Perot" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Ross Perot</a>. At 46 years old, he became the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age" title="List of presidents of the United States by age" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">third-youngest</a> president of the United States and the first president to be born in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers" title="Baby boomers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Baby Boomer</a> generation.Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement" title="North American Free Trade Agreement" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">North American Free Trade Agreement</a> (NAFTA) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Crime_Control_and_Law_Enforcement_Act" title="Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act</a>, but failed to pass his plan for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993" title="Clinton health care plan of 1993" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">national health care reform</a>. The Republican Party <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Revolution" title="Republican Revolution" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">won unified control</a> of Congress for the first time in 40 years in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_United_States_elections" title="1994 United States elections" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">1994 elections</a>, but Clinton was still comfortably re-elected in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_presidential_election" title="1996 United States presidential election" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">1996</a>, becoming the first Democrat since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D.Roosevelt" title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> to win a second full term. Starting in the mid-1990s, he began an ideological evolution [triangulation] as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy, advocating for and signing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act" title="Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Children%27s_Health_Insurance_Program" class="mw-redirect" title="State Children's Health Insurance Program" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">State Children's Health Insurance Program</a> and financial deregulation measures. He appointed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg" title="Ruth Bader Ginsburg" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Breyer" title="Stephen Breyer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Stephen Breyer</a> to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Supreme Court of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">U.S. Supreme Court</a>. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Budget_Office" title="Congressional Budget Office" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Congressional Budget Office</a> reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War" title="Bosnian War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Bosnian</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War" title="Kosovo War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Kosovo</a> wars, eventually signing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_Agreement" title="Dayton Agreement" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Dayton Peace agreement</a>. He also called for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO" title="Enlargement of NATO" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">expansion of NATO</a> in Eastern Europe and many former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact" title="Warsaw Pact" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Warsaw Pact</a> members joined NATO during his presidency. Clinton's foreign policy in the Middle East saw him sign the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Liberation_Act" title="Iraq Liberation Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Iraq Liberation Act</a> which gave aid to groups against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" title="Saddam Hussein" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Saddam Hussein</a>. He also participated in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord" title="Oslo I Accord" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Oslo I Accord</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Camp_David_Summit" title="2000 Camp David Summit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Camp David Summit</a> to advance the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_peace_process" title="Israeli–Palestinian peace process" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Israeli–Palestinian peace process</a>, and assisted the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland_peace_process" title="Northern Ireland peace process" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Northern Ireland peace process</a>.Clinton's second term was dominated by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton%E2%80%93Lewinsky_scandal" title="Clinton–Lewinsky scandal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Monica Lewinsky scandal</a>, which began in 1996, when he had a sexual relationship with 22-year-old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Lewinsky" title="Monica Lewinsky" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Monica Lewinsky</a>, an intern at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House" title="White House" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">White House</a>. In January 1998, news of the affair made tabloid headlines.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">[1]</a> This scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton" title="Impeachment of Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Clinton was impeached</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">House of Representatives</a>, becoming the second U.S. president—the first since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson" title="Andrew Johnson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Andrew Johnson</a>—to be impeached. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were centered around him using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury" title="Perjury" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">lying under oath</a>. In 1999, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_trial_of_Bill_Clinton" title="Impeachment trial of Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Clinton's impeachment trial</a> began in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Senate</a>. He was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, which was necessary to meet the two-thirds conviction threshold prescribed by Article I, section 3, clause 6 of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Constitution" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Constitution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">U.S. Constitution</a>.Clinton left office in 2001 with the joint-highest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll" title="Opinion poll" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">approval rating</a> of any U.S. president in the modern era, alongside Franklin D. Roosevelt and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Ronald Reagan</a>. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States" title="Historical rankings of presidents of the United States" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">historical rankings of U.S. presidents</a>. However, his personal conduct and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_sexual_assault_and_misconduct_allegations" title="Bill Clinton sexual assault and misconduct allegations" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">allegations of sexual assault</a> have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Foundation" title="Clinton Foundation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Clinton Foundation</a> to address international causes such as the prevention of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS" title="HIV/AIDS" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">HIV/AIDS</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming" class="mw-redirect" title="Global warming" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">global warming</a>. In 2009, he was named the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations" title="United Nations" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">United Nations</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Envoy_of_the_Secretary-General" title="Special Envoy of the Secretary-General" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Special Envoy</a> to Haiti. After the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake" title="2010 Haiti earthquake" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">2010 Haiti earthquake</a>, Clinton and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">George W. Bush</a> formed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Bush_Haiti_Fund" title="Clinton Bush Haiti Fund" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Clinton Bush Haiti Fund</a>. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_2008_presidential_campaign" title="Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">2008</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_2016_presidential_campaign" title="Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">2016 presidential campaigns</a>.<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>=</div><div>omg</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/i-knew-brett-kavanaugh-during-his-years-republican-operative-don-ncna907391" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/i-knew-brett-kavanaugh-during-his-years-republican-operative-don-ncna907391</a></div><div>no lnx</div><div>
</div><div>I knew Brett Kavanaugh during his years as a Republican operative. Don't let him sit on the Supreme Court.</div><div>We were part of a close circle of cynical hard-right operatives being groomed for much bigger things.</div><div>
</div><div>Sept. 7, 2018, </div><div>By David Brock</div><div>I used to know Brett Kavanaugh pretty well. And, when I think of Brett now, in the midst of his hearings for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, all I can think of is the old "Aesop's Fables" adage: "A man is known by the company he keeps."</div><div>
</div><div>And that's why I want to tell any senator who cares about our democracy: Vote no.</div><div>
</div><div>Twenty years ago, when I was a conservative movement stalwart, I got to know Brett Kavanaugh both professionally and personally.</div><div>
</div><div>Brett Kavanaugh proves the Supreme Court swing vote is dead</div><div>SEPT. 4, 2018]</div><div>
</div><div>Brett actually makes a cameo appearance in my memoir of my time in the GOP, "Blinded By The Right." I describe him at a party full of zealous young conservatives gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address — just weeks after the story of his affair with a White House intern had broken. When the TV camera panned to Hillary Clinton, I saw Brett — at the time a key lieutenant of Ken Starr, the independent counsel investigating various Clinton scandals — mouth the word "bitch."</div><div>
</div><div>But there's a lot more to know about Kavanaugh than just his Pavlovian response to Hillary's image. Brett and I were part of a close circle of cold, cynical and ambitious hard-right operatives being groomed by GOP elders for much bigger roles in politics, government and media. And it’s those controversial associations that should give members of the Senate and the American public serious pause.</div><div>
</div><div>[Related OPINION</div><div>GOP's maneuvering during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings will seriously damage the Supreme Court's legitimacy]</div><div>
</div><div>Call it Kavanaugh's cabal: There was his colleague on the Starr investigation, Alex Azar, now the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mark Paoletta is now chief counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; House anti-Clinton gumshoe Barbara Comstock is now a Republican member of Congress. Future Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson were there with Ann Coulter, now a best-selling author, and internet provocateur Matt Drudge.</div><div>
</div><div>At one time or another, each of them partied at my Georgetown townhouse amid much booze and a thick air of cigar smoke.</div><div>
</div><div>In a rough division of labor, Kavanaugh played the role of lawyer — one of the sharp young minds recruited by the Federalist Society to infiltrate the federal judiciary with true believers. Through that network, Kavanaugh was mentored by D.C. Appeals Court Judge Laurence Silberman, known among his colleagues for planting leaks in the press for partisan advantage.</div><div>
</div><div>[Related OPINION</div><div>Tom Steyer and Ron Fein: Stop Kavanaugh's confirmation until Mueller's investigation is done]</div><div>
</div><div>When, as I came to know, Kavanaugh took on the role of designated leaker to the press of sensitive information from Starr's operation, we all laughed that Larry had taught him well. (Of course, that sort of political opportunism by a prosecutor is at best unethical, if not illegal.)</div><div>
</div><div>Another compatriot was George Conway (now Kellyanne's husband), who led a secretive group of right-wing lawyers — we called them "the elves" — who worked behind the scenes directing the litigation team of Paula Jones, who had sued Clinton for sexual harassment. I knew then that information was flowing quietly from the Jones team via Conway to Starr's office — and also that Conway's go-to man was none other than Brett Kavanaugh.</div><div>
</div><div>[Recommended OPINION</div><div>What could be Florida Gov. DeSantis’ undoing on the national stage? HBCUs.</div><div>
</div><div>OPINION</div><div>Trump's election plot was eye-opening. And the Senate is finally paying attention.]</div><div>
</div><div>That critical flow of inside information allowed Starr, in effect, to set a perjury trap for Clinton, laying the foundation for a crazed national political crisis and an unjust impeachment over a consensual affair.</div><div>
</div><div>But the cabal's godfather was Ted Olson, the then-future solicitor general for George W. Bush and now a sainted figure of the GOP establishment (and of some liberals for his role in legalizing same-sex marriage). Olson had a largely hidden role as a consigliere to the "Arkansas Project" — a multi-million dollar dirt-digging operation on the Clintons, funded by the eccentric right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and run through The American Spectator magazine, where I worked at the time.</div><div>
</div><div>Both Ted and Brett had what one could only be called an unhealthy obsession with the Clintons — especially Hillary. While Ted was pushing through the Arkansas Project conspiracy theories claiming that Clinton White House lawyer and Hillary friend Vincent Foster was murdered (he committed suicide), Brett was costing taxpayers millions by pedaling the same garbage at Starr's office.</div><div>
</div><div>A detailed analysis of Kavanaugh's own notes from the Starr Investigation reveals he was cherry-picking random bits of information from the Starr investigation — as well as the multiple previous investigations — attempting vainly to legitimize wild right-wing conspiracies. For years he chased down each one of them without regard to the emotional cost to Foster’s family and friends, or even common decency.</div><div>
</div><div>[Related OPINION</div><div>Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination is the result of years of unopposed conservative organizing]</div><div>
</div><div>Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.</div><div>
</div><div>Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires — objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.</div><div>
</div><div>But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is — because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights. But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago — and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div>=<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB861917340688900500">https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB861917340688900500</a>
Ginni clinton jihad:  proto-Benghazi
<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">no lnx<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">By Edward Felsenthal and David Rogers Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">April 25, 1997 <p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">WASHINGTON -- Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had to force herself to be pleasant when she met Hillary Clinton for the first time four years ago.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Mrs. Clinton had been an outspoken supporter of Anita Hill, the woman who had famously accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings. Ms. Thomas couldn't get the association out of her mind.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">"For me, it was, 'Wow, now I have to, in my role, be respectful and cordial and courteous,' " Ms. Thomas recalls thinking as she moved through a receiving line toward the new first lady. Although the brief encounter was awkward for her, Ms. Thomas says she was proud of how she handled it. She gave Mrs. Clinton some verses from the Bible, along with a warning about how tough this city can be.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Today Ms. Thomas feels a kinship with Mrs. Clinton. Like the first lady, she is best known as the spouse of a prominent man. But also like Mrs. Clinton, she has become a controversial political player and has been the subject of vigorous public criticism for her partisan activities.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Although she takes pains to carve out her own identity, Ms. Thomas, 40 years old, is inevitably linked with her husband in much of what she does. "A lot of people treat her a certain way ... because of who she is married to," says radio-host Armstrong Williams, a former close aide and a friend to Justice Thomas.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Awkward Predicament<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Ms. Thomas says there are challenges that come with "being a Supreme Court spouse, as opposed to just a lawyer working in Washington." Her dual role highlights an increasingly common political phenomenon: Now that many political partners are professionals themselves, they face an awkward predicament. Many find they have to struggle to avoid being used as political tools or being perceived as benefiting from their spouse's position.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-image="background-image" initial="initial" background-position="background-position" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Barbara Olson, an aide to the Senate leadership who has worked in congressional investigations of the Clinton administration, has been a target of Democratic sniping that she is a proxy for her husband, Theodore Olson, a prominent lawyer who has represented one of the president's accusers in the Whitewater affair. Republicans in the last Congress delighted in cutting money for a small anticrime program that paid consulting fees to Sylvia Panetta, wife of then-White House Chief-of-Staff Leon Panetta. That put Mr. Panetta in the uncomfortable position of having to fight to get the money back.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Ms. Thomas had already made a name for herself as an activist in conservative circles before Republicans took over Congress in 1994. But her influence grew after that election when her boss, Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, became House majority leader.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Ms. Thomas operates much as an eager young administrative officer back at the base camp for the Republican infantry. She works behind the scenes, serving as part strategist and part cheerleader for the leadership's effort to beef-up the GOP's ability to investigate and oversee the White House and executive agencies.[benghazi much later?] <p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Partisan Battles<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">It is a role that takes her from dry, detailed General Accounting Office reports to the higher-profile and more partisan-edged investigations of administration scandals. She has assisted with the investigations of White House ethics, Whitewater, the firing of the White House travel staff, and the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's financial dealings. When Republicans approved an expanded budget for House committee investigations last month, the move partly reflected Ms. Thomas's influence.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">She has figured in several high-profile fights involving the House Appropriations Committee. Over the objections of some Republicans on the committee, she pressed hard for deep cuts in funding to Legal Services Corp., a provider of legal aid to the poor that she viewed as using federal money to advance liberal causes.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">And in a stormy panel meeting in 1995, she stood watch on behalf of Mr. Armey as Republicans reluctantly lined up behind a leadership attempt to bar funding for nonprofit organizations that engage in advocacy, in many cases for poor constituencies. The measure ultimately failed because of opposition in the Senate.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">During this Congress, Ms. Thomas has stepped back, as the leadership has relaxed its efforts to control committee chairmen. But she is still a force behind continuing investigations, and before last year's election she helped gather information on White House scandals for Republicans to use on the campaign trail. (That project was abandoned after word of its existence leaked, prompting concern that it would make Republicans look like scandalmongers.)<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">A memo this past January titled "Foreign Money Contributions Scandal" illustrates Ms. Thomas's style. Throwing as wide a net as possible, she addressed it to Republican staff on 19 committees, including the sensitive Intelligence panel. In it, she cited statutes or regulations that might have been violated by overseas contributions to Democrats. She urged staff directors to be "watchful" for administration efforts to dismiss problems as just "campaign finance." Ms. Thomas wrote, "what we don't know is how much was for sale in the Clinton presidency."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Though Ms. Thomas is good-humored and engaging, her writing sometimes gets her into trouble. Much of her job is simply informational: She helps produce a biweekly "Oversight Bulletin" publicizing current investigations. But when she pens strategy, she betrays a partisan edge that makes experienced staff directors blanch.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">A case in point is an April 1996 memo she wrote for Republican congressmen Bob Walker and Jim Nussle and sent to House committees, asking for "examples of dishonesty or ethical lapses in the Clinton administration" and "anecdotes that amplify these areas." The memo requested that all such materials be sent to her as quickly as possible and reminded committee chairs that "you are a tremendous resource for this project."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Democratic Backlash<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Democrats quickly turned Ms. Thomas's memo on the Republicans, claiming it proved that the investigations were partisan. During one hearing, Democrats blew up the memo and posted it on an easel to suggest that the proceeding was part of a GOP plot to denigrate the administration.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Even some Republican staff members complained that it went too far. "It didn't dawn on her that in Congress, things aren't supposed to appear politically driven," even if they are, says a senior GOP aide who has worked with her.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">In May, two weeks after the memo was distributed, Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia spotted Ms. Thomas in the audience at a hearing on the White House travel-office firings. In a rare public attack on a congressional staffer, he demanded to know why "Mrs. Clarence Thomas in that bright blue dress" was present. "I really smell a political witch hunt," he said.<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Ms. Thomas didn't endure the attack silently. Later that day, she confronted Mr. Moran on a House elevator and showed him a copy of a book, "Everything Men Know About Women," in which all the pages are blank. "This book is about you," she said. Justice Thomas later left his wife a voice-mail message in which he teasingly sang verses of the song, "Devil With a Blue Dress On."<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Spousal Conflict?<p times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background="background" rgb="rgb" padding="padding" px="px" border="border" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" style="margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, who also questioned Ms. Thomas's role at the travel-office hearing, believes it is a conflict of interest for her to be involved in disputes between Congress and the White House that the Supreme Court might be called on to settle. "We may have a problem here where the marital relationship confuses the constitutional intent" of the separation of powers, Mr. Kanjorski says. Ms. Thomas laughs when told of Mr. Kanjorski's statement, but declines to comment....[much more]</div><div>=</div>allison ayn matt vadum ctr-narr clinton and acorn caused gt recession, not greed<div>=</div><div>
</div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text " href="https://www.alternet.org/2015/05/tragic-end-woman-bill-clinton-exploited-poster-child-gutting-welfare/" aria-label="The Tragic End of the Woman Bill Clinton Exploited As Poster Child for Gutting Welfare" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;"> Tragic End of the Woman Bill Clinton Exploited As Poster Child for Gutting Welfare</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/zaid_jilani" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaid Jilani</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alternet" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">AlterNet</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/zaid-jilani" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaid Jilani</a></div> <div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> May 06, 2015</div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2647276790" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widget__brief">We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act—also called "welfare reform"—which was passed by President Clinton working with the Republican-controlled Congress. This welfare reform law changed the terms of federal aid to the poor. Among other things, the law replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The new TANF program...</div></div></div></div><div></div>
<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-revealed-the-danger-of-the-decades-long-conservative-movement/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-revealed-the-danger-of-the-decades-long-conservative-movement/</a><div>=</div><div>aha: ok maybe not tip pt but certainly inflection points:</div><div>see doom tip pt, along with 2010 TP wave, ripple cascade effects bad.dereg presumably started with RR mandate of L, hit list. Bush 41n not dereg wacko (tho John Graham OIRA DQA?)Newt 1994 wave forced triangulation?Koch TP libtards favors dereg
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/how-deregulation-led-to-the-opioid-epidemic" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/how-deregulation-led-to-the-opioid-epidemic</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The opioid abuse epidemic is one of the worst public-health crises in American history. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1999 and 2017, almost 400,000 people died in the U.S. from an overdose of either prescription or illicit opioids. In 2017 alone, opioids, more than one-third involving prescriptions, killed more than 47,000 individuals. And today, on average 130 people die each day from opioid overdoses.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article originally appeared on The American Prospect.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The root cause of most cases of opioid addiction, particularly prescription-initiated addiction, is pain, a devastating but sometimes overlooked symptom. As a recent American Industrial Hygiene Association paper argues, “the opioid crisis should be seen primarily as a pain crisis, much of which is related to work.” Addressing that crisis precipitated another: treatment regimes that relied heavily on opioids. Today there’s little awareness that almost two decades ago, conservative members of Congress, in a burst of anti-regulatory zeal, championed the fight to eliminate the very ergonomics standard that was designed to reduce the high incidence of a number of common workplace injuries.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The tale of that misguided effort begins with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, following decades of unregulated, preventable workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses. Its goal was to “assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women” and included “authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the Act.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The act incorporated existing industry safety standards and adopted new ones to cover an array of workplace hazards, such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). These disorders included a wide range of conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain, and tendonitis that are related to repetitive stress, or sustained or sudden exertions resulting from lifting, pushing, and pulling; carrying many or irregularly shaped objects; maintaining awkward or unnatural positions; or handling vibrating machinery and tools.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By the 1980s, labor health and safety activists recognized that alarming rates of disabling WMSDs were occurring in a wide variety of workplaces, including auto manufacturers, garment factories, office environments, and meatpacking and poultry plants. New modes of assembly line production exacerbated these long-standing problems. The need to implement an ergonomics standard, one that would require employers to systematically address the hazards that give rise to musculoskeletal injuries suffered by their workers, became even more urgent.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>There were several false starts for the controversial provisions, but OSHA began working in earnest on the standard in 1993. However, the resulting proposals soon ran into trouble on Capitol Hill. The Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, and Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” heralded the new Republican majority’s deregulatory push. Bemoaning the costs that an ergonomics standard would entail for the private sector, industry lobbyists derided OSHA’s ergonomic proposal as the poster child for government overregulation. The agency estimated that the new rule would require $4.5 billion in annual compliance costs, but would generate $9.1 billion in benefits every year in the first ten years, and prevent hundreds of thousands of musculoskeletal disorders each year.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gingrich’s acolytes fought the development of the standard tooth and nail, despite a 1997 General Accounting Office report that found that “billions of dollars are spent by private sector employers on workers’ compensation claims associated with WMSDs,” and that “employers can reduce these costs and injuries and thereby improve employee health and morale, as well as productivity and product quality” by implementing effective ergonomics programs in their workplaces.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After a decade of research and heated political debate, OSHA finally prevailed. On November 14, 2000, during the final weeks of the Clinton administration, the agency issued its ergonomics regulation. It applied to more than six million worksites covering 102 million workers and required all general-industry employers (excluding the agriculture, maritime, and construction sectors) to establish an ergonomics program if triggered by reports of a worker’s WMSD or persistent evidence of WMSDs in the workplace.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The standard went into effect days before George W. Bush was inaugurated. But a few months later, Congress used the Congressional Review Act of 1996 to obliterate the regulation, the first and only time the act had been used to rescind an agency regulation (until President Trump began to make frequent use of it). Usually, if a new administration dislikes a regulation and wants it revised or revoked, it needs to engage in rulemaking all over again and must justify the desired changes. The ergonomics standard escaped this process. In his first legislative act as president, Bush signed the rescission resolution on March 20, 2001, taking the standard off the books and prohibiting OSHA from ever issuing a substantially similar one. A regulation designed to protect workers from debilitating workplace injuries—that frequently required painkilling treatment regimes—had been completely destroyed.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Bush administration paid lip service to the value of ergonomics programs. Administration officials noted that employers who ignored obvious problems with WMSDs might be cited under OSHA’s “general duty” to provide a workplace reasonably free from recognized hazards. But, as a June 2004 memo to OSHA’s regional administrators made clear, any new guidelines for the prevention of WMSDs “are not new standards or regulations and do not create any new OSHA duties for employers” (emphasis in original). Today, no federal ergonomics regulation exists. (Some states run their own OSHA programs, with federal financial and technical assistance and oversight. They are required to provide worker protections at least as vigorous as federal OSHA  regulations require. Of these states, only California has specific ergonomics regulations currently on the books.)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the hazardous workplace conditions that give rise to musculoskeletal injuries, and the chronic pain that so often accompanies those injuries, haven’t gone away. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, musculoskeletal injuries are the most prevalent occupational injury in the United States today, totaling, in 2017, 32 percent of serious nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. The CDC, meanwhile, continues to claim that “together, employers, workers, and other parties with an understanding of ergonomics can design effective programs to prevent and minimize WMSDs.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2017, there were 344,970 cases of workplace musculoskeletal injuries involving days away from work. How many of those cases represent workers who are being treated or are self-medicating with opioids today? How many are addicted? And how many of their injuries could have been prevented with an effectively enforced standard designed to reduce the hazards that cause WMSDs, like the short-lived 2001 rule?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Today, the CDC points out that the best ways to prevent opioid overdose deaths include improving prescribing through revamped clinical-practice guidelines and treatment and preventing opioid use disorder. But there’s little discussion even now about preventing the workplace injuries that cause the pain that contribute to opioid use and abuse. Federally enforceable worker-informed ergonomics programs continue to be urgently needed in every workplace where these hazards exist. If only Congress and President Bush had understood that 18 years ago.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/what-we-now-know-about-the-men-who-led-the-impeachment-of-clinton-8b5557723bc9/">https://thinkprogress.org/what-we-now-know-about-the-men-who-led-the-impeachment-of-clinton-8b5557723bc9/</a>
What We Now Know About The Men Who Led The Impeachment Of ClintonJUDD LEGUMMAY 30, 2015, 5:43 PM
On December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton on two charges related to his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. (The charges were for perjury and obstruction of justice.) The historic vote, and subsequent trial in the Senate, involved the work of three men who were elected Speaker of the House Of Representatives by the Republican majority, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert.
Almost 17 years later, with the federal indictment of Hastert for illegally concealing up to $3.5 million in hush-money, we finally have a more complete understanding of the men who led this effort.
Newt GingrichSpeaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) led the push for Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Following a disappointing election in November 1998, he announced he was stepping down as Speaker and resigning from Congress.Gingrich later admitted that, while he was pushing for Clinton’s impeachment, he was engaged in an affair with a Congressional aide. “There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them,” Gingrich said in 2007. He later said the situation was “complex and, obviously, I wasn’t doing things to be proud of.”
Bob LivingstonAfter Gingrich announced his resignation, Republicans unanimously selected Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) to succeed him. Livingston represented the party as Speaker-elect in the led up to the impeachment vote.
On the day of the impeachment vote, Livingston announced he was resigning following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. According to Hustler Magazine Publisher Larry Flint, who offered a reward for information about the sex lives of members of Congress, he “found four women who said they had been involved with Mr. Livingston over the last 10 years.”
Dennis HastertFollowing Livingston’s resignation, which occurred on the same day the House voted on impeachment, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) quickly gained support of the Republican leadership to succeed him as Speaker-designate. He began formally serving as speaker in January 1999, and held that role while the Senate conducted their trial on the articles of impeachment.
On Thursday, Hastert was indicted on charges that he illegally structured $1.7 million in payments to an individual in an attempt to cover up prior misconduct. According to reports, the payments were allegedly intended to “conceal sexual abuse against a former male student he knew during his days as a teacher in Yorkville, Ill.” The LA Times also reported that “investigators also spoke with a second man who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the former student said.”Update:On April 27, Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for improperly structuring payments to cover up the abuse. In open court, a federal judge repeatedly called him a “serial child molester.”triangulation: term was first used by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bill Clinton</a>'s former chief political advisor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Morris" title="Dick Morris" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dick Morris</a> as a way to describe his strategy for getting Clinton reelected in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.presidential_election,1996" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. presidential election, 1996" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">1996 presidential election</a>. In Dick Morris' words, triangulation meant "the president needed to take a position that not only blended the best of each party's views but also transcended them to constitute a third force in the debate."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> In news articles and books, it is sometimes referred to as "Clintonian triangulation".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Morris advocated a set of policies that were different from the traditional policies of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democratic Party</a>. These policies included <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation" title="Deregulation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">deregulation</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_budgets" class="mw-redirect" title="Balanced budgets" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">balanced budgets</a>. One of the most widely cited capstones of Clinton's triangulation strategy was when, in his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_State_of_the_Union_Address" title="1996 State of the Union Address" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">1996 State of the Union Address</a>, Clinton declared that the "era of big government is over."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-nyt-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996</a>The United States presidential election of 1996 was the 53rd quadrennial <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election" title="United States presidential election" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">presidential election</a>. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1996.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> Incumbent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Democratic</a> President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Clinton</a> defeated Senate Majority Leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dole" title="Bob Dole" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bob Dole</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Republican</a> nominee.Clinton and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States" title="Vice President of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Vice President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore" title="Al Gore" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Al Gore</a> were re-nominated without incident by the Democratic Party. Numerous candidates entered the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,1996" title="Republican Party presidential primaries, 1996" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1996 Republican primaries</a>, with Dole considered the early front-runner. Dole clinched the nomination after defeating challenges by publisher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Forbes" title="Steve Forbes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Steve Forbes</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoconservatism" title="Paleoconservatism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">paleoconservative</a> leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan" title="Pat Buchanan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pat Buchanan</a>. Dole's running mate was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kemp" title="Jack Kemp" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jack Kemp</a>, a former Congressman and football player who had served as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Housing_and_Urban_Development" title="United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development" style="background: none;">Housing Secretary</a> under President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush" title="George H. W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George H. W. Bush</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot" title="Ross Perot" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Ross Perot</a>, who had won 18.9% of the popular vote as an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent(politician)" class="mw-redirect" title="Independent (politician)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">independent</a> candidate in the 1992 election, ran as the candidate of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America" title="Reform Party of the United States of America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Reform Party</a>. Perot received less media attention in 1996 and was excluded from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates" class="mw-redirect" title="United States presidential election debates" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">presidential debates</a>.Clinton's chances of winning were initially considered slim in the middle of his term as his party had lost both the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">House of Representatives</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Senate</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,1994" title="United States elections, 1994" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1994</a> for the first time in decades. He was able to regain ground as the economy began to recover from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1990s_recession" title="Early 1990s recession" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">early 1990s recession</a> with a relatively stable world stage. Clinton tied Dole to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich" title="Newt Gingrich" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Newt Gingrich</a>, the unpopular Republican Speaker of the House. Dole promised an across-the-board 15% reduction in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States" title="Income tax in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">federal income taxes</a> and attacked Clinton as a member of the "spoiled" <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Boomer" class="mw-redirect" title="Baby Boomer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Baby Boomer</a> generation. Dole's age was a persistent issue in the election, and gaffes by Dole exacerbated the issue for his campaign.Clinton maintained a consistent polling age over Dole, and he won re-election with a substantial margin in the popular vote and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College(United_States)" title="Electoral College (United States)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Electoral College</a>. Clinton became the first Democrat since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D.Roosevelt" title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> to win two straight presidential elections. Dole won 40.7% of the popular vote and 159 electoral votes, while Perot won 8.4% of the popular vote. Despite Dole's defeat, the Republican Party was able to maintain a majority in both the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,1996" title="United States House of Representatives elections, 1996" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">House of Representatives</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,1996" title="United States Senate elections, 1996" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Senate</a>. Turnout was registered at 49.0%, the lowest for a presidential election since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1924" title="United States presidential election, 1924" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">1924</a>.
<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;" xmlns:xml="xml">
</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Background" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Background</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Democratic_Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Democratic Party nomination</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Candidates_gallery" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1Candidates gallery</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Republican_Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Republican Party nomination</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Candidates_gallery_2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1Candidates gallery</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Primaries_and_convention" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2Primaries and convention</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Major_third_parties" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Major third parties</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Reform_Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.1Reform Party nomination</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Libertarian_Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.2Libertarian Party nomination</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Natural_Law_Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.3Natural Law Party nomination</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#U.S.Taxpayers'Party_nomination" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4.4U.S. Taxpayers' Party nomination</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#General_election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5General election</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.1Campaign</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Campaign_donations_controversy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.2Campaign donations controversy</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Results" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.3Results</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Results_by_state" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.4Results by state</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Close_states" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.4.1Close states</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Voter_demographics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5.5Voter demographics</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Polling_controversy" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6Polling controversy</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">7See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">8References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Notes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">9Notes</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10Further reading</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Books" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.1Books</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Journals" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.2Journals</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#Web_references" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">10.3Web references</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-27" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1996#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">11External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;">Background</h2>In 1995, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Republican Party</a> was riding high on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Revolution" title="Republican Revolution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">significant gains</a> made in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,1994" title="United States elections, 1994" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1994 mid-term elections</a>. In those races, the Republicans, led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_leaders_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives#Whips" title="Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">whip</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich" title="Newt Gingrich" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Newt Gingrich</a>, captured the majority of seats in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">House</a> for the first time in forty years and the majority of seats in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Senate</a> for the first time in eight years. Gingrich became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Speaker of the United States House of Representatives" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Speaker of the House</a>, while <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dole" title="Bob Dole" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bob Dole</a> elevated to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_leaders_of_the_United_States_Senate" title="Party leaders of the United States Senate" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Senate Majority leader</a>.The Republicans of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/104th_United_States_Congress" title="104th United States Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">104th Congress</a> pursued an ambitious agenda, highlighted by their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America" title="Contract with America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Contract with America</a>, but were often forced to compromise with President Clinton, who wielded <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veto" title="Veto" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">veto</a> power. A budget impasse between Congress and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Administration" class="mw-redirect" title="Clinton Administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Clinton Administration</a> eventually resulted in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_shutdown_of_1995_and_1996" class="mw-redirect" title="Federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">a government shutdown</a>. Clinton, meanwhile, was praised for signing the GOP's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act" title="Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">welfare reform</a> and other notable bills, but was forced to abandon his own <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993" title="Clinton health care plan of 1993" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">health care plan</a>....---Triangulation:The term was first used by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Clinton</a>'s former chief political advisor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Morris" title="Dick Morris" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Dick Morris</a> as a way to describe his strategy for getting Clinton reelected in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.presidential_election,1996" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. presidential election, 1996" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">1996 presidential election</a>. In Dick Morris' words, triangulation meant "the president needed to take a position that not only blended the best of each party's views but also transcended them to constitute a third force in the debate."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> In news articles and books, it is sometimes referred to as "Clintonian triangulation".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Morris advocated a set of policies that were different from the traditional policies of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Democratic Party</a>. These policies included <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation" title="Deregulation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">deregulation</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_budgets" class="mw-redirect" title="Balanced budgets" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">balanced budgets</a>. One of the most widely cited capstones of Clinton's triangulation strategy was when, in his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_State_of_the_Union_Address" title="1996 State of the Union Address" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">1996 State of the Union Address</a>, Clinton declared that the "era of big government is over."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation(politics)#cite_note-nyt-5" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">[5]</a>---3rd way
In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">United States</a>, "Third Way" adherents embrace <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_conservatism" title="Fiscal conservatism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">fiscal conservatism</a> to a greater extent than traditional economic liberals, advocate some replacement of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare(financial_aid)" class="mw-redirect" title="Welfare (financial aid)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">welfare</a> with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workfare" title="Workfare" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">workfare</a> and sometimes have a stronger preference for market solutions to traditional problems (as in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_market" class="mw-redirect" title="Pollution market" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">pollution markets</a>) while rejecting pure laissez-faire economics and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">libertarian</a> positions. The Third Way style of governing was firmly adopted and partly redefined during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Administration" class="mw-redirect" title="Clinton Administration" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">administration</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Clinton</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[41]</a> The term "Third Way" was introduced by political scientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Skowronek" title="Stephen Skowronek" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Stephen Skowronek</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[42]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[43]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[44]</a> "Third Way" presidents "undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance". Examples of this are Nixon’s economic policies, which were a continuation of Johnson's "Great Society", as well as Clinton’s welfare reform later.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[45]</a>Clinton, Blair, Prodi, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der" title="Gerhard Schröder" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Gerhard Schröder</a> and other leading Third Way adherents organized conferences to promote the Third Way philosophy in 1997 at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequers" title="Chequers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Chequers</a> in England.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[46]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-autogenerated2-47" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[47]</a>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_(think_tank)" title="Third Way (think tank)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Third Way think tank</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council" title="Democratic Leadership Council" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Democratic Leadership Council</a> are adherents of Third Way politics.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#cite_note-48" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[48]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy</a>
china (agents in Mar-a-lago, no problemo!)=C<a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/clinton-foundation-receiving-millions-dollars-corporations-want-build-keystone-xl" style="line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">linton Foundation Receiving Millions of Dollars from Corporations That Want to Build Keystone XL</a><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">According to a voluntary disclosure from the Foundation, in 2014 the not-for-profit received between $250,000 and $500,000 from Canada’s Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development  department, which has pressed for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The agency’s <a href="http://www.international.gc.ca/department-ministere/priorities-priorites.aspx?lang=eng" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">own website</a> states that one of its priorities is to “Deepen commercial relations  with the United States through support for innovation and foreign investment and promote  Canada as a stable and secure source of energy and energy technology, such as the Keystone XL  initiative.”<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">This Canadian agency is not the only donor aligned with big oil.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Numerous fossil fuel giants sent direct payments to the foundation in 2014, including Exxon Mobil Corp., which donated up to $5 million, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips  Co., Chesapeake Energy Corp., Citgo Petroleum Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp, the <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Hill <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/233185-canadian-pro-keystone-agency-donated-to-clinton-foundation" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">reported</a>.Big Oil has played a key role in lobbying in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline, including in <a href="http://www.nam.org/Issues/Energy-and-Environment/NAM-Led-Letter-to-President-Obama-from-over-165-CEOs-Calling-for-Approval/" style="line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">a letter</a> to U.S. President Barack Obama signed by the CEOs of ExxonMobil and Anadarko.<a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/clinton-foundation-receiving-millions-dollars-corporations-want-build-keystone-xl" style="line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">linton Foundation Receiving Millions of Dollars from Corporations That Want to Build Keystone XL</a>

BC got punked on logging salvage rider mark rey, but risked govt shutdown to save ANWR 41 (shutdown led to furlouhs that allow monica to deliver pizza) 41 Dombeck aslo got aggressive/effective on forests roadless 58mil acres; EPA sued power plants (on track to get rid of 1/4 of all indust pollut) 42  BC up effic stds, rule no govt contract for poluters (or other lawbreakers) , lower arsenic and fact farm runoff 45, lower diesel emissions  b2 put 371 rules on hold in 1st 90 min 46  b2 3rd wave of attack RR climsy, Newt 94 failed, but rove and luntz learned: look like you're doing no harm 47 strat ignor?

BC got punked on logging salvage rider mark rey, but risked govt shutdown to save ANWR 41 (shutdown led to furloughs that allow monica to deliver pizza) 41 Dombeck aslo got aggressive/effective on forests roadless 58mil acres; EPA sued power plants (on track to get rid of 1/4 of all indust pollut) 42  BC up effic stds, rule no govt contract for polluters (or other lawbreakers) , lower arsenic and fact farm runoff 45, lower diesel emissions  b2 put 371 rules on hold in 1st 90 min 46  b2 3rd wave of attack RR climsy, Newt 94 failed, but rove and luntz learned: look like you're doing no harm 47

OIRA JG ~ Joe  Lieb; OIRA could ask agency to repeal laws; rejects 58 RR; 16 BC; 316 B2 2001 (CTT and trade gp input) 64  dioxin no safe level, but ok to spread on crops and parks 64  nrdc found 34-56 mill ppl had arnsenic; BC browner went for 10 ppb (CTT said pvt well shd do something if 5 ppb) but ~ 1oppb at epa; Rvoe and Karen Hughes ~  b/c NMex close election, backed by CEI arsenic "an essential ingredient" and good for us 67 CEI angela logomasini  NAS backed Browner and B2 caved, also on other BC rules allowed, based by CEI Jon Adler.

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Hunting of the Pres

Bradley and Olin funded brock anita hill bk 100

Hale paid 60K$ by feds 161

Gt Unravel 8 yr 75 mil investigation found no wrongdoing by clintons p 270

Elves : George Conway

Ann Coulter

Jerome Marcus (philly) Fed Soc

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Susan Carpenter-McMillan (born circa 1949) was a senior adviser to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Jones" title="Paula Jones">Paula Jones</a> during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal" title="Lewinsky scandal">Lewinsky scandal</a> and headed the chairperson for the Paula Jones Legal Defense Fund.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Carpenter-McMillan#cite_note-0">[1]</a> In 1997 Clinton was willing to settle the lawsuit that Jones brought against him for $700,000. Carpenter-McMillan advised Jones to reject Clinton's offer because the offer did not include an apology.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Carpenter-McMillan#cite_note-1">[2]</a> Jones followed Carpenter-McMillan's advice, which contradicted the advice she received from her lawyers, Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata. Jones eventually settled the case with Clinton for $850,000 and no apology.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Carpenter-McMillan#cite_note-2">[3]</a>

In 2000 Carpenter-McCmillan unsuccessfully ran for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Assembly" title="California State Assembly">California State Assembly</a> against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Liu" title="Carol Liu">Carol Liu</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Carpenter-McMillan#cite_note-3">[4]</a>

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Big Lies

gop claimed BC tax hike biggest in hist, but actually RR 77 (BC's on top 1.2%)

115 mos economic growth (record), 4%/yr, 22m jobs (record) poverty rate down, paid off 360b in debt

gov spending to gnp at 60's levels and taxes comparable;  80, record home and stock ownership

B2? 1st absolute decline in jobs since Hoover 80. war and recession factors, but deficit came from tax cuts 81-2

discret spending up 50% after gingrich revo/earmarks 83

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D'amato aide Chertoff  clinton -gate 211 hunt

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impeachment?

Lawmakers who had been prepared to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt such as Hatch, Gephardt, and Lieberman found themselves bitterly discouraged at his response. In the Capitol office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, however, there was never any question of forgiveness. He did not believe for a second that Clinton was genuinely repenting; the president was only confessing because he had been caught. The DNA had forced his hand. For months, DeLay had been denouncing Clinton as a "sexual predator" and accusing him of providing only "the spin, the whole spin, and nothing but the spin." This then, finally, was the moment DeLay had waited for, the moment when Clinton would stand revealed as the liar he always was. He had lied about Gennifer Flowers, about the draft, about smoking marijuana. He had lied to DeLay and other Republicans during the budget battle that led to the shutdown of the federal government in 1995. And now at last was DeLay's chance to make him pay.

It was the waiting that was killing them now. At 5:44 P.M. that Monday, DeLay's policy director, Tony C. Rudy [not chris rudy?], out in California for the congressional recess, sent an E-mail to press secretary Michael P. Scanlon back in Washington to find out what was happening with Clinton at the grand jury.

"still no word?" he wrote in that casual internal E-mail style in which capitalization, precise spelling, and proper grammar were optional.

"Hes going to admit it," Scanlon wrote back. "the big q is on what level — I still say we need to attack!"

Rudy agreed. "we need to force dems to distance themselves from the liar," he replied. "He looked into americas eyes and lied."

"God bless you Tony Rudy — Are we the only ones with political instincts — This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is BS — Not only do you kick him — you kick him until he passes out — then beat him over the head with a baseball bat — then roll him up in an old rug — and throw him off a cliff into the pound surf below!!!!!"

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/baker-breach.html">http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/baker-breach.html</a>

<h1>Clinton, Conspiracism, and the Continuing Culture War</h1>

<a id="P54_15665" name="P54_15665"> </a>The Role of the Media

<a href="http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-02.html">http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/clinton/Clintonculwar8-02.html</a>

=

Clinton Wars Sidney Blumenthal

http://books.google.com/books?id=RlJKrGSaFMkC&dq=Clinton+Wars+Sidney+Blumenthal&source=gbs_navlinks_s

'89, LA saw BC as threat to B1 p34 devised Horton

Larry Nichols, contras p 36 tried to shake down BC 37 (much later waved gun at militia event and threatened BC)

Jan 92 BC frontrunner so tabloid ? paid big $ to Nichols and Flowers (gave $ to gop)

2/18 4 in bed orgy and black love child in Globe

Sidney Blumenthal ( born November 6, 1948) is a former aide to President Bill Clinton and a widely published American journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy.

Born in Chicago, he earned a BA in sociology from Brandeis University in 1969 and started his career in Boston as a journalist who wrote for The New Republic. Over a career of twenty years, he became editor of several departments and wrote for several publications including The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. During the '00s, he published several essays critical of the administration of then-President George W. Bush.[1][2][3][4]...

Blumenthal v. Drudge

In 1997, Blumenthal instigated a $30 million libel lawsuit against Internet blogger Matt Drudge (as well as AOL, who had hired Mr. Drudge) stemming from a false claim Drudge had made of spousal abuse attributed to "top GOP sources." Drudge retracted the story later, saying he was given bad information. In Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F. Supp. 44 (D.D.C. 1998), the court refused to dismiss Blumenthal's case for lack of personal jurisdiction. Drudge later publicly apologized to the Blumenthals. Blumenthal dropped his lawsuit and eventually reached a settlement involving a small payment to Drudge over having missed a deposition. In his book, The Clinton Wars, Blumenthal claimed he was forced to settle because he could no longer financially afford the suit.[5] [6]

Following the end of the Clinton presidency, Blumenthal subsequently wrote a book titled The Clinton Wars published in 2003. The book includes a small biography of Blumenthal, but focuses on his years with the Clintons and in the White House. Other books by Blumenthal include The Permanent Campaign, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War, and How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime.

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Uncovering Clinton

A Reporter's Story

By MICHAEL ISIKOFF

Crown Publishers

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/i/isikoff-clinton.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

What did that mean? Nobody was satisfied, including Reed Irvine, the dyspeptic chief of Accuracy in Media--a conservative watchdog group. Irvine wanted Jones to tell all.

...I had gotten to know CLIFF Jackson in 1992, when I first started chasing down Clinton scandal stories. There was no question he had an agenda and a deep animus toward the president. They had known each other for more than a quarter century and had actually once been friendly at Oxford University, where Jackson was a Fulbright Scholar while Clinton was a Rhodes. Clinton later had sought Jackson's help in contacting the leader of the Arkansas Republican Party to get a crucial draft deferment. But at some point the two went their separate ways. Over the years, a rivalry turned into a near blood feud--at least on Jackson's side. I recalled having dinner with Jackson along with a colleague, David Marannis, in early 1992 and being struck by how personal it all seemed. Jackson was soft-spoken, shy, socially inept--everything the fast-talking and personable Clinton was not. To Jackson, Clinton was a phony, a man who pretended to be your best friend one minute and forgot you the next, a man who would do anything to get ahead. Jackson, it was clear, burned with resentment toward Clinton.

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Hunting pres (video)

The Hunting of the President

By Gene Lyons

http://books.google.com/books?id=DPNYQBwQ7uoC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=peter+smith+gopac+rnc&source=bl&ots=i3yBkyjd-b&sig=lgZCFcA-cJK2ZSKI10p126S2IU8&hl=en&ei=oqVKStHmH8fPlAeal6wb&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

cf video notes

book:

dirty camp not new, but media channels are xiii

p3 atwater uses ark primary to preempt BC pres run

bradly olin funded brock anita bk 100

scaife bio 106- backed goldwater then nixon (wrote 354 checks to avoid gift taxes in 71. Nixon staff tried to get him to buy Wa Post!

fronted for CIA 107-8 Forum World Features, gave credentials to agents also spread propaganda (cf sectret govt website

Hale made proffeer to Fiske, said afraid for life 129

book: http://www.benegesserit.com/THOTP/Porter-THOTP.htm

*

SCAIFE

Money from the Pittsburgh billionaire's foundations also supported three conservative organizations prominently associated without he Jones case.  Between 1988 and 1996, nearly a million dollars in Scaife funds had been lavished on the Landmark Legal Foundation, an organization based in Kansas City and Washington which litigated on behalf of right-wing causes.  Well over half a million dollars had been doled out to the Independent Women's Forum since 1994, when its leaders engaged Starr to write a brief on Jones' behalf.

Another million or so had subsidized the Federalist Society, established as a national legal fraternity during the Reagan era.  It acted as a clearinghouse for clerkships with conservative judges, policy forums, and a right-wing political network.  Its roster of members and patrons included many of the most prominent Republican judges, attorneys, and legal scholars, including Kenneth Starr and Judge David Sentelle, the presiding judge of the Special Division that had appointed Starr.)  Certain of its members, including Starr, had provided a great deal of high-priced legal advice to Jones for free.

Gil Davis and Joe Cammarata weren't the sort of attorneys attracted to the highly ideological Federalist milieu.  But Richard Porter and George Conway were among the group's active members, and they had mobilized its resources during the early days of the Jones lawsuit to lend additional repectability to her claims.  At the urging of Conway and Marcus, a group of Federalist-affiliated law professors and constitutional lawyers had signed 'friend of the court" briefs in 1994 supporting her right to proceedings against the president while he was still in office.

Now, as the date for argument on that issue in the Supreme Court approached, the young Federalist attorneys in the Jones camp called upon two of the organization's legal eminences to help prepare Davis and Cammarata.  During the first week of January, the brought Davis and Cammarata to the Army-Navy Club for a coaching session with Robert Bork, who had addressed the founding conference of the Federalist Society at Yale in 1982, and Ted Olson, the chairman of its powerful Washington chapter.  [Olson was also David Hale's attorney.]

pp. 298-300

The worst mistake Davis and Cammarata made was to confide all those sensitive details to their behind-the-scene advisers, a little group of committed conservatives led by Philadelphia lawyer Jerome Marcus.  (It was Marcus' name that appeared most often on the time sheets kept by the Jones lawyers, although they frequently spoke and communicated with George Conway in New York, and less often with Richard Porter in Chicago.)  Both men valued the assistance donated pro bono by the group, though they had believed from the beginning that Conway, Marcus, and Porter all were motivated more by hatred of Bill Clinton than by any desire to rescue Paula Jones.  Yet Davis and Cammarata, although Republicans themselves, wouldn't countenance the misuse of their lawsuit to advance a partisan agenda.  They took their duties as officers of the court seriously and consistently placed their client's interest ahead of politics.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Fid%2F1832&ei=d4s4TKHnGISosQOJwoBS&usg=AFQjCNH9DZeqIvTUW8RRn6t4F4o-BQ7MyQ

Susan C McMillan, anti abort who had 2

http://www.slate.com/id/1832

Susan Carpenter-McMillanThe woman who ate Paula Jones.

By David PlotzPosted Sunday, Sept. 21, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET

Geo T Conway III

And Jonathan Broder writing in SALON writes:

"Last week Liesl Noll, a spokeswoman for the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, confirmed to Salon that a process server had tried to deliver a subpoena to one of its lawyers, George Conway III, but was unsuccessful because Conway was away. Conway's secretary told Salon that he was on vacation and unreachable. Conway did not return several messages left by Salon on his voice mail, and his whereabouts remain a mystery.

Noll confirmed that Conway, a 34-year-old conservative activist, had recently informed the firm's stunned partners that he had worked for free and without their knowledge on the Jones case, writing the crucial Supreme Court brief that successfully argued Jones' suit should proceed despite the fact that Clinton was still in office.

... For example, the White House strongly suspects that Conway delivered portions of Linda Tripp's tapes to Newsweek and put Tripp in touch with her current lawyer, James Moody, another conservative activist."

We also suspect that Starr, and Jones' lawyers - perhaps in concert with Conway - may have schemed together to jump Lewinsky at a suburban shopping mall hotel on the 16th of January in order to scare the bejeezus out of her and admit she did have an affair with the President and that he counseled her to lie under oath.

We wonder if Conway has accepted Bennett's subpoena as yet. At least he was in his office today.

But by far the most damaging story on George Conway was by Joe Conason of the newly chic New York Observer. Conason is a terrific reporter and has a way with words. He reports that Conway is a secret adviser to Paula Jones and evaded the Bennett subpoena by suddenly "disappearing" on the 26th of January.

http://www.americanpolitics.com/021198ConwayIII.html

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A Vast Conspiracy

Jeffrey Toobin

http://books.google.com/books?id=EUqdRPykHd0C&pg=PA402&lpg=PA402&dq=Toobin,+Jeffrey+%281999%29,+A+Vast+Conspiracy:+The+Real+Story+of+the+Sex+Scandal+That+Nearly+Brought+Down+a+President,&source=bl&ots=Gp9PmR-x8U&sig=QRxZ-gE9YwKxYmYpa88CPm5XxyE&hl=en&ei=Za04TKHNApDCsAODkOxR&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

has cast of characters, chrono

==

Even before the Arkansas Project had gotten underway, Scaife personally hired a former New York Post reporter named Christopher Ruddy to write about Foster's death for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the daily newspaper Scaife has owned since 1969. Ruddy's stories about Foster's death – most of them challenging the suicide theory, without offering an alternative explanation – began to appear in January 1995.

Scaife has funded other Clinton efforts as well: Two zealous and resourceful (and rival) public interest law firms that have pursued Clinton and his administration relentlessly, the Landmark Legal Foundation and Judicial Watch, have received more than $4 million from Scaife. Judicial Watch, which is aggressively suing several branches of the government and has questioned numerous White House officials under oath, has received $1.35 million from Scaife sources in the last two years, a large fraction of its budget.

The Fund for Living American Government (FLAG), a one-man philanthropy run by William Lehrfeld, a Washington tax lawyer who has represented Scaife in the past, gave $59,000 to Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit against Clinton. FLAG has received at least $160,000 in Scaife donations. And lawyers who belong to the conservative Federalist Society, which has enjoyed Scaife support for 15 years (at least $1.5 million), were members of a secretive group who provided important legal advice to Paula Jones and who may have pulled off the key legal maneuver in the Clinton case by connecting the Jones suit and the Starr investigation.

Officers of the Scaife-supported Independent Women's Forum have appeared on many television programs as Clinton critics. William J. Bennett, author of "Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals," is on the board of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and has received Scaife support as a fellow of the Heritage Foundation and other enterprises.

One of the most publicized allegations of a tie between Scaife and Clinton's enemies was the suggestion that Scaife was trying to set up independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr in a posh deanship at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. Starr briefly toyed with accepting the job early in 1997.

Scaife has been a generous supporter of Pepperdine, donating more than $13 million since 1962 (in personal gifts as well as foundation grants), according to the school. But Scaife and the current president of Pepperdine, David Davenport, both have said that Scaife played no role whatsoever in the offer to Starr. Scaife and Starr have said they don't know each other, and have never met.

By Robert G. Kaiser and Ira Chinoy

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, May 2, 1999; Page A1

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hmmn

Larouche:

"Get Clinton!"

As should be clear to the reader by now, Dickie Scaife's current financing and coordination of the news-media attack on President Clinton, is exactly of the same form as what Scaife has been deployed to do since the early 1970s, when he was assigned to take over Forum World Features/Kern House by the Anglophile bankers' intelligence network. Forum World Feature's specific purpose was to finance and circulate selected features and articles for the news media internationally. The ``Public Diplomacy'' operation in the 1980s which Scaife financed did exactly the same thing as FWF, including orchestrating news media attacks on targetted adversaries.

The Columbia Journalism Review put it slightly more politely in a 1981 profile of Scaife: It said that he ``has made the formation of public opinion both his business and his avocation.... Scaife could claim to have done more than any other individual in the past five or six years to influence the way in which Americans think about their country and the world.''

Today, almost on a weekly basis, one can pick up a newspaper and find full-page ads on the Vincent Foster death, reprinting articles written by Christopher Ruddy for Scaife's Greensburg (now ``Pittsburgh'') Tribune-Review. The ads are paid for by Scaife, with funds laundered through the Western Journalism Center (WJC). WJC also occasionally reprints articles by the British Intelligence stringer and London Sunday Telegraph Washington correspondent Ambrose Evans-Pritchard--who also writes directly for the Tribune Review.

Other ads promoting theories about the alleged coverup of the Vincent Foster death can also be found, produced by Accuracy in Media (AIM), another group bankrolled by Scaife since the 1970s, and long known for its defense of the CIA against any attacks, not to mention its protection of George Bush's drug-running Contras in the 1980s. Currently, Scaife's foundations are AIM's largest contributors, having given them $630,000 from 1989-93.

The WJC and AIM also produce features on the Foster case for newspapers and television programs. AIM's Reed Irvine has a weekly broadcast on National Empowerment Television (NET), a cable channel founded by Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation, to which Scaife gives about $1 million a year.

At the end of 1993, the Whitewater scandals against President Clinton, which had been dormant since the 1992 primaries, were revved up again with the publication of the Troopergate'' story in the British-linked American Spectator. Already in the 1970s, Scaife had given over $1 million to the American Spectator's publishers, and this has continued to the present day; between 1989 and 1993, Scaife gave $1.3 million to the American Spectator Educational Fund for research'' and other purposes.

Another top purveyor of Vincent Foster conspiracy theories is Strategic Investment newsletter, run by former Times of London editor Lord William Rees-Mogg, and James Dale Davidson, chairman of the National Taxpayers Union, also Scaife-funded. Davidson has produced a video jointly with the Western Journalism Center called ``Unanswered: The Death of Vincent Foster.''

What does Scaife himself say about all this? Very little publicly, but, in a rare interview he gave to the New York Times in 1995, he proclaimed, ``The death of Vincent Foster: I think it's the Rosetta Stone to the whole Clinton administration,'' adding that Foster's death had the potential to become the political story of the century.

The other major means by which Scaife finances attacks on the President--apart from his funding of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's GOPAC and right-wing think-tanks such as the Heritage Foundation--is through the cluster of right-wing legal foundations and litigation centers. Prominent among these (see Documentation, p.|67 in our previous issue's installment) is the Landmark Legal Foundation, which has offered advice and assistance to Paula Jones in her sexual-harassment claim against Clinton, and which has ensconced itself in other Whitewater-related matters.

Another, similar Scaife-financed organization is the Washington Legal Foundation, previously known as the Capital Legal Foundation. On its Legal Policy Advisory Board are Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, John Norton Moore of the University of Virginia Law School, and Massachusetts governor and former LaRouche prosecutor William Weld. On its National Board of Advisers are Senators Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Orrin Hatch (Utah)--both involved in Senate investigations of the Clintons--and Jesse Helms, who played a role in the dumping of the first Whitewater independent counsel and his replacement with Kenneth Starr.

The work of Scaife's network of conservative legal foundations is overseen by the Washington-based National Legal Center for the Public Interest (NLCPI), which he, of course, also funds. One of the directors of NLCPI is David Davenport, president of Pepperdine University; Scaife is on Pepperdine's board of trustees. Davenport and Scaife also sit together on the advisory board of the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace in Palo Alto, California.

It is David Davenport who has offered Bush-leaguer Kenneth Starr a cushy position at Pepperdine University, financed in large part by Scaife, when Starr wraps up his investigation and legal assault on President Clinton as the Whitewater independent counsel. Starr may be ``independent'' of the administration, but he is certainly not independent of Dickie Scaife.

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Hunting Pres JC says help front CIA prop p 108

hated BC

Olson met w/ troopergate guys. indicted?  p 109

scaife funded IWF hunt 261

Starr's law firm contacted the Independent Womens Forum to see if they would sign on a proposed legal brief opposing President Clinton's claim of immunity in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit.145 Those discussions should have been disclosed. The Scaife-funded IWF grew out of the informal "Women for Clarence Thomas" in 1991.146 IWF was founded by by Barabra Olson, wife of Theodore Olson, the former Starr law partner, and a funder of the Federalist Society.