By the Way, Sorry about Provoking the Ridiculous Constitutional Crisis

From the gobsmacked files:

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

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

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

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

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

Talk about your "whoopsies"...

 

Comments

[iamcoyote]

Oh, dear. Dare we hope subsidized wingnut bloggers will no longer be getting their paychecks?

I dare, I dare!

(OT: Low and Left has closed shop this weekend - thanks for the link, though!)

[Tom - 大肚腩]

Somehow I doubt that Scaife will pull the checks from any of his trust-fund kids, like the Ma-ding-a-ling Marriage, for blaming all of Bush's faults on the Clenis tomorrow on the next day.

[UNE_ShiftlessAndCrazy]

My head just fell off........can someone lend a hand?

Talk about LiberalVaporLock™

Wow!
.

[Steve M.]

Interesting -- or this could be a very clumsy attempt to lull Hillary into thinking they'll hold their fire.

[American Citizen]

The article (and this post) doesn't talk about WHY she was hated. Hillary Care was that offensive? I don't think so. I think you just have a lot of little men who felt threatened by a first lady who didn't conform to the obidient wife stereotype of long ago. After all, it's not as if she ever DID anything to affect anyone's life (i.e. pass laws, write regulations, cause any fatal auto accidents, etc). She was, and still is, a target for misogynists.

[Midwest Meg]

Some theories:

a) Richard Mellon Scaife has decided that Hillary won't rock any of his boats or introduce anything he considers "radical" change---like real healh care reform, etc.

b) RMS is too busy funding schisms in my denomination (Episcopals) no to mention he Presbyterians and Methodists. Please remember any time you read about an Episcopal priest talking "mournfully" about having to b reak away from the American church and join the worldwide Anglican communion...........that priest is being handsomely supported by Richard Mellon Scaife. Who isn;t even Episcopalian, but sees mainline Protestamts as another front in his endless culture war.

c) he's already damaged Hillary as much as he can. Time to slime new targets----Obama, Edwards, Richardson.

[ronin]

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,”

Compared to what we have now? Even the wingnuts are deserting Bush.

[Comte de Rochambeau]

Mr.Scaife must be feeling the squeeze that
Mr. Bush's policies are having on the money markets. The huge deficit and the
complete lack of any coherent monetary
policy. Mr. Scaife has a lot to loose.

[larry, dfh]

She is hated because, in their minds, she is a class traitor. Girls from the Chicago elite society are not supposed to marry boys from trailer parks in Arkansas. And that above all speaks very well of HRC. At least once in her life she did what she thought was best, and not what was expected of her.

[mdhatter]

Seems like someone noticed the neo-cons are WORSE for the bottom line.

[Avedon]

Just makes you want to bang your head against a wall, doesn't it?

Jayzus. The segregationists in Arkansas hated the Clintons because they weren't segregationists and because Hillary didn't change her name when she married Bill. That was enough reason why the whole world had to hear about the sex life of the President of the United States at a cost of $70m to the taxpayer.

And now they decide that Clinton wasn't such a bad president? Pay me back, you bastards.

[profmarcus]

this anecdote merely tells me who the r's WANT as a democratic presidential candidate...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

[Duckman GR]

Lordy, these people just define contemptible, don't they? And I'm not holding my breath that he's going to make some amends for all the vituperative attacks and undermining he did to President Clinton while OUR troops were at war, either.

[Kyle McCullough]

"In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways," meaning: "by comparison!"

[flory]

Jeebus...and NToddler got a link from Atrios.

Now I know the end times are nigh.

[TJM]

I still won't buy his newspaper.

[PaminBB]

The wingnuts don't need to fund anti-Hilary attacks, her opponents for the Democratic nomination will spend money to do that for the next year. Let's see if their pockets stay closed come mid-2008.

[jakester]

And we should take these guys at the word exactly ... why?

[tikistitch]

That was enough reason why the whole world had to hear about the sex life of the President of the United States at a cost of $70m to the taxpayer.

And now they decide that Clinton wasn't such a bad president? Pay me back, you bastards.

Word.

And THEN he can start paying us back for the Iraq war. No way in hell W. would have been elected in the first place without Scaife'd little minions sniffing through Clinton's underwear drawer.

[Carl from L.A.]

Anybody out there really falling for this?

Just wait. If Hillary is nominated, do you think Scaife and his associates just might have another rethinking? Why waste money now, a year and a half before the election.

[Iwonder]

profmarcus you are right on

[Aaaargh]

Perhaps Mr. Scaife has recognized that the Bush Doctrine of imprisoning and torturing anyone what he doesn't like might just play differently in Hilary's hands. I know I'd be feeding his testicles to a rottweiler if I were preznit.

[Atrios]

Oh man, you just have to take a look at this...

[Bas-O-Matic]

The article (and this post) doesn't talk about WHY she was hated. Hillary Care was that offensive? I don't think so. I think you just have a lot of little men who felt threatened by a first lady who didn't conform to the obidient wife stereotype of long ago. After all, it's not as if she ever DID anything to affect anyone's life (i.e. pass laws, write regulations, cause any fatal auto accidents, etc). She was, and still is, a target for misogynists.

She's was the First First Wife.

[Spokane Moderate]

?Oh man, you just have to take a look at this...

Oh, no we don't.

[Thers]

Oh man, you just have to take a look at this...

Gah. Being stuck in grad school forever must be its own special kind of hell.

[Spokane Moderate]

Being stuck in grad school forever must be its own special kind of hell.

Yes. Yes, it is.

[Monroe]

Maybe the ghost of Anna Nicole spoke to him from Gold Digger Heaven?

[D. Douglas]

There's a perfectly LOGICAL explanation for this, but I doubt any of you would buy it. But it makes more sense than anything else I've read that tries to justify this obvious political theater.

[Mary Tracy]

Now the right-wing maggots, Ruddy and Scaife are saying that Clinton was a pretty good president, after doing everything they could to drive Clinton out of office with their conpiratorial "Arkansas Project." Obviously, these two freaks are graduates of the CIA's school of disinformation.

[D. Douglas]

"Obviously, these two freaks are graduates of the CIA's school of disinformation."
==========================
You're very close, Mary. : )

It just has a lot more to do with political theater. All of Bill's "hot water" back then was misdirection.

[ShelbSpeaks]

After all was said and done, Christopher Ruddy did have very good reason to investigate the Clinton's and he did uncover a lot of dirt on the two. As far as opinions of Bill's success as a President, those seem to be of a different matter than the Vince Foster case.

[Thers]

Shelb, you are a treasure. It's far too late in the game for pretending that the Clinton smears weren't just that -- smears.