Subscribe to Breaking NewsRichardson Calls the Clintons on Their Gutter Politics
For progressives, the gutter politics of the Clintons are no laughing matter.
No sooner than Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for president than the Clintons loosed their attack dogs on him. “Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” snarled James Carville — the ultimate Clinton attack dog; in doing so, Carville used the week holy to Christians to implicitly compare Hillary Clinton to Jesus Christ, but he is hardly unique among Hillary’s supporters, who seem to view her campaign as a kind of Second Coming. Famous for having produced the theme of Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid,” Carville is the archetypal Clinton operative for whom public policy is only the subject of campaign sloganeering and gaining power is the only thing.
“I’m not going to get in the gutter like that,” Richardson responded on “Fox News Sunday” when asked about Carville’s characterization as a Judas. “And you know, that’s typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency,” the governor of New Mexico added. “I am very loyal to the Clintons,” said Richardson, but he said he wanted something beyond “Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton,” referring to the pattern of dynastic condominium that the Bush/Clinton presidencies represent. “You know, what about the rest of us?” Richardson asked. Obama is the first viable African American presidential candidate and Richardson is the only sitting Latino governor, and the latter’s endorsement was eagerly sought by both the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
It’s so tiresome to hear yet another ranting about the “Clinton attack machine” as though there isn’t enough sniping among all the campaigns to go around. Of greater importance is how the candidates view and treat our LGBT community, and you can read for yourself below the latest example of how Obama’s campaign has disrespected and abused a representative of the LGBT community — a reporter from the Gay People’s Chronicle, an Ohio GLBT newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. This made my blood boil and I bet it will yours too. All LGBT voters even considering a vote for Obama should read this and think long and hard about whether he is your right choice. I’d say Sen. Clinton is the better choice, given her long track record of partnership with our community and her willingness to work with us without pandering, offending or disrespecting us.
Look at how Obama’s national communications director Robert Gibbs treated the reporter at the Gay People’s Chronicle – an Ohio gay newspaper:
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/03/the_story_behind_the_reporting.php
Excerpt:
“In my 12 years as a reporter, I have never experienced anything quite like Obama’s national communication director Robert Gibbs, either.
I wasn’t biting on the crap he tried to feed me, and he got offended. When I stood there not writing any of it down, Gibbs said to me, “Let me tell you how this works. I talk and you write down what I say. I’ll write down what you say when you answer the question,” I responded, adding that “I’m no campaign’s stenographer.”
Gibbs actually took the pen and pad out of my hands and wrote his own answer! He also asked for the Donnie McClurkin letter to be e-mailed to him, claiming he didn’t remember what it said. It was. He didn’t comment further.
Would Gibbs treat a New York Times reporter this way? How about a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter?
“Asking the campaign to explain the difference between McClurkin and Farrakhan is a fair question. The Obama campaign, however, treated the question with indignation, claimed that the reporter mischaracterized events, and erroneously claimed that “Senator Obama spoke out against the hateful views of both Donnie McClurkin and Louis Farrakhan. Obama spokespeople pivot to the MLK Day speech as though it settles every debt to the LGBT community, past and future.”
The Obamas are as guilty as any other campaign when it comes to attacking but the only difference is they like to portray themselves as somehow above the fray and better than other politicians (Remember, “The Audacity of Hope”). In one breath the Obamas will decry “old style gutter politics” and then in the next breath go on to excoriate anyone who dares disagree with them. It’s hypocritical and offensive.
We worked hard to be sure Obama didn’t win Ohio, and I encourage other LGBT brothers and sisters to work hard in other states to expose the hypocrisy of the Obamas. We’ll be there to help!
JerryinOhio, Hillary has a long record of pandering to LGBT people as well as offending or disrespecting us: she enthusiastically supported Don’t Ask Don’t tell and the Defense of Marriage Act until she started running for president and she made offensive comments about the religious and historical significance of marriage in defending her support for DOMA. Hillary has never once met with a transgender organization (despite requests for such a meeting), and she’s only once met with the LGBT community in the state that she represents in the Senate — and only then after stalling for over a year and-a-half; not exactly “a long track record of partnership with our community.”
Hillary has also never addressed homophobia or transgenderphobia with a non-LGBT audience, unlike Obama, who spoke passionately about the need to combat homophobia in the African American community in the speech that he made — in a black church — on Martin Luther King Day.
So I agree with you that we should judge these candidates on how they’ve treated the LGBT community. Hillary has treated the LGBT community shabbily at best (and I’m being charitable in that characterization), and so LGBT voters should most definitely take that into account in deciding who to support for president.
“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” James Carville said.
You got love James Carville, he’s brillant! Via his metaphor, he gave you the clue to why Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama.
Richardson left the race with a large campaign debt. I wonder how long it’s going to take for that to debt miraculously gets paid off?
After all Barack Obama’s campaign has given the most money to the super delegates, almost a million bucks.
@Lauren
Sure, James Carville is brilliant . . . so brilliant that even on the one-in-a-million chance that Queen Hillary secures the nomination he’s ensured that no Obama supporter will vote for her in the general election. That Carville sure is genius, sheer genius.