Hillary staff member fired for email claiming Obama is Muslim and ..

[Hieronymus]

dangerous to the US.

[MADem]

1. Firing that sort of person was a wise move. NT

[elizm]

5. There were actually THREE of them doing it we find out now.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html
Has to make you wonder what kind of people she has working for her. And this was a volunteer coordinator...not a volunteer.

[thepurpose]

2. WTF, Who are these people and why are they democrats?

[proudmoddemo]

29. Self-Delete

This one didn't sound right. Sorry.

[Turbineguy]

3. Well, there's another

experienced campaign worker who would have been happier as a republican.

[ClarkUSA]

4. This is the second Clinton regional director that's been caught doing this in as many weeks.

The first one wasn't "fired" until the shit hit the fan in the form of a Daily Kos diary by a Dodd campaign staffer. The Clinton campaign knew about Judy Rose
for two weeks prior to the Daily Kos diary and did nothing. More Rovian dirty tricks from the Clinton campaign... they're going to keep trying to swift boat
Obama because they can't win on the issues or the merit of their candidate alone. Despicable. I'm pretty sure Mark Penn was behind feeding the press those
stories about Edwards' haircut/house/hedge fund, too. It's their MO, to a T.

And today we are hearing about a push poll that disses both Obama and Edwards.

Hmmm....

[elizm]

6. 3rd one named today...

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html

[ClarkUSA]

14. THIRD?????!!! Oh, this is definitely an organized swift boating effort by the Clinton campaign

And anyone who says it's a coincidence that THREE different regional directors/campaign staffers were sending out the SAME email during the SAME
time period is full of Clintonian Kool-Aide or is a goddamn lying apologist for the same kind of Rovian dirty tricks we've deplored in Republicans.

[elizm]

15. Supposedly the 3rd one 'knew' about it but did not forward...but also didn't 'tell'...

WHatever..

[ClarkUSA]

18. Yeah, and Hillaryworld didn't fire the first one for 2 weeks until the DKos diary blew the whistle

Question: how many other regional directors/county coordinators have been doing this and how long will it be before we hear the whole story
about who put them up to it? Because if Mark Penn were in front of me right now, I'd kick his fat AIPAC ass from here to eternity.

[proudmoddemo]

24. Amen

Clearly a coordinated smear job from the Hillary campaign's highest levels. Thankfully, Democrats are more informed and not likely to buy this garbage, which is just George Bush's tactics in 2000 recycled.

[ClarkUSA]

33. *high-five*

Unfortunately, I've encountered many Democratic voters in my phonebanking in recent weeks who've asked me about these emails and/or
whether Obama was really a Muslim, so I really do think the Rovian=Clintonian swift boating campaign has sufficiently spread its lies
wide and far. How many have received these emails and how many voters have discussed them at the water cooler is a number we can
only guess at. That's why I think at some point, it would be wise for Obama to address this latest Nixonian-Rovian-Clintonian dirty trick
in the same dignified yet firm manner with which he smackdowned Hillaryworld's Novak stunt. Nice to see you here and engaged, btw. As
you can see, we have a lot of coordinated Clintonian efforts against Obama here at DU as well.

[oasis]

45. "A lot of coordinated Clintonian efforts against Obama here at DU". So you say.

And if true, who do I sign up with? :shrug:

[elizm]

7. And these were not volunteers...

They were volunteer coordinators. Paid staff.

[ClarkUSA]

16. ALL of them are county coordinators who just happened to be emailing the SAME swift boating message!

Boy, what a coincidence!! I'm sure Mark Penn didn't put them up to it.... :sarcasm:

How much you wanna bet EVERY single regional director has been doing this or know of someone doing it and they just haven't been caught yet?

I wonder why the Obama campaign hasn't addressed this so far? Because Barack needs to set the record straight the way he did with the Novak
piece. I've been phonebanking in Iowa and I've encountered many voters who've asked me about this email... now I know why!

:mad:

[elizm]

30. It was circulating a LOT in South Carolina, too.....

I was thinking it was just in SC....now it is really starting to make sense. It is probably starting to circulate in NH now too since Obama is on the move there as well.

[ClarkUSA]

36. Yup... it's a coordinated swift boating campaign by the Nixonian-Rovian-Clintonians

Fuck the Clintons for doing to a good guy Democrat the same thing they decried as "the politics of personal destruction" during the Clinton
administration. Let's face it: Clintonians are ethically bankrupt and their methods a disgrace. I'm only phone banking in Iowa right now...
I hope the Obama campaign plans to address the matter SOON because I'll bet there are many many voters in the early caucus/primary
states who are being fooled.

[proudmoddemo]

9. Not coincidental

I also think the kindergarten thing was part of the smear campaign. They wanted us to have the image of "little Muslim Barack plotting to take over the world," in our minds. Pros don't put "jokes," in press releases. That was no joke. I have evidence of that, just a hunch. I think this is coming from on high--probably Penn. And it is truly distasteful and wrong.

Still, as the National Review pointed out, this all started after the Hillary campaign "went on background," to talk about their oppo research into Barack's childhood and religion. Pathetic.

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGEzOGI2OTM4ZjE0MTZmYmZlZjRkZWZmN2M0NTEyZDc=

[proudmoddemo]

8. Tracked Right Back to Her

Read this National Review piece:

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGEzOGI2OTM4ZjE0MTZmYmZlZjRkZWZmN2M0NTEyZDc=

This is a classic smear campaign. Stuff like this doesn't just "happen" in presidential elections. It's clearly coordinated by the highest levels of Hillary's campaign, and it's pathetic. I posted something about it on my blog today, then posted it over at DKos, and the Hillary flamers came out, so I took it down because the discussion was not productive. But I still left the piece up on my blog. I want to be on record as objecting to this crap before it gets exposed in the next Bob Woodward book.

I am now ducking for cover. But this kind of crap--and it is crap--is wrong. But it's a phenomenally successful campaign. The Washington Post and a bunch of other papers have now repeated the smear over and over again by reported about "fired" volunteers. As always, it's the volunteers that take the fall for orders that are coming on high. I've had enough of this crap. It's a Karl Rove-inspired dirty trick. All Democrats--including Hillary--should be better than that.

[elizm]

11. My understanding is that they were not volunteers...

...although the media keeps presenting them as such, I guess in an attempt to minimize it. Volunteer coordinators are paid campaign workers. I had suspicions that this crap was coming from the Hillary campaign when it first came out.

[proudmoddemo]

22. Even Worse--

So having her staffers send out vile, hateful and racist e-mails is Hillary's idea of "fun?" If you want the vote of racist tools, that's fine, but by courting them, you're losing my vote--even in the general election.

Still, local volunteer coordinators are about the bottom rung on any campaign's organizational chart. Which is typical the junior people do this crap, so Hillary's and Penn's finger prints aren't all over it. It's shameful, and it almost makes me wonder if Karl Rove is doing some consulting for team Hillary.

[elizm]

27. And Rove WAS trying to give Obama advice on how to beat Hillary...

:spray:

[mtnsnake]

10. Am I experiencing deja vu or hasn't this same exact thing been posted 16 times already?

:shrug:

[BootinUp]

12. sssh! it helps with the whole conspiracy thing nt

[mtnsnake]

26. No kidding. Only the Obama whiners would ever make so many mountains out of mole hills

[jefferson_dem]

13. We all wish it was deja vu. The story earlier was about a second sleazeball in the Hillary camp.

Now...along comes a third. Bah.

[babylonsister]

17. This makes a third one?

:wow: Someone needs to clean up their act, methinks.

[ClarkUSA]

19. Yup... and no doubt there are many many more waiting to be discovered. Clintonian = Rovian

What a disgusting bunch Hillaryworlders are.... and that includes everyone here who is dismissing the ethical bankruptcy of these tactics
and the obvious pattern of complicity that is clearly emerging. Fuck the Clintons! Hillary can't win on her merits on the issues so she's
doing what every Republican has done to Democrats in the past -- character assassination through lies and innuendo. Shame on them.
It's sad that they are held up as the such great Democrats, when in reality, they are no better than Karl Rove in their approach to winning
at any cost.

[mtnsnake]

21. takes one to know one

[mtnsnake]

23. So she's not as perfect as you thought. Big deal!

[CoffeeCat]

32. So true!

If you can get beyond Hillary's warmongering, her cemented alliance
with corporations, her silence on our democracy being destroyed and
all of her dirty-campaign tricks--she's a hell of a prize!

No candidate is perfect, and that includes Hillary--so everyone
bury your heads in the political sand and ignore her wretchedness!

:rofl:

[babylonsister]

35. As the GOP, she's disappointing me.

:cry: You should be sad, too, and it is a big deal! I don't stomp on your feelings like you do mine. :cry:

[mtnsnake]

38. course I'm sad. It's a rare event when someone can find something negative about her

:cry: You should be sad, too, and it is a big deal! I don't stomp on your feelings like you do mine. :cry:

oooh, I'd never try to stomp your feelings on purpose even though you stomped mine by saying my favorite candidates weren't really my favorites :cry:

[babylonsister]

41. Awww...

:pals: I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings.

[mtnsnake]

43. ok

I feel better now :pals:

[CoffeeCat]

20. ...because this is the third offense....

...it just seems like there are dozens of postings about the same thing.

Are we really supposed to believe that these dirty tricks aren't part of
some concerted effort? Oh please.

Gee, I always sign up to work for political campaigns, and then begin
an avalanche of dirty tricks...all on my own...with no one telling me
to do it... :eyes:

It seems as though "fire the employee and feign outrage", is also part of the plan.

Remember folks, Hillary stood doe-eyed--denying that she knew about
her staffers planting questions. Then we learn that two other people
came forward and said that Hillary staffers asked them to ask planted
questions and Hillary would call on them.

Are we sick of the lies yet?

[K Gardner]

25. I thought I was reading Duplicate Posts... but evidently not, what a shame shame shame..

You know what they say about 3rd strike and all that.

[elizm]

31. Long ago sick of the lies. And people wonder why so many hate her. nt

[mtnsnake]

34. It's only on Bizarro Underground that "so many hate her" & that's mostly the jealous Obama whiners!

[babylonsister]

47. Why are you willing to give this a pass? Serious question that

deserves a serious answer. I let the first time slide, sort of, second time was acceptable (because I thought Clinton staffers handled both instances admirably), but three times? How many more are out there? I think there's a problem here. The fact that a Dem campaign is guilty of dispersing such blatant, ugly lies I've received myself from acquaintances should be worrisome to everyone.

And I'd be just as critical of anyone who did this.

[ClarkUSA]

39. You've summed it all up in a nutshell.

It disgusts me beyond words. I think I am going to call up a local reporter friend of mine and ask him to write a story about this
for the local paper he works for (which happens to have the largest circulation in my Feb. 5 state). Fuck the Clintons and the
Rovian horse they rode in on! They deserve to lose big after this and I hope they do. I also wonder if Obama will ever address
this because this is the sort of underground whispering campaign that Novak was probably talking about. Voters need to hear
the truth once and for all. It's a damned shame that the Clintons refuse to win on Hillary's own rather meager merits as a
candidate and are willing to engage in the same politics of personal destruction that they decried during the Clinton
administration.

[CoffeeCat]

48. ...and let me tell you something...

I live in Iowa and this nonsense from the Hillary campaign is not
sitting well in this state AT ALL.

The planted question thing really hurt her credibility here. The story
garnered a lot of traction here because of the approaching caucuses.

Iowans go through this every general-election cycle. The politicians
come here and temporarily trounce through the bad weather. We understand
why they're here and we're able to understand exactly what it is what they're doing.

I wonder...did Hillary think that we wouldn't notice or care that she planted
questions in those audiences? Did she actually think that those "plants"
wouldn't share the underhandedness in which the Hillary campaign was engaging?
I felt like walking up to her and saying, "This isn't DC honey. Time to
stop the obvious Rovian bs and get real."

Hillary's nationwide support was mainly propped up by name recognition and
"inevitability". Iowans began to see problems with her, and suddenly her
"inevitability" was not so. Then what's left? Not much.

We're privileged as Iowans to really get to know the candidates. This is a
small state and we can see them up close and personal. You can't hide behind
slogans, large, orchestrated events and planted questions in this state. A
certain amount of that type of campaigning in necessary, but you have to
be "real" and really meet people and talk with them in small venues.

The Hillary slide in Iowa is due to the spotlight of truth shining on her.

I predict that she places 3rd (or possibly even 4th) in the caucuses. I hope
Iowa punches a hole in her "inevitability", which gives voters in other
states an opportunity to look beyond Hillary's media-fueled "inevitability"
and to other candidates who are much more sincere, moral, diplomatic, honest
and intelligent.

I have not decided which candidate I'm supporting, but I can tell you that
I never bought into Hillary's "inevitability" in the first place.

[Hieronymus]

28. My, you are the busy little DU reader.

[Forkboy]

40. And if Edwards camp had been doing something like this you'd be pissed, I'd wager.

One time, no biggie. Twice, maybe a problem. Three times, no coincidence. This kind of shit is pathetic, and no camp should get a pass on it, including the Goddess Of Peace. ;)

[mtnsnake]

42. Nope, I'd give him a bye on it because he's been calling the pukes "Neocons". yeah

Goddess Of Peace

Dam she's pretty :)

[Forkboy]

44. Color me skeptical on that one.

:evilgrin:

And she's ok. :P

[tammywammy]

37. So, this is the 3rd person caught doing this?

I hope that the Clinton campaign is doing a complete search to make sure there's no one else doing this.

[FreeState]

46. why did she fire them?

She should do as Obama did an just make a statement saying she does not believe what the people said, no apology needed.