Atlantic Scores Internal Clinton Campaign Emails

[ProSense]

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Atlantic Scores Internal Clinton Campaign Emails

By Anne E. Kornblut

Just when you thought everyone had moved on... former advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are in a tizzy over an upcoming piece in the Atlantic Monthly that chronicles the inner workings of the now-defunct campaign. Of particular concern are nearly 200 internal memos that the author, Josh Green, obtained -- 130 or so of which he plans to scan in and post online. When the piece is published sometime next week, readers will be able to scroll through the memos, from senior strategists such as Mark Penn, Harold Ickes and Geoff Garin, and see what exactly was going on inside the infamously fractured Clinton organization. That has some former team members in a panic. And we thought the Abramoff e-mails were fun....

Who leaked these?

[berni_mccoy]

1. I guess we'll know the truth of whether or not they darkened Obama's face in that ad.

[Metric System]

46. I hope your joking because that was one of the worst smears. AND it was disproven.

[Lucky 13]

62. I guess we'll all find out soon enough.

I'm less interested in finding out what nasty tactics they used than to see the internal workings of this highly dysfunctional campaign. Some insight into their "strategies" would be fascinating.

[Metric System]

70. Well then I want to see the Obama campaign's memos too. Do you think it's all rainbows and sunshine?

[catgirl]

73. This has nothing to do with Obama

It has to do with a disgruntled (?) worker in the Clinton camp. Besides,
Obama's campaign workers are fiercely loyal and respect each other.

[Lucky 13]

89. No I certainly do not. But this isn't about him.

Insider campaign emails leaked from any camp would be salivated over. Just so happens this one is from Camp Clinton... a campaign that made moves many people found to be questionable. I'm curious to see what they say.

[John Q. Citizen]

99. Why? Wouldn't the memos from another losing campaign, like Romney's or Edward's be

more comparable?

[DesEtoiles]

I think it is more professional.

[cliffordu]

107. Ponies. Mostly Ponies

[JoFerret]

113. Transparency and fairness

require no less.

Ahhhh...Bisto.

[Connie_Corleone]

2. Good God! Here we go. It's gonna be a long week.

[Peacetrain]

72. Its already BEEN a long week..

ayyy yiii yiii

[ErinBerin84]

3. oh yikes. Wonder who leaked them too.

Josh Green should just save them for a book or something. Probably isn't the best timing for democratic unity. Not that I think Mark Penn is a democrat, but you know...God, you know the media is going to be all about the drama of this. Josh Green should just hold off on it.

:hide:

[TexasObserver]

4. OMG!! That is going to horrify all the players.

[Lucky 13]

5. Whoa

I've said that I would have killed to be a fly on the wall in that campaign. So many of their decisions, tactics, rhetoric made NO SENSE. Will be interested to read how this group of jackasses turned the former first lady and Presidential front-runner into an "also-ran". These people did way more to hurt her than help her.

[NYC_SKP]

8. "These people did way more to hurt her than help her."

They did way more to hurt US, the party, the candidate, the country, than to hurt HER.

I hope that, if prosecutable crimes are revealed, that the guilty parties are arrested, convicted, and sent to prison.

[Lucky 13]

11. Prosecutable crimes?

What makes you think there was any of that? That's not where my mind went when I read this. I thought about race baiting, dirty rumor spreading, back stabbing, etc.

What kind of prosecutable crimes do you suspect? If there were prosecutable crimes (involving $) wouldn't she have had more money than she did?

I don't suspect them of legal wrong doing. I just think we're going to find out how sleazy this campaign actually was.

[vaberella]

13. My mind went into the same vein as your thoughts.

definitely the race baiting and dirty rumor spreading.

[Lucky 13]

20. I just don't know what sort of "prosecutable crimes" they are talking about?

Election fraud? Voter disenfranchisement maybe? I think there were instances of that, but probably by local campaign workers, not people directing it on a national scale.

Maybe money bundling from foreign sources?

I dunno. I think it's silly to assume she and her staff committed crimes with no evidence to base that on. I just think we're going to see details about how they thought using his race against him was a good idea.

[NYC_SKP]

26. Libel, slander, "creative" accounting???

When you have hundreds of people involved, plenty of shady and even illegal things could have been going on.

I don't understand why anyone would be so shocked!

[Lucky 13]

54. I guess. As much as I dislike Hillary...

... I don't think that she or her campaign did anything criminal. At least I hope not. Maybe that's naivety or wishful thinking on my part.

[NYC_SKP]

94. It's scary what organizations do...

For example, it's common for school districts to shuffle funds from one account to another.
I know firsthand of such practices, such as a $100,000 grant for computers for special ed being divided up among other programs.
Is it criminal?
I don't know, but it's not right and I hope it's not legal.

Anyway, what a mess, now Edwards and his indiscretions....none of this helps us win.

:hi:

[catgirl]

74. and snide remarks about Bill (popcorn please)

[NYC_SKP]

25. Nixon's people committed crimes...

I wouldn't put it past some of the nasty people in the campaign to have broken laws or to have suggested breaking laws.

These wouldn't necessarily involve money (but they might).
Actually, the fact that they were in such deep debt suggests there may have been temptation to be "creative" in their accounting---that's a crime right there if it happened.

I'm not suggesting that Hillary herself was involved.

I don't suspect anything specific, but given the number of people involved and the ambition and ethics of some of them, I wouldn't be surprised if laws were broken.

I've never worked the inside of a campaign and I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to speculate on specific crimes that a campaign team might commit.

Maybe others here could.

:patriot:

[Phx_Dem]

75. Even Mark Penn and ickey Harold Ickes

won't be stupid enough to put in writing anything that was criminal, and I'm certainly not aware of any alleged criminal activity. It is my feeling that these memos will be more along the lines of nasty campaign tactics, disfunctional strategies and decisions, and infighting and the like. But, frankly, you never know what they may uncover.

The $64,000 question is, WHO LEAKED THEM!?

[eshfemme]

34. Yeah, for how much she was forking out, it was a really messed up way to waste money. n/t

[WeDidIt]

39. Here was the campaign's biggest waste of money

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvyGydc8no

The original number done by The Brady Bunch was better.

[catgirl]

76. That was cruel :)

[WeDidIt]

81. The truth hurts

;)

[Lucky 13]

105. That video makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

:puke:

[vaberella]

109. Ooh...*ZING*---I ended up watching the *Yes We CAN* vid instead cause I couldn't stomach the HRC one

[NYC_SKP]

6. Always pay your vendors....

I wonder if they came from someone managing communications who never got paid...

Love Hillary or not, to run up such large debts with no money to pay them is arrogant, elitist, classist, and stinks of a sense of entitlement and self-importance, IMHO.

:patriot:

[Lucky 13]

7. Bingo

I wouldn't doubt it if this was the source at all.

[bunnies]

9. Sweet!

Can't wait to see 'em. I'm sure they'll be very telling. Glad they're coming out before the convention in case changes need to be made.

[vaberella]

10. The thought that crossed my mind was, even if HRC had a smidgen of a chance at Veep...This might

officially kill that chance.

Wow..this will be crazy. Thanks for the heads up.

:kick:

[TwilightGardener]

28. Good. Hope so.

[Lucky 13]

64. You're right. This confirms in my mind that Hillary is not the VP.

No chance.

[Coexist]

12. I'd prefer if they'd score some McCain internal emails.

[vaberella]

14. But there's no real plan to his internal emails. I get the image of a lot of "geritol" talk.

[ProSense]

15. I wish

this would get some attention.

[Coexist]

21. me, too.

[cliffordu]

16. dupe deleted

[cliffordu]

17. Well I heard they don't do emails. Carrier pidgeon missives or the Pony express

pouches might be alright, though.

[vaberella]

18. Pony Express....I saw McCain bbqing the pigeons on his daughters youtube vlog.

[cliffordu]

19. He must need $$ more than I thought he did. During the Civil War

I understand McCain developed a couple of decent horse meat recipes.....

Anybody check the stable???

[vaberella]

22. You might be right....rumor has it, some of the riders have been MIA...

[raebrek]

43. What emails lol.... It's Mccain.....rofl n/t

[gal]

51. I think he's still learning on how to read email...

[Whisp]

88. he picks up a laptop, holds it up and starts shaking it

waiting for the mail to spill out.

[Phx_Dem]

78. McCain: What's an email? n/t

[JackORoses]

23. this will be good for Hillary's supporters to witness

maybe they will learn something

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

29. I was thinking the same thing

Maybe they'll finally quiet down around here after the truth is exposed.

[Beacool]

40. Learn what?

Let's read Obama's internal emails too. I'm sure they would also be elucidating.

Campaigns are rough and nothing some staffer writes would surprise me. I've seen plenty of campaign emails in my time.

Big deal......

[Lucky 13]

55. Uh huh. And what if there's evidence of race-baiting or other slimy tactics?

Am I to assume you'd still be ok with that? Do some people have a free pass to act like assholes?

[Beacool]

97. How about waiting until the emails are released before starting with the vitriol? n/t

[Lucky 13]

104. Ok. Sorry.

Happy Friday. :hi:

[Whisp]

95. Obama and his managers are not scheming liars.

they have played fair and above board throughout. They are not petty, vindictive or fabricators of lies. They speak respectfully, even of their enemies.

back when the team was being picked out, the only prerequisite was:
No Assholes allowed in.

so that tells me Hillary will not be vp. good. dont' have to lose sleep over that one.

[Beacool]

96. Yeah, keep believing that..........

Axelrod = South Side Chicago political machinery.

Talk to Alice Palmer and hear what she thinks on this subject. Then you'll know why she supported Hillary.

Too funny!!!

:7

[Whisp]

98. fact: Obama campaign has played it right and without smearing and lieing.

fact: Hillary campaign can't claim the same and are now acting like spoiled, badly behaved children.

[geek tragedy]

24. Order your popcorn now. n/t

[cliffordu]

30. I ordered a metric ton of it. I wonder if that'll be enough.

This is gonna be some must see TV.

[Colobo]

27. Good stuff!

[Triana]

31. This leak will be blamed on the Obama campaign in 5..4...3...2.. n/t

[ProSense]

32. That would be ludicrous:

"internal"

[bunnies]

33. It was a mole I tell you!

An Obama mole! :rofl: Someone will say it. I have no doubt.

[WeDidIt]

36. Yep, internal

My expectation is the corporate Media will blame Patti Solis Doyle so as to tie it to Obama.

[scheming daemons]

35. Reason #323 why Hillary won't be the VP

[WeDidIt]

37. How long ebfore the media whores speculate it was Patti Solis-Doyle that leaked them?

You know, so they can tie it all to Obama?

[Kaylee]

38. Uh Boy.....nothing good can come of this.....

:wow:

[vaberella]

41. Nothing good at all. DU will definitely crucify HRC and her camp. MSM will probably eat this

up too. Watch Faux News on this one.

[kristyt]

53. Well, If There is Anything Bad in Them Yes

I mean it's kind of early to say, my guess is it's minor or we'd be hearing more about specifics.

And if it's not minor, then why shouldn't be rake her over coals?

St. Hillary of the Virgin Birth needs her own church or something.

[vaberella]

42. You know what...It's an inside job and what I have come to see is that NOTHING Bill has said or done

has hurt HRC as much as her own camp and some of her supporters.

[Lucky 13]

56. Agreed n/t

[CakeGrrl]

44. If "No Drama Obama" doesn't have the good sense to steer clear of this

I'll be severely disappointed with he or his team's decision-making skills. Yet one more reason HRC is just bad news to even think about adding to his ticket. I hope all this resurgent talk is much ado about nothing.

[Lucky 13]

58. I have no doubt that he'll steer clear of this.

It's internal Clinton campaign emails. It has nothing to do with him. No matter what they say his response will be something along the lines of, "The primary is in the past, I am in the midst of the general election. I have no opinion or comment on leaked emails from the now defunct Clinton campaign."

Now depending on what the emails say, there will be some variation. I hesitate to even speculate what's in there.

[catgirl]

79. If anything, he'll defend her

He has only shown grace in this campaign. Too bad we can't say that about some others.

[Lucky 13]

90. Yep. Grace and humility... even while being attacked.

Maybe the good guy does win in the end?

[CakeGrrl]

91. I'm sure he'd defend HRC if he said anything at all - it's the way he is

However, this is just the kind of thing, substantial or not, that distracts from running a campaign or governing. This is the kind of crap the media chases after to fill airspace and it's the kind of drama that I hope Obama still seeks to avoid.

[Orsino]

45. Then we can all pretend to be shocked at learning how the sausage is made...

...and that no other political campaign heads were ever as cynical.

[JVS]

47. Oh boy!

:popcorn:

[Metric System]

48. I see the usual suspects are gathering in this thread, rubbing their hands in glee. At this point

I'd sarcastically say "unity my ass" but the PUMAS have made that a loaded expression. So, I'll just repeat the favorite expression of Obama supporters:

GET

OVER

IT

[SeaLyons]

52. Wonder what they'll be saying

when someone leaks all the internal Obama emails. .:rofl:

OMG. DU is amazing

[Political Heretic]

65. See my post right below this... my reaction would be basically the same for Obama

Not everyone here is a nut. :)

[Political Heretic]

61. There may be nothing to get over in the first place - we don't know what these will tell us

If its just internal memos where campaign workers may occasionally speak less than kindly about their opponent, then that's to be expected. It's a campaign. That's understandable.

If it had information about certain tactics, actions or strategies that in someway contradict Senator Clinton or the campaign's public statements - then that's news.

But no one knows yet.

[Metric System]

66. Well then, I want to see the interal Obama camp memos too. This is a dangerous path to go down,

though. I don't think either campaign were drawing rainbows and ponies on office paper.

[Political Heretic]

71. Sure, and if someone leaks them I'd love to see them as well.

And no - of course the campaign memos will reflect political harball. Still, I think most alert readers can understand the difference between hardball and something completely contradictory.

I for one, am predicting nothing sensational.

[catgirl]

80. Maybe they'll be in the documentary being made about him

I doubt they'd show him in a bad light.

[Lucky 13]

93. If you can find internal Obama camp memos, I'm sure we'd all be interested to read those too!

Hardball is one thing. Hardball is to be expected and I, for one, won't fault her for that.

[WHAT]

100. I'd rather see the missing WH emails...

routed through the RNC.

Funny they can't find those.

[Max_powers94]

49. the link is dead who killed the link????

[Fleshdancer]

50. I doubt there's anything real bad in these emails....

Why do an information dump and allow readers to go through 130 memos if there's truly something juicy in them? If there was a scandal, the "journalist" wouldn't have leaked that he had this and he would be writing an article (hell, maybe a book?) on whatever memo or memos would cause the most controversy.

[Political Heretic]

68. Right... it sounds like trying to create sensation where none exists.

Still, I'll be interested to read them purely for a glimpse inside a national presidential campaign.

[mckeown1128]

57. Hmm... I wonder if we get confirmation that it was Hillary's campaign...

that was behind that Nevada radio commercial where the voice stressed at least 4 times Obama's middle name....

[Political Heretic]

59. The link is dead. Long live the link!

[ProSense]

60. It's posted

here.

[Political Heretic]

63. Yeah, but the sidebar link isn't working either.

[ProSense]

67. It's there on the front page, scroll down.

Not that it matters anymore, that's the entire piece captured in the OP.

[Political Heretic]

69. Oh. Sorry - and thanks.

:hi:

[Pisces]

77. Racism and underhanded bullshit is what you will read.

[harun]

112. Which most of us here already know they were doing, so no surprises (n/t)

[Barack_America]

82. Solis-Doyle had better not been the source of this leak...

Other than that concern, I don't particularly care about this development.

[Median Democrat]

85. Wasn't She The First One Fired?

I would think that she would have the least potential e-mails, since she was out of commission early on.

[Barack_America]

87. I don't know if I'd consider halfway through the primaries "early".

I'd imagine many e-mails went around in the year-or-so of the campaign's life before she was fired.

But I do think her firing would date the e-mails and clearly point to her as the leak, if indeed she was the source.

ETA: So that would be pretty freaking foolish on her part.

[Median Democrat]

92. The Huff Po Only Refers To Ickles and Penn Memos . . .Karen Hughes?

And Mark Penn is now working with GOP Operative Karen Hughes. Perhaps Mark Penn was simply careless in giving Karen Hughes access to his files?

[Whisp]

83. omg.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm sure they'll only be talking about ordering more donuts.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Penn: did you hear what I just heard? Hillary set loose the Tuzla story. LOL! if that one flies with the idiot public like I think it will, see ya in the oval office!

Garin: you mean it isn't true?

Penn; nah, the three of us rehearsed it last week - chelsea, Hill and I. we got it covered. anyway, if we get calle dout, all she has to do is that manical laugh and the press will back off - that's the code to back off.

Garin: rofl

Penn: yeh, we got his aced.

[Median Democrat]

84. Hillary is Fine - Its The Infighting Amoung Her Supporters That Really Undermined Her

Hillary likes surrounding herself with well known smart, talented and ambitious political minds from a broad spectrum. The problem with this is that Hillary has had a history of her advisors looking out for their interests above hers. One early example is Dick Morris who went from Clinton confidant to turncoat and frequent guest on Fox News. Then, there was Mark Penn v. Solis-Doyle v. Harold Ickles. Then, Mark Penn signed up with GOP favorite Karen Hughes. Ultimately, this infighting really hurt Hillary's campaign, and often left it rudderless.

So, I am sure we will eventually find out who of these various factions had an axe to grind, and it the second coming of Dick Morris.

[book_worm]

86. Hillary will not be the VP nominee. If she were and when this came out it would be another

distraction.

[DesEtoiles]

101. kick

[Azathoth]

102. Methinks party operatives are getting tired of the Clintons' antics n/t

[DesEtoiles]

103. "Change you can XEROX!"

[DesEtoiles]

106. kick

[davidpdx]

108. I'll reserve judgement until they are relased

It will be interesting to see what they say. The guy is really dumb, if I had those documents, I'd hold them and write a book.

[eridani]

110. Jeebus. Could they maybe wait until 2009? n/t

[truthisfreedom]

111. Umm... can anybody say:

Ouch?