Mary Matalin: The Other Pellicano Tapes

NewsMax.com ^ | 11/16/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

With Los Angeles private eye Anthony Pellicano beginning his jail sentence on Monday, Hollywood is on pins and needles wondering about the Pellicano tapes, illegal wiretap transcripts discovered on the celebrity gumshoe's computer while he was under investigation for a witness intimidation rap.

But those aren't the only recordings that document the work of the man known as the "investigator to the stars."

In 1992, when "the Pelican" hired on to do damage control for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, Mary Matalin, then the political director for President Bush 41's reelection campaign, found herself in the unenviable position of being sought out by women who were linked to Clinton - and threatened into silence by Mr. Pellicano.

Matalin, now a senior White House advisor, discussed the episode in 1997 during a stint as a talk radio host on CBS's Washington, D.C. affiliate.

"I got the letters from Pellicano to these women intimidating them," Matalin told her audience. "I had tapes of conversations from Pellicano to the women. I got handwritten letters from the women."

As recounted in "Hillary's Scheme," by NewsMax.com's Carl Limbacher, the Bush insider continued:

"I got one letter from one of the women's dad's saying, 'This is so horrible. Here's what they're going to do to us,' you know, essentially. It's not like they said, 'We're going to go out there and bust your kneecaps. (It was more like) we're going to say this, that and the other.'"

Matalin said she first noticed something was amiss when the Clinton campaign announced publicly that there were 19 women who would likely claim some sort of relationship with the Democratic candidate.

"I controlled the money in the [1992 Bush] campaign," Matalin explained. "And [Clinton damage controller] Betsy Wright announced that she was putting $28,000 on the 'bimbo' patrol and on Jack Palladino and Pellicano, the other guy.

"And $28,000 to me, the political director, was four states in the Rocky Mountains. You had a limited budget. I said, how could they spend this much money? How could they basically give up four states to track down 'bimbos'?

"That's why it was kind of shocking to me that it must have been a bigger priority than putting money into states for the purpose of winning and that's why I flagged it at the time. I don't even remember how many or what kind of women." However, even though Pellicano's tapes and letters offered smoking gun proof of the Clinton campaign's heavy handed attempts to silence the future president's ex-girlfriends, then-President Bush refused to use the damaging info to save his reelection bid.

Matalin explained, "When I went to my boss in the campaign with this information and then they went to Bush, Bush himself called me up and said, 'I don't want to hear it. Don't even tell me what you have. Throw it all out,'" she told her radio audience.

Luckily for Mr. Pellicano - not to mention Bill and Hillary Clinton - Mary Matalin did as she was told.

[friendly]

The Elder Bush allowed a serial sexual predator, deceitful under oath rapist, Chinese Military traitor-for-cash into the Presidency.

[tubebender]

It was probably her husband that passed the cash to the Gum Shoes...

[Brimack34]

Thats one take. The other is he wanted to stay clean and above all this crap.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

HILLARY's own Private Investigator

http://www.AnthonyPellicano.com

[OldCorps]

Who cares what this woman has to say? Why would anyone trust a woman with such poor judgement that she would marry James Carville?

[boycott]

The Elder Bush allowed a serial sexual predator, deceitful under oath rapist, Chinese Military traitor-for-cash into the Presidency.

I don't know. Did Bush have anything to hide that he knew Clinton could bring out?

[thedugal]

Many conservatives hated Bush Sr. and still do to some degree. Everytime I hear the man speak or hear those in the know (ie Matalin) speak of him, I am even more impressed. As far as I can judge, he was one of the greatest gentlemen to have lived in the whitehouse for quite some time. The man is pure class, and if anyone is to blame for Clinton, it's the sour grapes who voted for Perot.

[zip]

ping

[BobbyK]

Who cares what this woman has to say? Why would anyone trust a woman with such poor judgement that she would marry James Carville?

Exactly!

[WorkingClassFilth]

I'm with you.

There used to be some TV sitcom about a conservative Marine Corps officer and a liberal journalist that got married. Never having seen it, I'd suppose it was some moronic plot about the hijinks of two opposites that were attracted and just went through life a'fightin' and a'laughin' and a'livin' and a'lovin'.

I don't think so.

Matalin and Carville are another duo that I don't buy either.

[friendly]

I don't know. Did Bush have anything to hide that he knew Clinton could bring out?

Elder Bush was sick with thyroid disease, his medicine not well adjusted after receiving a dose of radioactive iodine to kill off his diseased thyroid gland. Slick sociopath Clinton and crazy Ross Perot ate the exhausted Bush up in the debates.

[Lancey Howard]

I never hated GHWB, but I will forever be disappointed that he could have been one of the greats but for his two horrible mistakes: (1) trusting the scumbag Democrats and going along with their world-record tax increase, and (2) David Souter.

[Libertina]

I didn't know about his illness... Is this true? I only saw how tired & worn out Pres. Bush I looked.

[Finalapproach29er]

We had eight years of Clinton because of his "class". HE'll always be a loser who forgot his obligations to his party and people.

[skeptoid]

Amen to the Perot spoilers part. (And I recall my wife teling me that Rush poo-poo-ed Perot from the git-go.)

I don't hate or dislike him, but I've never understood/rationalized/reconciled 41's promoting "the new world order". Not nearly as scary as BJ Clintoon's "I give you a new covenant", but troubling nonetheless.

And we can't forget "read my lips". I think it was about as damaging as Perot.

[friendly]

From About.com:

In the wake of President Bush's health concerns, after he briefly passed out, apparently due to choking on a pretzel, a key question must be raised: is the President facing an undiagnosed case of thyroid disease?

Physicians claim that mild choking on the pretzel likely caused what's known as a vasovagal syncope -- a fainting spell due to a signal sent to the vagus nerve that slows the heart down. They have also speculated, however, that the episode could have been due to extensive coughing to get rid of the pretzel, or having his trachea blocked by food.

While the President's physicians claim that he has been thoroughly checked out physically, no mention was made of any thyroid tests as part of the evaluation after this incident. Both of Bush's parents were diagnosed with the autoimmune thyroid disease known as Graves' disease, while the senior Bush was President. (Even family dog Millie came down with another autoimmune disease at the time, lupus.) What's clear, however, is that the family thyroid connection puts the current President at strong risk of developing a thyroid condition himself.

According to Hossein Gharib, M.D., F.A.C.E, president-elect of AACE and Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Medical School, "Fifty percent of thyroid disease patients' offspring will inherit the thyroid disease gene."

Graves' disease is frequently seen to come on during periods of intense stress. The elder Bush faced his bout with the autoimmune condition amidst the Gulf War, and the younger Bush has certainly faced his share of stress since the September 11th terrorist attacks and subsequent war in Afghanistan.

It's clear that, if not already being done, the President's physicians should be looking carefully at his thyroid antibodies and conducting a complete thyroid bloodwork panel, because the pretzel episode could be consistent with some of the symptoms of Graves' disease, including:

Feeling of fullness in the throat
Enlargement of the thyroid, known as goiter
Choking on foods
Irregularities in blood pressure and heart rate
Fainting or dizziness
It's been noted by some media outlets that the President appears to have lost some weight, another common Graves' disease/hyperthyroidism symptom.

It's estimated that some 10 million Americans have undiagnosed thyroid conditions.

[Lancey Howard]

I didn't know about his illness... Is this true? I only saw how tired & worn out Pres. Bush I looked.

I remember reading toned-down stories about this at the time. (Naturally, the Bush people didn't want to broadcast "health problems" during the campaign.)

Bush Sr. did not do a whole lot of campaigning if you'll recall, and only toward the end of the campaign did he look like he was putting any energy into it. But by then it was too late.

[friendly]

Dubya has a 50% chance of developing the same disease as Senior Bush and mom.

[Terry Mross]

I voted for Perot and will never regret it. First of all it's been proven that he took just as many votes away from Clinton. Second, he didn't take my vote away from Bush 'cause I wasn't voting if Bush and Clinton was all I had to choose from. Bush 41 said "Read my lips. No new taxes." Then he went back on his word and the dems, including Gore, who voted for the tax increase, used it against' him. I think Bush 41 was a miserable failure.