Sex and funds trial damages Hillary hopes - (let's hope we'll hear Glug, glug......glug!!)

OBSERVERS GUARDIAN ^ | MAY 15, 2005 | PAUL HARRIS

[CHARLITE]

It all sounds horribly familiar. Financial skulduggery, calls for a Senate investigation and the whiff of a sex scandal caught on tape. And all of it whirling around the Clinton name. A court case involving the fundraising activities of Senator Hillary Clinton's former campaign finance chief threatens to put a time-bomb under the former First Lady's presidential ambitions.

The case in which David Rosen, 40, is denying three charges of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission has opened the lid on an allegedly murky world of Democratic fundraising, FBI wiretapping and salacious gossip about prostitutes for senior figures in the party.

Clinton, prosecutors stress, is not personally involved in the trial, which began last week in Los Angeles district court, but the case is threatening to derail her preparations for a bid for the White House in three years' time. Even if Rosen is cleared, the case is likely to provide ammunition for her conservative critics.

Problems began at a glamorous fundraising event in 2000 when Hillary was campaigning for her Senate seat in New York. Billed as a lavish and star-studded farewell by Hollywood to outgoing President Bill Clinton, the party at a Beverly Hills mansion was attended by such star names as Cher, Brad Pitt and Diana Ross.

The event's organiser, entrepreneur Peter Paul, is believed to have spent more than $1.2 million (£650,000) on it. But Rosen told the commission it cost $400,000, which means that at least $800,000 could have gone illegally into Hillary's campaign coffers.

This, if it is proved, would be a serious breach of America's strict campaign finance laws. Rosen faces a maximum jail sentence of 15 years and up to $250,000 in fines if he is found guilty.

Even though there has been no suggestion that Clinton knew about the alleged crimes, her name has already dominated the proceedings. Potential jurors were questioned about their feelings toward the senator.

One of her friends, James Levin, told the court the charges were part of a smear campaign. 'I thought, and I still think, they were politically motivated,' he said.

The case has highlighted a growing network of Republicans and other conservatives who are gearing up to attack Hillary Clinton's nascent 2008 campaign.

One of them, the veteran Arthur Finkelstein, has set up a 'Stop Her Now' website with the objective of raising $10 million to bankroll anti-Clinton activities.

Another site, the Hillary Clinton Accountability Project, was designed by the webmasters behind the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth group which helped to defeat Democratic Senator John Kerry in last year's presidential election.

Judicial Watch, a body that highlighted various scandals involving the Clinton White House, filed papers with the Senate ethics committee last week claiming that Hillary must have known that Rosen's filings to the election commission were false.

The conservative publishing house Sentinel has announced plans to publish a tell-all book called The Truth About Hillary this year. The appearance of the book, being written by journalist Edward Klein, is gleefully awaited by the Republicans.

Although Clinton is popular with many grassroots Democrats, she has some party bosses feeling nervous. 'She is just such an easy target,' said Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California.

The main evidence against Rosen is taped conversations he allegedly had with Ray Reggie, brother-in-law of Senator Edward Kennedy. In transcripts leaked to a New Orleans newspaper, Rosen and Reggie talk about the fundraiser, apparently admitting its cost.

The pair swap salacious asides which could also cause political damage. At one point Rosen describes how a donor to the Democratic party sent prostitutes to the hotel rooms of two senior Clinton loyalists after a night of drinking.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that organiser Paul was convicted of trafficking cocaine in 1979 and has been convicted of trying to defraud the Cuban government in a coffee trading scheme. Aaron Tonken, another organiser of similar events for the Democrats, is now in prison for a charity fraud.

Such links provide much material for Hillary's many critics on the right and the left to play with. It has also dealt a blow to her efforts to move her politics to the centre by appearing softer on social issues such as abortion and harder on defence issues such as military spending and Iraq.

'This sort of thing just serves to remind people of the Nineties scandals like Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair,' said Bowler.

'Some Democrats have short memories - but I don't think that a lot of American voters do.'

[Sacajaweau]

Don't we all have friends like Hillary's...felons, scammers, liars, pervert husbands who we would stand by?????

Tell me again the last person to see Foster??

[Noachian]

This type of thing tends to surround the Clintons as part of their political life. The question Americans have to ask themselves about voting for Hillary in "08 is: do they want another 4 years of this?

Actually, some people do. The soap opera crowd doesn't care about the welfare of the country as much as they care about the daily quirks of the White House celebrities.

[blackdog]

What bothers Hillary is not this mess, but the fact that she'll need to stay on the straight and narrow on present campaign shenanigans entering her most important re-election campaign. We all know how much Hillary cares for being held to the rules.

This current mess may have the unintended consequences of her blowing her wheels off present and near future activity. Not to mention the staffers.

[sageb1]

"'Some Democrats have short memories"

But most are simply clueless.

[blackdog]

And with microphone left on courtesy of Sam Donaldson of ABC, "And I guess we have four more years of lies, halftruth's and other nonsense to look forward to" with another Clinton Administration.

[Rembrandt_fan]

Bill and Hillary are masters of plausible deniability. They've got more loyal 'buffers' between themselves and the constant, ongoing scandals within their sphere than any Mafia crime boss could ever hope to achieve. She'll remain untouched (and untouchable) in this and every other scandal between now and the next election day. Remember Sandy Berger? No? My point exactly.

[Humidston]

Clueless indeed! And right now (as Rush says), they're all too busy lining up at Blockbuster to pay any attention to all the dirt piling up around her dirty fat ankles.

Come next election, they'll be lined up like lemmings to vote D.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" One of her friends, James Levin, told the court the charges were part of a smear campaign. 'I thought, and I still think, they were politically motivated,' he said. " yea,,, right,, haven't we heard that before recently ?
The woman who was arrested for trying to commit fraud against WENDYS by claiming that a finger was in her chili, but, this week was found that she got the finger from her husbands co - worker.
Before this new evidence came out, she was basically saying the same line as James Levin is saying in this article, she was saying that the charges against her was " Racism " and was racially motivated.
Basically, when we hear accusations of " Racism " it is usually some kind a scam behind it.

[EagleUSA]

Bill and Hillary are masters of plausible deniability.
-----
Yes, that is just for openers. This Marxist Medusa and arch-felon will skate mainly because of the complicity of the leftist media...they protect the Clintons like their own bank accounts...it remains my opinion the Clintoni mob would have been long gone by now, if were not for the MSM and their deliberate protection of the Clintons and other criminal Dems. It says a lot about the American public, or at least part of it, that these bottom-feeding thugs are still part of our political processes and our government.

How bad does it have to get, before we are rid of these vermin???

[TheCrusader]

"They've got more loyal 'buffers' between themselves and the constant, ongoing scandals within their sphere..."

it's true, and the most efficient buffer they have is the news media, which will never give a full or truthful reporting if it hurt one of their own, especially if it's the Clintons.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

What about the suspicious circumstances involving the murder of Brit Hume's son Sandy Hume ( in the book Hillary's Secret War ) and Hitlery ?

[CHARLITE]

"Clintoni mob would have been long gone by now, if were not for the MSM and their deliberate protection of the Clintons and other criminal Dems."

Right, but I also believe that they used their "down time" quite well, while they were the most powerful couple in the world. I'm convinced that they gathered information about where all of the bodies are buried, via the IRS, FBI, CIA and Hillary's handpicked Attorney General - Janet-The-Obedient - and that they've got files on CDs with dirt on hundreds of people, as insurance against any conceivable enemies.

That's how I think they remain untouchable.

Thanks for your reply, Eagle!

Char :)

[Prophet in the wilderness]

And the hypocritical Democrats have a lot of nerve to accuse John Bolton of treating his subordinates as dogs.

[Jackson Brown]

Peter Paul wrote a letter directly to Hell-ery demanind that she properly disclose the amount of the "gala" and his role in it to the FEC.


Here is a snippet --

Thus, in late February, after I had made numerous calls for several months to David Rosen about how you were going to report my contributions to the FEC to ensure their legality, I was shocked to discover through internet access to your campaign filings, that all my contributions to you and your campaign were not reported, that the only report, relating to the Hollywood Gala, was false as to the identity of the donor and the amount donated, and that you had thereby made me a co-conspirator with you and others in violating various Federal statutes and regulations.

That -- and much more -- here in a post by Doug_from _Upland

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=1403401%2C1

[Jackson Brown]

WRONG LINK --

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1400283/posts

[jonrick46]

"How bad does it have to get, before we are rid of these vermin???"

Ans: As long as the voting public thinks that they can absolve their quilt for neglecting the system by voting D, the bottom feeding Clintonistas will continue to breed.

[EagleUSA]

That's how I think they remain untouchable.
-----
Well that is probably correct but it still does not explain the rabid complicity of the MSM and the normal modus operandi of running interference for the Clintoni mob. With what we DO KNOW about Washington, it is easy to believe that the skeletons are packed into the closet real tight....sad day for the USA when nothing but blackmailers, thugs, extortionists, mobsters, felons and all forms of assorted criminals are running our country....

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Yes.. most of the SHEEPLE are clueless, but, her top Nazi Democrat/Liberals leaders just have selective short memories.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

'This sort of thing just serves to remind people of the Nineties scandals like Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair,' said Bowler.

'Some Democrats have short memories - but I don't think that a lot of American voters do.'


NEVER FORGET! Bump!