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Who Is Sidney Blumenthal?
Wall Street Journal ^ | 5-20-15 | unattributed

Posted on 05/20/2015 3:59:28 PM PDT by dynachrome

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To: justiceseeker93

Wasn’t Blumenthal the guy who was considered too sleazy to be in the Obama Administration? The same administration that welcomes that tax cheat Al Sharpton....


41 posted on 05/21/2015 8:02:11 PM PDT by GOPJ (Did ABC really 'research' the Clinton Cash book and find 'nothing' or was that also lie?)
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To: GOPJ; All
Wasn’t Blumenthal the guy who was considered too sleazy to be in the Obama Administration? The same administration that welcomes that tax cheat Al Sharpton....

Yes, apparently one on the off-the-record promises made by HRC to Obama's people when she was appointed Secretary of State was that her enforcer Blumenthal would not get a job in her department. So instead, she gave Sid (and three others whose names came out) a job as a rogue intelligence agent on the payroll of the Clinton Foundation.

As Rush Limbaugh said on his show the other day, Blumenthal is the guy that HRC calls on "when someone needs to be sleeping with the fishes or to be fitted with a cement swim suit." As posted above in # 33, Vince Foster was likely one of those who fit the category. Accordingly, Sid (and others) were called upon to do the "job."

42 posted on 05/22/2015 12:40:12 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: justiceseeker93; GOPJ
Q. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'RE A BONA FIDE SLEAZEBAG?

A. When even Obama doesn’t want you around.

=============================================

As I've always said: Obama was birthed and nurtured in
the bosom of sleazy Chicago politics----he never met a
decent person in his entire political life.

43 posted on 05/23/2015 6:33:50 AM PDT by Liz (Another Clinton administration? Are you nuts?)
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To: Liz; All
As I've always said: Obama was birthed and nurtured in the bosom of sleazy Chicago politics----he never met a decent person in his entire political life.

A minor quibble here: Birthed in the bosom of sleazy Chicago politics isn't quite accurate. He only arrived in Chicago when he was in his twenties. And we know he was a radical before that, going back at least to his undergrad days at Occidental. We're not sure where he was born (Kenya is my best guess) but it certainly wasn't in Chicago.

BTW, Blumenthal WAS Chicago born and bred, but he left Chicago to go to college in the East, and, as far as one can tell, has been based on the East Coast ever since.

44 posted on 05/23/2015 8:36:08 AM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: justiceseeker93

I didn’t say he was BORN there——

I said his political career was birthed there.......as an adult.


45 posted on 05/23/2015 8:54:53 AM PDT by Liz (Another Clinton administration? Are you nuts?)
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To: dynachrome

And who is his son, Max Blumenthal?

Max Blumenthal (born December 18, 1977) is an American author, journalist, and blogger. A senior writer for Alternet and formerly a writer for The Daily Beast and Al Akhbar, he is the author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel (2013).[

He used to work for the progressive organization Media Matters for America, and he is the son of long-time Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal.
............................................................

Clinton Adviser Sid Blumenthal’s New Cause: His Son’s Anti-Israel Book

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/clinton-adviser-sid-blumenthals-new-cause-his-sons-anti-isra#.rjyoXMDvX

WASHINGTON — A veteran confidant of Hillary Clinton has waded into a bitter argument over the explosive topic of Israel, defending his son’s intensely anti-Israel book from a liberal critic.

Sidney Blumenthal, a former New Yorker writer turned Clinton adviser from the White House to the 2008 campaign, has been waging an online campaign against Nation columnist Eric Alterman for negatively reviewing his son Max Blumenthal’s book, Goliath. The book was described by Alterman, himself a frequent critic of Israel, as “awful” and something that “could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed).”

Clinton Foundation officials refused to respond to questions of whether the elder Blumenthal is currently on a Clinton payroll.

His son’s book has received little attention in the mainstream press but has proved extremely controversial in the corners of the Internet devoted to debate over Israel; its repeated comparisons of Israeli Jews to Nazis have particularly inflamed several commentators. The author is a prominent figure on the hard left of the Israel debate who has argued in the past that the “non-indigenous” majority of Israelis should not remain in the country now known as Israel. The book was released under the Nation Books imprint and an excerpt of it ran in The Nation.

In a follow-up blog post after the initial review, Alterman wrote that he had become the target of emails sent around by Blumenthal to friends and associates as a result of his review of the book.

“I attribute to these friendly relations the fact that until now, Sid Blumenthal had not seen fit to make me the object of any of the unflattering e-mails he so often sends around to journalists and others — myself included — about individuals of whom he disapproves,” Alterman wrote. “Privately, I worried that by telling the truth about his son’s book, I would soon hear of nasty e-mails about me sent by Sid to our mutual friends and professional acquaintances. Call it ‘bizarre,’ if you will, but sadly, that’s just what happened.”

BuzzFeed obtained one of the Blumenthal emails from a source; it features a copied-and-pasted article from the anti-Zionist blog Mondoweiss, sent with the subject line “Fact-checking Eric Alterman on ‘Goliath.’” The article in question, by writer Phan Nguyen, calls on The Nation to retract Alterman’s review, describes Alterman as an “unreliable narrator,” and states that he has “undermined his self-proclaimed status as a conscientious critic of the Israeli occupation.”

Mondoweiss is edited by former New York Observer writer Philip Weiss, who has carved out a niche in making an allegation that is, for most American critics of Israel, beyond the pale, the charge of undue Jewish influence on American foreign policy.

Alterman declined to provide any of the emails in question to BuzzFeed, saying that he does not share private emails. It is unclear how many of them were sent; Alterman declined to comment on the number or specific content of the emails.

Blumenthal’s list is a longstanding feature of the elite media landscape, a mix of liberal journalists, academics, and former Clinton administration officials, and has intermittently been the subject of controversy.

“The thing about Sidney is that he’s absolutely obsessed with his enemies and his way of communicating and dealing with his obsession is that he sends out emails to this very elite list of liberal journalists mostly,” said one source who has been on Blumenthal’s list.

The list has “ended friendships” at its most contentious moments, the source said, including an incident during the 2008 campaign when Blumenthal was accused of sending a photo of Barack Obama in African garb — an image that Matt Drudge promptly posted alongside the charge that it had come from Clinton’s campaign.

Blumenthal did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Blumenthal’s current role in the Clinton universe is unclear. In the bio on his author page on the Atlantic’s website, he is described as an “adviser” to the Clinton Foundation, Bill and Hillary Clinton’s non-profit. Several phone calls and emails to the Clinton Foundation seeking clarification on Blumenthal’s role in the organization went unanswered. A BuzzFeed reporter who went to the Clinton Foundation’s offices in New York on Tuesday seeking the organization’s most recent IRS 990 form was turned away.

“We don’t know what you’re referring to,” said Clinton Foundation spokesperson Nick Merill when asked about the emails and whether Hillary Clinton is aware of Blumenthal’s defense of Goliath. He copied Clinton spokespeople Philippe Reines and Matt McKenna on his response to BuzzFeed, as well as Sidney Blumenthal.

Blumenthal has been a divisive figure in the Clintons’ circle since the 1990s, a trusted counselor seen by some of his colleagues and rivals as a source of paranoia. He came close to being appointed to a job in the State Department during Obama’s first term before then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel nixed the appointment based on Blumenthal’s role in formulating negative attacks on Obama during the 2008 primaries. Sources familiar with the Clinton world say he’s become an increasingly marginal figure in recent years, though still talks to Hillary Clinton.

Emails alleged to be from Blumenthal that were made public earlier this year suggest that he was in communication with Clinton on matters relating to Benghazi and other national security issues this year.

The latest flap comes as the Clintons gird for another political campaign, and as their circle maneuvers for advantage.

“Do you think Chelsea went and cleaned up the operation at the Foundation only to have those kinds of people slip back in to the operation? And that was before Sid was going around defending a book comparing Israel to Nazis that his kid wrote,” said a Washington Democrat who has worked for both Clintons. “Given the lessons of Hillary 2008, people would be aghast to see him around for 2016.”

Reached for comment on the email flap, Alterman said he understood why Blumenthal would want to defend his son’s book.

“I actually feel for Sid,” Alterman said. “Leaving aside the quality of Max’s journalism, it has to be painful for any Jew to see your own kid going around calling Jews ‘Nazis’ and ‘fascists,’ and insisting that not only should Israel be destroyed, but its Jewish population should be kicked out.”


46 posted on 08/14/2015 3:28:17 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: dynachrome

Sid Vicious is a Clintonite with a nose stained permanently brown from keeping it stuck up you know who’s you know what


47 posted on 08/14/2015 3:31:29 PM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, .. Iran deal & holocaust: Obama's batting clean up for Adolph Hitler)
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To: Liz

“The thing about Sidney is that he’s absolutely obsessed with his enemies and his way of communicating and dealing with his obsession is that he sends out emails to this very elite list of liberal journalists mostly,” said one source who has been on Blumenthal’s list.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/clinton-adviser-sid-blumenthals-new-cause-his-sons-anti-isra#.rjyoXMDvX


48 posted on 08/14/2015 3:33:09 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
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To: Billthedrill; Dog

Shades of the sleazy past. Ugh...


49 posted on 08/14/2015 3:37:58 PM PDT by SE Mom (Dear God, restore our beloved country, amen.)
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