Posted on 12/21/2002 12:59:14 PM PST by Carl/NewsMax
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton charged Friday that President Bush employed racist tactics during his primary battle against Arizona Sen. John McCain, while warning that the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott would not "cleanse the Republican Party of their constant exploitation of race."
"The campaign for then-Governor Bush in South Carolina had a huge outreach effort to say [McCain] adopted a black baby," Clinton complained to reporters, a reference to leaflets that were circulated about McCain's dark-skinned daughter while Bush was fighting for his political life after losing the New Hampshire primary.
"I mean, what [Lott] did was state publicly what many of them have stated privately over many years," Clinton charged.
Though Bush's team denied any connection to the racist ploy, the McCain campaign was deeply angered by the effort - and the Arizona Republican is said to believe to this day that Bush sanctioned the race-based smear against his daughter, whom he and his wife Cindy brought to the U.S. from Bangladesh.
According to McCain biographer Paul Alexander, the GOP maverick was furious over the leaflets, which referred to his daughter using the "N"-word. "He believed that was over the line," the author told NewsMax in October. "But I think they were naive. If you're running a presidential campaign, these are the kinds of attacks you have to expect."
Alexander said that at the time, McCain was reluctant to fight fire with fire. But with eerie prescience in light of Sen. Clinton's complaint yesterday, he added, "I'll tell you what the Clintons would have done. They would have hired a private detective, they would have dug up all the dirt and they would have used it."
Hours before Bush's political team decided to give Sen. Lott the final push out the door, NewsMax warned that the decision to switch rather than fight would inevitably make Bush's South Carolina primary battle a target for Democrats seeking to tar the White House on race:
"Now that Jesse, Spike and the rest of the gang know they've got the GOP on the run, look for them to target the White House next," we predicted. "Since Jackson & Co.'s Election 2000 Florida 'disenfranchisement' conspiracy had to be abandoned due to lack of evidence, perhaps they'll move on to the president's 2000 South Carolina primary campaign, which still has John McCain's supporters grumbling over the Bushies' allegedly racist tactics."
And just as they failed to respond to the attacks on Lott with examples of Democratic Party racism, the Bush team isn't expected to counter Clinton's attack by citing her own record of anti-Semitism and racial insensitivity.
In 1996, for instance, Mrs. Clinton was criticized for using what the Los Angeles Times described as "a mock African-American accent" to portray San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as ignorant for thinking that the Democratic fund-raising group Emily's List was an actual person. Videotape of the incident reviewed by NewsMax shows the then-first lady offering a lighthearted but derogatory impersonation of Brown's speech patterns.
In 1998, Mrs. Clinton campaigned for Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, referring to his then-opponent, Sen. Al D'Amato as "Sen. Tomato," according the late Barbara Olson in her book "Hell to Pay."
In 2000, Mrs. Clinton was accused of calling Paul Fray, the campaign manager of her husband's losing 1976 congressional campaign, a "f---king Jew bastard" during a heated argument after the loss. Two witnesses, his wife and then-campaign aide Neil McDonald, backed Fray's account.
Prior to Fray's allegation becoming public, former Clinton bodyguard Larry Patterson told NewsMax that Mrs. Clinton used the phrase alleged by Fray on numerous occasions.
The mainstream press has declined to revisit their accounts in the wake of Mrs. Clinton's attempts to portray President Bush as a racist.
Yes, he fought fire by running as a liberal democRAT instead...
This from the folks who ran ads saying that Pubs don't want blacks to vote, if you vote for a Pub another black church will burn, and the chain dragging ad against Bush. Talk about the pot caling the kettle black (pun intended).
This is now:
Republicans watch the Democrats careen way beyond the line of responsibility and reinforce their disgrace before mainstream America --as Republicans display their true, conservative progresiveness, while correcting correct their mistakes.
If it's on videotape, I can only pray it shows up ALL OVER THE NET if she tries to run in 2008. I'd love to see that piece of trash tarred and feathered all the way back to the Arkansas woods!
And don't forget to save it carefully for that very purpose, please!
I don't either. However, I do believe the DemocRAT party WOULD distribute such leaflets and accuse President Bush's campaign of being behind it.
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