History according to a "Hillary confidante" (and Matt Drudge)

My colleague, Tim Reid, travelled down to South Carolina last week where  he soon found himself up to his ankles in what he described as the "foulest swamp of electoral dirty tricks in America".

Tim wrote about some of the smears and inuendos already floating by in the Palmetto state. His second paragraph reported some of the extraordinary allegations being spread about Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Fred Thompson and, oh yes, Hillary Clinton.

The purpose of this report  (read it for yourselves) was not to suggest these claims were true, but to provide a measure of their nastiness. For instance, I'm pretty sure Obama is not a "Muslim extremist".

Tim's article was duly picked up on Thursday by the Drudge Report  and that,  we thought, was that.   

Then yesterday, Drudge decides to lead with:

DON'T GO THERE: BRIT PAPER STARTS 'UGLIEST MONTH'
Sun Nov 25 2007 20:45:12 ET

The TIMES of London starts 'The Ugliest Month' with a full page photo takeout on Hillary Clinton and her beautiful personal assistant.

"This does not even qualify as tabloid trash... it's ridiculous    and   reckless," a Hillary confidante explained over the weekend.

Drudge does not quote from the story directly, referring only to the headline, a brief mention of Clinton and a 12-word picture caption. This, if read in isolation, might wrongly give readers of Drudge the impression that The Times was giving the allegation about her even the faintest hint of credence.

A story that five days ago gave real context to the dirty fight in South Carolina has itself been quoted out of context.

So, what's really going on?

Has a "Hillary confidante" contacted Drudge to draw attention to this five-day old story? Quite possibly. The New York Times recently reported that her campaign had opened up a direct channel of communication  to the mysterious Mr Drudge.

Why would a "Hillary confidante" do such a thing?  The mind boggles.

Could it be to provide cover for other - alleged - activities at Camp Clinton and its surrounding outposts?

I don't know.

But last week the conservative columnist Bob Novak claimed that agents of the Clinton campaign were sitting on scandalous information about Obama. The item prompted a furious response from Obama, who challenged her to either make the information public "or concede the truth that there is none". The Clinton campaign said it knew nothing about it.  This weekend Novak stood by his claim. "My source is a big Democrat - who is neutral right now, but was told by an agent of the Clinton camp who was involved in the campaign about the alleged scandal," he said. "I haven't talked to a single Republican on this. This was all strictly Democrats."

Alternatively, the Drudge story may serve the purpose of underscoring Hillary's current theme about how rivals are "throwing mud" which is backed by a new advertisement focusing on the attacks being launched on her by Republicans. 

There is, indeed, a lot of this about. On November 7, Ken Silverstein, the Washington Editor for Harper's Magazine, blogged under the headline: "Not Just Republicans Spreading Rumors About Hillary’s Lesbian Affair".

But The Times is not "kicking off the ugliest month" - if that is what the next few weeks will be -  we are merely doing our best to report it.

 

Comments

[Roger]

Wow! A non-story about a non-story! The news must really be slow across the pond.

[Mark Pennington]

Would the other alleged activities include the question: Why does Chelsea Clinton look like Webb Hubbell?

[torrant]

It will be difficult to get to the truth of this. However, it would not be above the ethics of the Clinton campaign to start this rumor themselves to play up the victim motif. She is already using her gender to insinuate she is being attacked by Obama and Edwards because she is a woman.

A two pronged campaign can be useful, a positive policy message coupled with a victim role to up the sympathy vote. Nothing is beyond Clintonian politics.

[Dennis D]

Drudge did exactly what Major Papers do. .Lead with a HEADLINE. So he is guilty of acting like a mainstream Newspaper. Reminds me of a headline that said
" BUSH GROUNDED PREDATORS BEFORE 911" Without mentioning they were grounded to add Hellfire Missiles.

[Anonymous]

It seems there is about as much loosely-sourced information about Hillary Clinton right now, as there was about Larry Craig at the beginning of 2007. That is to say, quite a lot, from a variety of disparate sources, over the course of many years. But, like Craig a full 12 months ago, there are as yet no known arrests, no stained dresses, no photos, no audio recordings.

[Adam]

Perhaps readers and editors in the UK are unaware of what is called the "inoculation process" that was pioneered by Al Gore when he ran for president against Bill Clinton in 1992.

Al Gore admitted to smoking pot and did it in a hastily organized and sparsely attended press conference. He timed it late in the day while other mind-numbingly vapid "issues" were dominating the daily news feed.

America yawned.

Clinton almost had his boat sunk when he waited until becoming the presumptive nominee to give his "I didn't inhale" excuse.

Point is - you have an explanation as to why a Clinton insider would get Drudge to post this non-news news. It is now self-discredited speculation, and any reporting further on the "Clinton is a lesbian" story will require a higher level of proof. After her husband "skirted" the "stained dress" I think that video rivaling that of Paris Hilton would be required to get Hillary on the defensive regarding this "issue".

[Steve]

**IF** Hillary is having this alleged affair we as her potential voters have a right to know about it. The deal supposedly is that Hillary and Bill come as a package deal, with part of her strictly limited appeal being that we get him too. If not, then she has a responsibility to inform her voters for it without being "outed" as a lesbian. It's another potential example of Clinton duplicity: What does she REALLY have in mind if she wins? Nobody really knows, and she should not be allowed to duck this allegation because it suggests that the Hill/Bill package is a myth that is being sold to voters like a box of Corn Flakes. I don't question her orientation (does anyone **but** the press have any doubts, by the way?), I question her honesty and judgment. Two very important qualities for the job she is in the running for.

[Deirdre]

The Times brought it up and did a full page spread with huge photo so that they could do the fashionable and jingoistic euro-snot rant about the big bad Americans.

I had not heard this rumor prior to the Times reporting it.

[Cody]

Hillary a lesbian? Wow, thats a surprise. Actually she is worse than that; she is a socialist and a fascist.

[RT]

Well, let's give the paper credit for not putting the HUGE photo on the front page where someone might have seen it.

[Missourimule]

Personally, I've never been able to see what Bill saw in her anyway, but more to the point; what is the huge attraction of American politics to the Brits? I do try to keep up with your papers over here, and it just seems like there's an inordinate amount of interest - not that it's new, I realize - but you have your own, and there are a lot of other countries to follow -

[Tebow Tim]

Who actually likes her? I find everything about her to be fake and contrived.

[Randall]

Who cares? I'm not voting for her because she's an idiot, not because she's gay... or happy, or whatever.
BTW, next time you have a void in you pages, fill it with something interesting like monkeys taking over the moon, or Bush getting his cranial-rectal inversion corrected via ExLax. Now THAT would be news.

[Bub]

Let the m u d s l i n g i n g begin. Hey, hopefully Billary wins the nomination; what fun.

[Robert Dalziel]

Mitt Romney is attacking Hillary in a television ad in the critical New Hampshire market on the grounds that a woman can't be president of the United States. This misogyny seemingly is rooted in the theology of the Mormon Church. Details at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/444125/mitt_romneys_spectacularly_sexist_attack.html

[Willie]

Balderdash...

Any Brit Journalist worth their salt would know that Hillary is only partial to Blondes.

[John]

Lesbian rumors have dogged Hillary back to the early days of Bills administration- given the bizarre nature of Bill's & Hill's marriage, one might be inclined to believe them. But make no mistake, the appearance of this rumor in print now, originates in the Democratic party. Either from Obama, to counter last weeks Clinton camp rumor that he was unelectable because of skeletons in his closet, or from the mainstream Democratic party establishment. Given Hillary's unprecedented negative ratings in polls, many in the Democratic party establishment feel she would suppress Democrat turnout in the general election, and energize the Republican base. They see this as a possible Doomsday scenario where they lose the Presidency, and control of the House and the Senate. If the Republicans wanted to use this rumor against Hillary, they would wait until just before the general election next November.

[JAS]

Only a few weeks ago, there was an article about a "big scandal" on a democrat candidate that "everyone inside the beltway" was aware of, but was not being published. My question is why haven't we seen photos of this "babe" and Hillary ANYWHERE before? The photo shown is the first that people in the U.S. are seeing. If there is nothing there, wouldn't she be just another campaign operative? Why hasn't her name been mentioned before this?

[Peter Bray]

What's strange is that you provide even more rank speculation and anti-Hillary memes. Instead of suggesting that, dare we mention it, Drudge was lying and wasn't contacted by a Hillary confidante, or that that confidante was, say, a former confidante... instead of doing these things, you go on to suggest that the campaign may have actually done this as a smokescreen for even more sinister things. That's pretty low-down, but typical for a Murdoch-owned publication I suppose.

[johannas]

"The purpose of this report (read it for yourselves) was not to suggest these claims were true, but to provide a measure of their nastiness" Everyone already knew this,Drudge reported it accurately, why change the subject? Hillary is a big Girl, she can handle anything. Or are you implying she is not?

[James]

I must say that you LEFTY Brits should just
stay out of American politics. You tend to write these stories that make the suggestions that the others have responded to here. So if you do not want the link that
Drudge has offered---don't write the BLOODY story.

[David]

The story is that there is a leak about no story to cover up the real story that is not a story.....yet. This is therefore a story that is really a story about a cover up, is that a story? If so why is no one reporting that ....story.

[Foncool]

Well if it is true, I can only say that Hillary has better taste in women than Bill.

[LT]

EXACTLY why this left coast police officer made America's only politically CONSERVATIVE music CD. We don't care about sexual preference. We do care about authenticity, and she lacks that...see track #5 'Hillaryous.' That will say it all. Where?

www.conservativemusiconline.com

Where a common person made a musical statement for the right for a change!

[James]

I believe that you LEFTY Brits should just stay out of American politics. You can not
get it RIGHT in your own country. Just as the other responders have said here, Drudge simply linked the story to your site.
Deal with the BLOODY consequences.