“As a young person, I’m worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?†19-year-old Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff asked at a recent Hillary Clinton campaign stop.
Clinton’s response was flawless — too flawless. Turns out the question had been given to Gallo-Chasanoff by aides before the speech.
It was an innocuous question, and these are the days of awing your audience with a show. But how far does this go? After endless hours of “American Idol,†we seem to forget that presidential elections select the person who will lead us through the next four years, making decisions on everything from war to our economy to health care.
Don’t we want a legitimate idea of the person we’re getting?
Posted by Kristin Mehler
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I’m amazed at the faux-outrage.
George WMD Bush campaigned with “town” meetings that required a loyalty oath to attend. The Shrub White House salted the press room with Jeff Gannon and paid Armstrong Williams to promote the party line.
So an over-eager campaign worker went a bit too far to make sure an issue might be brought up in a campaign appearance. Gimme a break.
Gallo-Chasanoff, whose story was first reported in the campus newspaper, said what happened was simple: She said a senior Clinton staffer asked if she’d like to ask the senator a question after an energy speech the Democratic presidential hopeful gave in Newton, Iowa, on November 6.
“I sort of thought about it, and I said ‘Yeah, can I ask how her energy plan compares to the other candidates’ energy plans?’” Gallo-Chasanoff said Monday night.
According to Gallo-Chasanoff, the staffer said, ” ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, because I don’t know how familiar she is with their plans.’ ” Watch the student speak out about question »
He then opened a binder to a page that, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, had about eight questions on it.
“The top one was planned specifically for a college student,” she added. “It said ‘college student’ in brackets and then the question.”
Topping that sheet of paper was the following: “As a young person, I’m worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?” Watch the student ask the planted question »
And while she said she would have rather used her own question, Gallo-Chasanoff said she didn’t have a problem asking the campaign’s because she “likes to be agreeable,” adding that since she told the staffer she’d ask their pre-typed question she “didn’t want to go back on my word.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html
See the Muriel CNN interview here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said, “This is not acceptable campaign process moving forward. We’ve taken steps to ensure that it never happens again.” Elleithee said Clinton had “no idea who she was calling on.”
Gallo-Chasanoff wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know whether Hillary knew what my question was going to be, but it seemed like she knew to call on me because there were so many people, and … I was the only college student in that area,” she said. Watch the full interview »
In a separate statement in response to the campus article, the campaign said, “On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton’s energy plan at a forum. … This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again.”
Gallo-Chasanoff said she wasn’t the only person given a question.
“After the event,” she said, “I heard another man … talking about the question he asked, and he said that the campaign had asked him to ask that question.”
The man she referenced prefaced his question by saying that it probably didn’t have anything to do with energy, and then posed the following: “I wonder what you propose to do to create jobs for the middle-class person, such as here in Newton where we lost Maytag.”
A Maytag factory in Newton recently closed, forcing hundreds of people out of their jobs.
During the course of the late-night interview on Grinnell’s campus, Gallo-Chasanoff also said that the day before the school’s newspaper, Scarlet and Black, printed the story, she wanted the reporter to inform the campaign out of courtesy to let them know it would be published.
She said the “head of publicity for the campaign,” a man whose name she could not recall, had no factual disputes with the story. But, she added, a Clinton intern spoke to her to say the campaign requested she not talk about the story to any more media outlets and that if she did she should inform a staffer.
“I’m not under any real obligation to do that, and I haven’t talked to [the campaign] anymore,” Gallo-Chasanoff said, adding that she doesn’t plan to.
“If what I do is come and just be totally truthful, then that’s all anyone can ask of me, and that’s all I can ask of myself. So I’ll feel good with what I’ve done. I’ll feel like I’ve done the right thing.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/index.html
Obviously “Max” is a fan of Karl Rove’s butt-boy “Jeff Gannon.”
Four more years! Four more years!Reelect Clinton. Four more years!
Four more years! Four more years!Bring back the good times! Four more years!
Four more years! Four more years!Get Bill back in power! Four more years!
“V” in real life!
I would have looked over at the Campaign Staffer after I asked the question and said, “Did I do good? I mean I asked the question you gave me to ask just like you told me.” :)
So will the real President Clinton please stand up:
GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) – Former President Clinton said Thursday that he is to blame for his administration’s failed health care plan, not his wife, who spearheaded the effort.
Clinton was asked about the plan during a campaign event, where he spoke to about 600 people crowded into a YMCA gymnasium. The health care effort was led by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, now a New York senator and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“She has taken the rap for some of the problems we had with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers,” the former president said.
(who did we elect to run the whitehouse and whom did we not elect to run the whitehouse?)
May 28, 1997SUPREME COURT, 9-0, REJECTS CLINTON REQUEST TO PUT OFF SUIT ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
A Deeper Sense of Siege
By R. W. APPLE JR.
”What hurts is the cloud,” a former aide to President Clinton said this afternoon, ”because you can’t see anything through it. While it’s there, whatever he does will remain invisible.”
Like a number of other present and former members of the White House inner circle, the aide argued that Mr. Clinton would be well advised either to settle with Paula Corbin Jones, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that she can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against him, or have the trial over as soon as possible. But others disagreed, asserting that the best tactic would be to stall, if possible until his second term ended.
Ms. Jones’s lawyers, who years ago came close to negotiating a settlement, signaled that they were ready to try again.
They said it would take ‘’some kind of admission and something that could be interpreted as an apology” on the part of Mr. Clinton.
The Supreme Court left room in today’s ruling for a lower court judge to delay the trial, commenting that ”the high respect that is owed to the office of the chief executive, though not justifying a rule of categorical immunity, is a matter that should inform the conduct of the entire proceeding.” In addition, the President’s lawyers have other grounds on which they might seek the dismissal of Ms. Jones’s suit.
”No doubt they can string things out,” said Robert Dallek, a historian of the Presidency. ”But it would be a mistake to stall. If I were in his position I’d be happy to trade two or three weeks of bad publicity from a deal or a trial for five or six months or more of headlines while he stalls.”
Few political professionals doubt that the Court’s decision was very bad news indeed for the President.
Though it neither mandated an immediate trial nor made any pronouncement at all on the merit of Miss Jones’s allegation that Mr. Clinton, then the Governor of Arkansas, propositioned her in 1991 in a hotel room in Little Rock, Ark., the Court ruled unanimously, 9 to 0, against the position of the President, his battery of lawyers and the Justice Department. That in itself gave a certain weight to the charges, in a political though not in a strictly legal sense.
”People who don’t pay close attention,” a White House official said, ”will hear that the President lost nine-zip and jump to conclusions.”
Today’s news also demonstrated how accusations of scandal, and the need to reply to them, can obscure a President’s efforts to deal with substantive issues and problems, slowly sapping his capacity to lead and govern.
Mr. Clinton was in Paris to sign a new agreement between NATO and Russia when the news came from the Court. Normally the spotlight would have been on him and on the agreement, giving him a chance to promote the expansion of NATO, which faces considerable opposition in the Senate. But the microphone on the bully pulpit was turned down. The justices spoke much louder.
Robert S. Bennett, the President’s top private lawyer, said on CNN: ”I’m not worried at all. I think when all is said and done the embarrassment will be on the side of Paula Jones.”
But another close Clinton associate, while insisting that ‘’she’s going to lose the suit, because she doesn’t have a case,” said the President could be humiliated in the meantime.
”This is not Watergate,” Mr. Dallek said. ”But it’s more water dripping on the stone. The day Richard Nixon said ‘I am not a crook’ was his last day as an effective leader, and every day Bill Clinton has to spend denying charges on one thing or another makes him a less successful President.”
The President’s lawyers came close to an out-of-court settlement before the matter went to the Supreme Court. Ms. Jones’s lawyers sought then, as they do now, some form of apology, an acknowledgment that Mr. Clinton knew her, and a promise that Mr. Clinton and his associates would not subsequently denigrate her or assert that his statements were given under duress. The negotiations, in May 1994, never led to an agreement on wording, and they ended in an atmosphere turned sour by what Ms. Jones and her family took as smears leaked from the White House. James Carville, a former Clinton strategist, supplied the coup de grace when he publicly dismissed Ms. Jones as trailer trash.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E1DF153AF93BA15756C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
Obviously “Max” is a fan of Karl Rove’s butt-boy “Jeff Gannon.”Posted by: MonkeyHawk | November 15, 2007 at 11:05 AM
——————————————————————–
Typcial response from a Hillary Clinton fan.
The End justifies the Means, elect Hillary at any cost! Break any law, tell any lie, plant any question, whatever it takes!
Promises of more Socialism will bring out the Socialist vote!
Obviously “Max” is a fan of Karl Rove’s butt-boy “Jeff Gannon.”Posted by: MonkeyHawk | November 15, 2007 at 11:05 AM
——————————————————————–
Typcial response from a Hillary Clinton fan.
The End justifies the Means, elect Hillary at any cost! Break any law, tell any lie, plant any question, whatever it takes!
Promises of more Socialism will bring out the Socialist vote!
Typica response from a Jeff Gannon fan.
And, since you obviously haven’t paid attention, Senator Clinton is my third choice for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Please try to keep up.
best of show?
Perfect example of turning a negative into a positive – all for your candidate.
Senator Clinton is my third choice for the Democratic presidential nomination.Posted by: MonkeyHawk
She still thinks she has a choice?Ha-ha!
Max,
And promises of fascism will bring out the fascist vote–as Ghouliani’s status as GOP front runner demonstrates.
Nice phony outrage from the conservative media. Every one of Bush’s public appearances was scripted. Soldiers were told which questions to ask and how to act. The White House put a gay male prostitute in with the press corps to ask easy questions. Anyone who is not a Bush supporter at one of his events is kicked outside.
Now the media has a problem with it because a Clinton staffer asked a kid if he’d like to ask a particular question. Expect a lot more of this treatment from the conservative media (that would be pretty much all of the media).
Yup, Clinton’s Phony Questions, it’s all Bush’s fault.
“a gay male prostitute to ask easy questions.”Doug
What are you trying to say here?
The Lib Dem Socialist Congress continues to vote to fund the Iraq war too. That’s all Bush’s fault.
George must be keeping some blackmail pictures in order to force the Dems to keep voting for the Iraq war.
It’s Bush’s fault.
And when President Hillary Clinton puts a surge of 100,000 more troops into Iraq in 2009, that will be Bush’s fault too.
When Hillary attacks Iran in 2009, that will be Bush’s fault too.
Dang, Edwards was right afterall.
Hillary is just like George.
“Hillary is just like George.”
So, she’s your candidte, right Max?
“Pat Herron” –
Karl Rove’s “good personal friend” Jeff Gannon made his living in Washington by doing what he was paid for.
Hillary Clinton’s Many LiesI’m learning a lot about Hillary Clinton- well, a lot I didn’t know before, from Dick Morris’ new book, Rewriting History, which is basically a rebuttal of Hillary’s own book, Living History, which is full of false claims, distortions, and flat out lies if Morris it to be believed.
Two things I have learned so far that make me dislike this woman more than I already do:
In an airport, she happened to run into Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to climb Mt. Everest. So, what to say to this man? Lie, of course. She claimed that her mother named her Hillary and with twp “i’s” after Hillary the climber. Only problem- he didn’t make news climbing anything until 5 years AFTER Clinton was born.
Another story from the book talks about how Hillary is at a race-relations conference in Boston with some teenagers, and she claims that she was on the soccer team, and a player from the opposing team told her that she hated her kind, and Hillary said- ‘you don’t even know me,’ to which the girl replied- ‘I don’t have to know you to know I hate you.’ An attempt to try to make the kids believe she knew exactly where they were coming from, and from personal experience at that! Too bad this is almost surely a lie, since there were no girl’s soccer teams at her high school in the 1960’s when this supposed event took place.
There is also the lie- well known to most- where Hillary claimed that her daughter Chelsea was in danger on September 11, claiming that her daughter went for a jog down to the towers themselves, and when the planes hit, she saw the buildings right there and was nearly in peril. Too bad again, since Chelsea totally debunked her mother’s phony story in a magazine article. She was realy on the other side of the city, and was woken up with a phone call telling her to watch the news- and she never got anywhere near the towers, instead she was staring shocked at the tv screen most of the day.
These stories, along with the many Hillary scandals from her days in the white house, are very creepy. The woman is a corrupt, lying, power-hungry maniac, evidence would suggest…yet, she’s the most popular democrat in the country, and millions would vote for her if she ran for president. That says a lot about millions of people in America. They’re clueless. I’m sure, tho, that many among the millions are, in fact, completely tuned into the truth, but just don’t care how corrupt she is or how many lies she tells, no matter how small those lies are. She’s a phony, and it’s clear that she’s a phony, yet many people love her. Why? I’ve no earthly idea. But, it’s truly scary that so many people do, indeed, love her; and you have to seriously wonder if they drink the same water that the crazy people who keep re-electing Ted Kennedy drink.
http://www.thebluesite.com/archives/000527.htmlni
All this loathing for Hillary by republicans…I smell fear!
xxx there is nothing to fear but fear itself. I share Kitrells confusion. If repubs are the sheeple then why are the libs slobbering all over a known liar, with no scruples who tells every group what they want to hear. Has it never crossed the mind of a lib that you don’t know who this woman is?
Will the real Hillary Clinton step forward – please?
So, the same people who give Cheney a pass on the unceasing stream of lies, doubletalk, and usurpation their collective panties in a wad over Hillary planting a shill question. Riiiiiiiight………..
Well considering that the typical Kansas college student would ask such an important question of the Pres. “Have you seen Brokeback Mountain”, why take a chance on what will come out of their mouths!
ksgrm,
How about the real Rudy Ghouliani? Let’s see what the Rude Pundit has to say.
**********************************
“New York Police Union Chief: “Hey, F*ck You, Rudy”:
(snip)
The stunning thing is that, despite the fact that time and again, Giuliani is shown to be a fraud, people keep clinging to him. (Seriously, Republicans. McCain is the only moderately sane choice you have.) So it’s up to the Rudy to bite Rudy on the ass. Like his past catching up with him when it comes to Bernard Kerik. Or when it comes to his treatment of the police union like it’s filled with whiny titty babies.
New York police union President Patrick Lynch (and his magnificent coif) told the New York Post that Rudy can go f*ck himself: “The New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association could never support Rudy Giuliani for any elected office.” Or: hey, motherf*cker, it’s payback time.
Lynch continued, “The inability to keep veteran cops on the job or to recruit adequate numbers of new ones can be traced directly back to the Giuliani mayoralty…While the city was rolling in money, the Giuliani administration cried future poverty and stuck New York City police officers with 3½ years without a raise. Giuliani’s ‘zeroes for heroes’ contracts held police pay stagnant while all the other local departments in the metro area were getting modest but steady raises…Today, there are simply not enough NYPD police officers to keep this city safe, and it is Giuliani’s fault.” The Giuliani campaign responded, but, truly, who the f*ck cares.
Now, whatever you may or may not know about the union’s 1996-7 contract negotiation with Giuliani (and, of course, it’s more complicated than either side wants in a soundbite), it’s a kick in the nuts to Rudy’s tough guy fakery. Does Giuliani really want to get into a bar fight when, just before negotiating the two-year pay freezes for the cops and the firefighters, he gave himself a $35,000 a year raise, including a $20,000 lump sum in December 1995?
Then, turning Giuliani over to f*ck him in his face, Lynch, whose hair really is a sight to behold, went after Rudy’s 9/11 cred: “Rudy Giuliani has no real credentials as a terrorism fighter…Giuliani has wrapped himself firmly in the cloak of 9/11 for his own political purposes. But the real heroes of 9/11 — those who helped to evacuate those towers and lived to tell the tale, and all those who participated in the recovery and cleanup — know the truth.”
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
***********************************
So, let’s review: Ghouliani’s reputation as a pro-law and order mayor is directly refuted by those who served under him, as is his “performance” on 9/11.
You’ll forgive me, Wingnuts, if I have a hard time getting terribly worked up over Hillary planting a shill in the audience. Compared to helping to cause the deaths of hundreds of firefighters and police and then lying about it, doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
“All this loathing for Hillary by republicans…I smell fear!”Posted by: XXX
I tend to agree, but there is a consistent story in the MSM that Repubs are giving Hillary this treatment because they want to run against her.
I am of the opinion that, thanks to GW Bush, the Dems could run Dennis Rader against any of the Repub options and still do pretty well. For the Repubs in 2008, the preceding eight years will be known as the era of the Repubs “sh*tting in their mess kits”.
“Steven Davis” –
I’ve long ago given up trying to figure out how Republic Party partisans think, largely because there so little evidence of it.
I listen to their talking points. I hear their attacks. I note their faux outrage and smirk at their rationalizations for airport bathroom casual gay sex. I see so-called “conservatives” rail against imagined threats against their 2nd Amendment rights and placating Srub/Cheney eliminating other elements of the Bill of Rights.
Evangelical Republicans are lining up to support pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-gun control Rudy Giuliani.
The Republic Party is running around like chickens with their legs cut off, trying to find someone who they think might defeat the Democrat. Meanwhile, the Democrats have three very vialble front-runners in their primary race… any one of them highly likely to replace the Republic Party’s 8-years of corruption and incompetence.
Did I say three viable Democrats? Hell, Mike Gravel could probably beat any GOP prospect like a rented mule.
Above post at 04:15 PM explains why Liberal Talk Radio fails.
…Empty rhetoric, over exaggeration, platitudes of ignorance and ill assignment, and arm flailing complete with pointing fingers.
“running around like chickens with their legs cut off”
No doubt the lad grew up on a farm. (cough)
I HAVE to laugh.
bush came to Wichita awhile back ‘member that?
Now I live near the route he was supposed to take. SO, I went on down in my Tshirt that says “axis of evil” and has bush, cheney, ashcrofts pictures.
I didn’t have a gun or a knife.
Or a backpack or a suspicious looking package.
But boy the cops sure got me outta there quick when they saw my shirt! Heaved FORBID his fraudulency should be subjected to my one fingered salute!
Sounds like the Blue Dress Demoncrats are lying down for another Clinton.
Sorry, “Kansas” –
“Running around like chickens with their legs cut off” is exactly what I said and exactly what I meant.
You guys are that pathetic.
Sorry, “Kansas” –
“Running around like chickens with their legs cut off” is exactly what I said and exactly what I meant.
You guys are that pathetic.
Posted by: MonkeyHawk | November 15, 2007 at 06:39 PM
You bet, MH.
It will be okay, honestly it will.
No doubt the lad grew up on a farm. (cough)
Posted by: Kansas | November 15, 2007 at 05:17 PM
Is Monkeybutt farmgirl too? Or just another empty headed female poster?
I’m really missing FrmGrrl these days.
We need her to kick butt and take names around here.
It’s true that we libs can do it just fine too, but not with her inimitable STYLE.
Dallas motorcade for both the clintons
EDITORS!!!
I call your attention to the 8:47 post.
The poster looseley trolling another bloggers nic has just issued a terroristic threat against the former President of the United States and a serving member of the United States Senate.
I suggest their IP be reported to the Secret Service immediately.
I agree, JR.
But you have to e-mail the editors.
As far as I can tell, they don’t even read these blogs . . .
Hey Capn UnAmerica, sometimes your post is underlined, and sometimes it is not.
Both are you??????
I need to make sure my rear sight appeture elevation and windage are correct.