PITY THE Rockefellers. Try though they might, they never manage to get a Rockefeller elected president. Governors, senators and even a vice president have borne the Rockefeller name. Yet the presidency eludes them. And so they busy themselves playing kingmaker behind the scenes. Their latest project is Hillary Clinton.

Last Thursday, the public interest group Judicial Watch published a memorandum which the Clinton Library was forced to release under the Freedom of Information Act.

The 24-page memo shines a spotlight on Hillary’s little-known relationship with America’s mightiest oil and banking dynasty. Dated May 26, 1993 and addressed to “Hillary Rodham Clinton”, the memo comes from Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia — better known as Jay Rockefeller — whose great-grandfather founded Standard Oil.

The memo lays out a detailed strategy for pushing the “Clinton reform plan” for universal health coverage. In it, Rockefeller snaps orders at Mrs. Clinton in the imperious tones of a man accustomed to obedience.

He instructs Hillary to get tough on critics of the health plan. “Impeach the credibility of opponents”, he writes. Portray them as “perpetrators”, “paid lobbyists” and purveyors of “ideological extremism”. Assign investigators to conduct “opposition research” on them and expose their “lifestyles”. Do not allow them “even one day without scrutiny”.

Regarding the need for a radio and TV advertising campaign, Rockefeller fumes, “Fundraising must begin immediately. I am frankly surprised that I have not been contacted or shown a plan for fundraising and media expenditures.”

Rockefeller plainly viewed Hillary as his subordinate, and the “Clinton reform plan” as his project. And no wonder. The plan we know as Hillarycare was originally Rockefeller’s idea.

“Health care was his major interest”, writes Joshua Green in The Atlantic. “The agony of watching his mother’s lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s had made him a crusader for universal health insurance, and in the years before Bill Clinton was elected he had organized labor and health interests toward that goal.”

Many Democrats urged Jay Rockefeller to run for president in 1992, but he declined and backed the Clintons instead.

Read more at POE.com

Sorry folks been tied up! Bunch ‘o links to chew on!

A Clue to How Hillary Clinton Found Her Voice - She hired a voice and drama coach!

Republicans for Hillary

Anti-Clinton film backers take on campaign-funding law

Mr. Clinton and the Tycoon

Another Clinton gets emotional - Now Chelsea is in on the act!

The Cooper Concerns “We’ll crush you. You’ll wish you never mentioned this to me.” - Must read!

Hillary’s Delegate Condition

The Baggage Hillary Bears

It’s Splitsville for Rupert and Hillary

Bill and Hillary Billions

Questioner calls Bush ‘the bastard,’ Hillary Clinton smiles

Fewer Want Bill Clinton Back in the White House

Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Pillar Of Female Achievement? Really??

Bill Clinton’s Kazakh connection

The Fix was in for Hillary

In Health Debate, Clinton Remains Vague on Penalties

Is Hillary losing support from women?

Hillary’s Plantation Politics

Clinton Gets Most Lobbyist Money

Can the Clintons change?

Boo Hoo Hillary pulls crying stunt again!

Clinton’s ‘35 years of change’ omits most of her career

Hillary Clinton may unite Republicans

Bill Clinton Campaigns… Against Ted Kennedy

Clinton suggests tapping wages

There Will Be Blood

Fox Poll: Hillary Will Do Anything

Superdelegates To Clinton’s Rescue?

Bill Clinton: Rogue Co-President in Waiting

Nazi reference by Clinton supporter repudiated by her campaign

Clinton’s Filthy Lucre: Is it just us, or is there something off about ex-president Bill Clinton using his influence overseas to enrich a pal and then accepting the pal’s big donation to his foundation? This looks like a bribery racket.

Hillary’s Faustian bargain

Judicial Watch released new documents last week from the Clinton Presidential Library regarding Hillary’s botched attempt to stage a government takeover of our nation’s healthcare system in 1993.  Our investigators found them during a trip to the Clinton Library in Little Rock last year.

Here are a few highlights from what we found:

• A June 18, 1993, internal Memorandum entitled, “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by P.S., which makes the startling admission that critics of Hillary’s health care reform plan were correct:  “I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?… none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…” (Click here to read.)
• A “Confidential” May 26, 1993, Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform.  The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism.  Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”  (Click here to read.)
• A February 5, 1993, Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux detailing the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign.  The memorandum suggests building an “interest group data base” detailing whether or not organizations “support(ed) us in the election.”  The database would also track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, “biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.”  (Click here to read.)

We found these records amongst the approximately 13,000 made publicly available by the Clinton Library, specifically from the White House Health Care Interdepartmental Working Group.  The National Archives admits there are an additional 3,022,030 additional textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes related to the Task Force that are currently being withheld indefinitely from the public.  Given what we found thus far, can you imagine what else is down there in Little Rock?  (On November 2, 2007, we filed a lawsuit to obtain the Task Force records.)

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By Ed Morrissey

Judicial Watch has tried to gain access to the records from Hillary Clinton’s task force on revamping the American health-care system, and has been met with considerable resistance. After seeing the first batch released by the Clinton library, one can certainly understand why. In a press release from Judicial Watch earlier this evening, they excerpted some explosive passages within the documents, passages which will create some uncomfortable questions for Hillary on the campaign trail.

First, an internal critique of Hillary’s plan marveled at the unprecedented scope of government control over a private industry — at least in peacetime:

A June 18, 1993 internal Memorandum entitled, “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by someone with the initials “P.S.,” makes the startling admission that critics of Hillary’s health care reform plan were correct: “I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?… none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…”
The other two excerpts paint the effort in an entirely new and darker light. First, Senator Jay Rockefeller proposed that the federal government conduct smear campaigns against the opponents of the plan:

A “Confidential” May 26, 1993 Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform. The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism.
Rockefeller had allies in mind for this effort:

Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”
Wow. Media Matters should contact Rockefeller to disabuse him of the myth of the liberal-biased press!

Some might wonder about the notion of the White House digging up dirt on its critics in order to shut them up. Of course, this memo came from Rockefeller to Hillary, and no one can say whether she responded affirmatively or scolded Rockefeller for his dangerous suggestion. We can say that the suggestion came up earlier:

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Internal Memos Detail Creation of Government “Interest Group Database” to Collect Personal Data on Health Care Debate Activists

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released records obtained from the Clinton Presidential Library related to the National Taskforce on Health Care Reform, a “cabinet-level” task force chaired by former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Clinton administration.  Specifically, these documents come from the White House Health Care Interdepartmental Working Group. 

Among the highlights of the documents released by Judicial Watch: 

• A June 18, 1993 internal Memorandum entitled, “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by someone with the initials “P.S.,” makes the startling admission that critics of Hillary’s health care reform plan were correct:  “I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?… none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…”

• A “Confidential” May 26, 1993 Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform.  The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism.  Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”

• A February 5, 1993 Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux detailing the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign.  The memorandum notes the development of an “interest group data base” detailing whether or not organizations “support(ed) us in the election.”  The database would also track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, “biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.”

These records released by Judicial Watch were obtained from the approximately 13,000 records made publicly available by the Clinton Library.  The National Archives admits there may be an additional 3,022,030 textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes related to the Task Force that are being withheld indefinitely from the public.  On November 2, 2007 Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Archives to force the release of all the Task Force records.

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One of the Man from Hope’s consistently amazing lines is that the press doesn’t offer the Clintons enough credit for all their good works. The latest example came on the trail in Keene, N.H., where the Associated Press found him whining about how the press hasn’t underlined the vast chasm in experience between his wife and Barack Obama. "Bill Clinton said Tuesday that if reporters covered the candidates’ public records better, his wife’s presidential bid would be far ahead of her rivals," reported the AP.

Clinton obviously believes his presidency was a Golden Era, a time when peace and prosperity graced America. The Clintons want the press to replay a sort of glowing Harry and Linda Thomason propaganda movie about The Way They Were, with a soundtrack by Barbra Streisand.

Oh, baloney. The last thing Bill or his wife want is for the press to scrutinize their public records. The media have been absolutely AWOL on this front for 15 years. He knows it, just as he knows that his bellyaching about the press will also succeed in keeping them at bay.

How easy it would be to make a list of all the things the press could do to clear the cobwebs with thorough investigations (as opposed to the infrequent and incomplete spurt of a few negative stories). Reporters could draw up a quick list of "old news" about Hillary Clinton’s record of public malfeasance that Bill knows full well have never been resolved:

1. Hillary ordering around the White House staff to fire seven workers in the White House Travel Office for financial mismanagement, with Billy Dale accused of embezzlement. Hillary then lied to a grand jury about how she was not really involved in the firing scheme, even though staffers were writing there would be "hell to pay" if they didn’t do Hillary’s bidding. Billy Dale’s life was ruined. Two years later, it took a jury two hours to acquit him of all charges. Why did she do that? What would voters think, Mr. President?

2. Hillary making a mysterious $100,000 profit off a $1,000 investment in cattle futures with Tyson Foods lawyer Jim Blair making her trades. Was this a bribe for the governor’s wife? It certainly didn’t fit Hillary’s first fairytale explanation: that she made the trades just reading the Wall Street Journal. Would more focus on this still-unresolved scandal help Hillary’s campaign, Mr. President?

3. Hillary’s staffers rifling through Vince Foster’s office for documents in the hours after Foster’s death in Fort Marcy Park. One man seen leaving the scene with documents was White House aide and Hillary protege Craig Livingstone. What was he taking away? Why won’t anyone in your administration give an honest answer, Mr. President?

4. Hillary’s Rose Law Firm records "disappeared," only to reappear in the White House residence after years of requests for documents from the independent counsel investigating her lawyering for her corrupt business partner Jim McDougal. What were they doing right outside Hillary’s private office, Mr. President?

5. Hillary demanding the need for a White House database of friends and enemies. The Clinton White House was found to be in possession of over 1,000 FBI files of Republican White House employees. At the center of the controversy again: Craig Livingstone, who told friends he was Hillary’s hire. Why were they there? How were they used?

In each of these cases — and so many more! — the Clinton-adoring media pulled a collective hamstring and retired before the scandal was ever resolved.

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- In which we are reminded anew of Hillary’s antedeluvian trade policies. RedState

- Hillary gives Wall Street a Warning, quote from the NY Sun:

 Senator Clinton gave a clear indication yesterday that as president she would be happy to intervene in the management of the economy if she thought the free market was failing middle-class Americans.

Speaking to donors and supporters at Nasdaq’s headquarters in Times Square, Mrs. Clinton threatened legislation to regulate the mortgage lending industry closely if money managers do not come up with their own scheme to defray the effects of the subprime mortgage collapse. She also served notice on wealthy Americans that they should be prepared for tax increases.

- Quoted from Hillary’s Charm Offensive by Voegli at No Left Turns:

Haven’t we seen this before – the boundless sense of entitlement, the fury at those who would presume to deny the self-anointed candidate her destiny? Despite all the talk about how Hillary had grown in the aftermath of the health care debacle, the stories about how she had learned to play nice with others in the Senate, the same attractive attitudes and habits that endeared her to the nation 15 years ago are once again on display.

Carl Bernstein’s book, A Woman in Charge, reports that in 1993 the First Lady beguilingly told a group of Democratic senators, who expressed doubts about the political feasibility of passing ambitious health care reforms, that the Clinton administration would “demonize” those who stood in the way of her plan. It was the last straw for Sen. Bill Bradley. “You don’t tell members of the Senate you are going to demonize them. It was obviously so basic to who she is. The arrogance. The assumption that people with questions are enemies. The disdain. The hypocrisy.”

When her task force of 500 members and 34 committees sent the Democratic Congress a bill that was 1,324 pages long, it sank like an anvil. Smaller, simpler measures might have passed, but the First Lady refused to support any plan but her own. Bob Boorstin, a media relations deputy with the task force, told Bernstein that Hillary is “among the most self-righteous people I’ve ever met in my life.”

Source: Maggie’s Farm

The advocates of government-run health care gleefully anticipate the upcoming presidential election. Convinced that Hillary Clinton will easily beat any candidate foolish enough to accept the Republican presidential nomination, they expect to see Hillarycare 2.0 enacted before they fully recover from their inaugural party hangovers.

This sense of complacency has been bolstered by the recent battle between Congress and the White House over expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Ezra Klein’s assessment of its effect on the socialized medicine "coalition" echoes that of Jonathan Cohn and other "progressive" policy wonks: "…its galvanization of liberal interest groups and creation of new, pro-expansion coalitions is creating the template for what the Clintons didn’t have: An aggressive, sophisticated, well-funded, pro-reform lobby." Presumably, this lobby will be the force that finally leads us to the promised land of Hillarycare.

But Klein, Cohn and others of their persuasion are indulging in wishful thinking. Recent developments both within the Beltway and on the West Coast bode ill for the larger cause of "universal" government-run health care. Not only have congressional Democrats been unable to prevail against the minority party and a lame duck president in their effort to expand SCHIP coverage to middle class kids and adults, a similar proposal has just been overwhelmingly rejected by the voters of the deep blue state of Oregon.

As to the congressional SCHIP debate, one has to do a lot of digging to find a pony for the pro-Hillarycare crowd. Having already vetoed one SCHIP bill, President Bush says he will continue to reject child health care legislation that significantly exceeds the $5 billion increase he has proposed for SCHIP. And, even after a media blitz that included the disgraceful exploitation of Graeme Frost, the "aggressive, sophisticated, well-funded" health care coalition was unable to cobble together a veto-proof majority that would support the $35 billion increase the Democrats initially demanded.

In fact, the pro-expansion coalition actually lost ground as negotiations proceeded on a compromise bill. Believing that public opinion was on their side, the Democrats and their allies clearly felt that a few token concessions would enable them to pick up enough GOP votes for an override. But on November 15, a group of rank-and-file Republicans proposed changes to the bill that would have imposed eligibility limits on Medicaid. This proposal, which stalled negotiations and assured the eventual shelving of the SCHIP expansion bill, signaled that the tide had turned. The Democrats found themselves under increasing pressure from the states to wrap things up before the money ran out in December, while the Republicans were feeling little urgency to get a SCHIP deal done.

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Health Care

Japanese doctor says, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can
take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him out
looking for work in six weeks."

A German doctor says, "That is nothing. We can take a lung out of one
person, put it in another, and have him out looking for work in four weeks."

A British doctor says, "In my country medicine is so advanced that we
can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have
both of them out looking for work in two weeks."

The American doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, "You guys are way
behind. We are about to take a woman with no brains, put her in the
White House, and then half the country will be out looking for work."

Thank you Christy!