Day: April 22, 2007
GOP Floating Ted Olson, Head of 1990s Anti-Clinton ‘Arkansas Project,’ for AG
If Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales resigns, we have proposed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald or former Sen. Fred. Thompson as his replacement. Of course, we weren’t serious.
With all this baggage and a likely confrontation in the Senate, would Pres. Bush nominate Ted Olson for attorney general? The answer is sadly yes.
Now there is word that Republican officials in D.C. are seriously proposing Ted Olson to replace Gonzo. Digby asks, “Is this some kind of a joke?”
Knowing Ted Olson’s history, the answer is sadly no.
During the 1990s, the GOP ran a stealth disinformation campaign against the Clintons, the prototype for Swiftboating, out of the offices of the American Spectator, a rightwing magazine. Internally, the operation was called the Arkansas Project, but Hillary famously referred to it as a “vast rightwing conspiracy.” It was funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and its CEO was Ted Olson.
At the same time, Olson’s wife, Barbara, was one of a cadre of wingnut blondes — the others were Ann Coulter, Kellyann Fitzpatrick and Laura Ingraham — who were given untold hours of face time on cable news to bash the Clintons with rumors and innuendos, much of which was processed through the Arkansas Project. Barbara, the author of a bizarrely nasty screed titled “Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” died on the plane that hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
