Day: May 2, 2008

Latest on “The War Room” Clip. ABC Says Kantor Did Diss Indiana

Trish

The scene in question appears at about 4:45.

According to the man who started it all, Jake Tapper of ABC News, the clip that circulated the interwebs today (and was ignored by the mainstream media) from the movie, “The War Room” was accurate in at least part. Mickey Kantor, who claims otherwise on the Huffington Post, did say to James Carville as they looked over election results, “Look at Indiana, wait, wait – look at Indiana. 42-40. It doesn’t matter if we win. Those people are shit. Excuse me.”

Tapper also found old press clippings from when the movie was made.

When “The War Room” came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post’s review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to “a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton’s ahead in Dan Quayle’s state).”

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that “As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. ‘And those people are s—!’ he declared breathlessly.”

As to the other part of the film that is circulating today, the words used are much cloudier. One clip had Kantor saying, “How would you like to be a worthless white n****r?” like the folks in the Hoosier state. In the original film, it’s really not clear what Kantor said but “How’d you like to be —” is pretty audible while the end of the sentence is lost. All we know is that George Stephanopoulos shakes his head.

Who supplied the “clarified” version of the video is still not known. The (possibly too) obvious choice would be someone from the Obama campaign. The next suspect would be someone from the Clinton campaign trying to make the Obama campaign look bad. After that, who knows? Someone from McCain’s campaign?

The red flag to me is that someone recalled this teeny weeny Indiana reference from a 15-year-old documentary. Who would have such top of mind recall about a film on the ’92 Clinton campaign? I’ll stop but I hope someone gets to the bottom of all this before Tuesday.

McCain Accidentally Admits We Invaded Iraq for Oil

Trish

Gramps is losing it. John “Maverick” McCain accidentally told the truth and now he’s trying to spin it back into something that doesn’t make Bush look so bad. Good luck with that.

At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver.

“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.

“Again”? As in, “We already went to war over oil?” I thought so! But Bush said it was because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I’m confused.

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn’t mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

“No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,” McCain told reporters.

One reason was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, he said. “But also we didn’t want him to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it’s more important than any other part of the world,” he said…

“The Congressional Record is very clear: I said we went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

Oil, weapons of mass destruction, same thing.

Obama Supporters Smear Clinton Adviser Mickey Kantor with Fake Video Four Days Before Indiana Primary

Jon Ponder

The rabidly pro-Obama Huffington Post is calling a video released today smearing informal Clinton adviser Mickey Kantor a fake:
“A review of the original copy of the 1993 film The War Room, from which the excerpt was taken is virtually inaudible. The sound suggests, if anything, that instead of saying ‘How would you like to be a worthless white n****r?’ Kantor says, ‘How would you like to be in the White House right now?'”
— Huffington Post

A former aide to President Bill Clinton, and current informal adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton, expressed outrage and shock on Friday after a videotape from 1992 surfaced allegedly showing him describing Indianans as “white n—rs.”

Mickey Kantor, who served as campaign chairman during Clinton’s 1992 run for the White House and says he has offered help and advice to Sen. Clinton, insisted that the tape was a fraud and that he was exploring legal steps against the individual who posted it online.

“I’ve never used that word in my entire life, ever, under any circumstance, ever,” an angry Kantor told The Huffington Post, citing his and his parent’s work fighting for civil rights. “I have listened to [the video] and so have you. You can’t tell what it is I’m saying in that second sentence, you can’t decipher that.”

Indeed, a review of the original copy of the 1993 film The War Room, from which the excerpt was taken (around the 4:40 mark) is virtually inaudible. The sound suggests, if anything, that instead of saying “How would you like to be a worthless white n****r?” Kantor says, “How would you like to be in the White House right now?”

The director of the film, moreover, says that Kantor never uttered those words. “He does not say that. He does not say that,” D.A. Pennebaker told Ben Smith.

The cropped video, which spread through the Internet like wildfire on Friday morning, shows Kantor with fellow former Bill Clinton staffers James Carville and George Stephanopoulos discussing results from the general election. In the footage, Kantor approaches the two aides and says, “Look at Indiana — wait, wait, look at Indiana. 42-40. It doesn’t matter if we win, those people are shit.” That much seems true, though Pennebaker says Kantor was referring to the George H.W. Bush White House.

Interestingly, the video is no longer available on YouTube.

Update: Ben Smith at the conservative Politico.com has spoken with the director of “The War Room,” who confirms that Kantor never said the words in the doctored video:

[…]

Polls: Obama’s Double Digit Lead in North Carolina Vanishes

Jon Ponder

Clinton Comes Within 7 Points in Average of Six Polls

In the wake of the Wright controversy and despite — or because of? — the trashing Hillary Clinton is receiving in the media and on the web, the RealClearPolitics poll of polls shows that, with four days to go before the North Carolina primary, the double digit averaged lead Barack Obama once held in the state has disappeared:

Poll Date Obama Clinton Spread
RCP Average 04/26 – 05/01 48.3 41.3 Obama +7.0
Rasmussen 05/01 – 05/01 49 40 Obama +9.0
Zogby 04/30 – 05/01 50 34 Obama +16.0
Research 2000 04/29 – 04/30 51 44 Obama +7.0
Mason-Dixon 04/28 – 04/29 49 42 Obama +7.0
Insider Advantage 04/29 – 04/29 42 44 Clinton +2.0
SurveyUSA 04/26 – 04/28 49 44 Obama +5.0

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war. Gasoline is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict.

— Simone Weil (1909-1943), French philosopher, Christian mystic and social activist

General Accuses Bush Admin of ‘Gross Incompetence And Dereliction of Duty’ in Iraq – ‘Liberal’ Media Yawns

Jon Ponder

In just the last month, the “liberal” media has studiously ignored two revelations of extreme malfeasance by the Bush administration: First, that George Bush admitted that he and his most senior advisers willfully violated U.S. and international laws by drafting torture guidelines for CIA interrogators, and, second, that retired senior military officials hired as on-air “analysts” for television news organizations during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq knowingly made false statements during news broadcasts in order to bolster the administration’s bogus pretexts for war.

Now, in new book set for release next week, the former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq has accused the administration of the most serious possible charges short of treason in its handling of the occupation: gross incompetence and dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, if the past month is an indicator, there is no chance this dire allegation will lead the news on cable for even a single hour, or that it will be mentioned, even in passing, on the Sunday political shows this weekend.

In his new memoir, “Wiser in Battle,” which hits the shelves on May 6, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez offers this blistering assessment of the Bush administration’s handling of its misbegotten occupation of Iraq:

“Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.”

The quote comes from an excerpt from the book published in Time Magazine. And here is a clue of what’s (not) to come: Raw Story points out that Time has chosen not to highlight the accusation, which was buried three pages into the story.

The fact is, “gross incompetence and dereliction of duty” are apt descriptions of everything the Bush administration has undertaken since it took office — from its horrendous response to Hurricane Katrina to its bungling of the U.S. economy, its ham-fisted international diplomacy, its blockheaded approach to domestic politics and on and on.

In fact, as cynical as it sounds, the truth is that the Bush team’s only real competence is in lying about its activities and smearing its opponents. That’s why, in the unlikely event this story were to find legs, we can expect loyal Bushies to flood the airwaves to remind viewers that Gen. Sanchez was their fall guy for the early failures in Iraq and, especially, the torture regime at Abu Grahib prison.

Right now, the White House political shop is undoubtedly working up a rigorous smear campaign against Sanchez. Luckily for him, the corporate media is bored with the Bush administration and the odds this story will get any notice lies somewhere between slim and none.

Spike Lee: Who’s Paying Rev. Wright?

Trish

Director Spike Lee questioned the timing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s press conference this week, and the statements he made.

Lee hinted at a political conspiracy behind the Chicago pastor’s recent, contentious attempts to justify his remarks. “It looks like he’s being paid to keep talking,” he said…”I’m starting to wonder whether somebody has been contributing to the building funds of his church. Seriously.” Lee, whose films have frequently tackled the issue of race relations in the US, believes that Obama had hoped to survive the presidential contest without talking about race: “But now he’s been forced to – by a combination of Jeremiah Wright and the Clintons.”

Is Lee on to something? Is someone exploiting the split in Obama’s relationship with Wright? And are they paying — in money, favors, or future promises — for his continued high profile?

Clinton Campaign Manager on Board of Group That Made Robocalls

Trish
Clinton campaign manager and board member of Women’s Voices, Maggie Williams

A whole bunch of African-American registered voters in North Carolina recently received a strange automated phone call. Suddenly they were registered and confused, which investigators think was most likely the purpose of the calls.

“Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is fill it out, sign it, date and return the application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return your registration form when it arrives. Thank you.”

In fact, the deadline to register for the May 6 Democratic presidential primary had already passed…The call and follow-up mailings left many wondering whether they were registered for the primary or not.

This sounds like a classic example of voter suppression — sowing confusion in order to drive down turn-out. The calls seemed to be aimed at African-American communities…

The calls were traced back to a group called Women’s Voices, Women Vote. And that’s where it gets interesting. Among its board members is former Pres. Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manger, Maggie Williams.

A “Lamont Williams” robocall ran in Ohio last fall. In Virginia, robocalls days before the February primary caused voters to flood the board of elections with phone calls, in turn triggering an investigation by the state police.

Among Billaryland’s inner circle, Maggie Williams is renowned as the ultimate Hillary loyalist, fierce and unwavering in her devotion for nearly 25 years…

A Kansas City native, Williams, 53, was a central player in the Clinton damage-control machine during the White House years.

In 1995, a uniformed Secret Service officer swore under oath he saw her leave White House lawyer and Hillary confidant Vince Foster’s office carrying documents after Foster committed suicide. Williams denied it.

She ran up more than $100,000 in legal bills defending Hillary in various investigations.

The North Carolina calls aren’t the first, or even the first to receive complaints and investigations.

The Institute [for Southern Studies, which is investigating] turned up other complaints about the group as well, in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. A “Lamont Williams” robocall similar to North Carolina’s ran in Ohio last fall. In Virginia, robocalls days before the February primary caused voters to flood the board of elections with phone calls, in turn triggering an investigation by the state police.

[Institute Director Chris] Kromm says this shows at least five months of a “deceptive tactic, illegal in many states.” He notes, “Each time this group is criticized for this activity, they apologize for the confusion.”

The North Carolina attorney general says the robocalls are illegal. State law requires that automated phone calls identify the sponsoring group and give the recipient a phone number or other means of contacting the group. The Lamont Williams call did neither.

It’s easy to apologize when you’ve already achieved your objective. “Whoops, our bad. Now where’s the next primary?”