Sibby Online

Clinton’s Deep Throat

Interesting thought by Dustin Hawkins, Excerpt:

At best, Watergate was a about a second rate breaking and entering, not committed by or with the knowledge of Richard Nixon; one use of executive privilege to slow down the investigation of the break-in for a couple of weeks; and one lie, which wasn’t even told under oath. This was more than enough to turn the White House upside down and force a sitting President to resign. And he didn’t even break the law.

Compare this to the following felonious behavior, which was enough to impeach a President, but not enough to get him fired or to convince him to resign in disgrace:

- Perjury: Lied under oath about an affair in a sexual harassment trial that was trying to show a continuous pattern of behavior of sexual misconduct and abuse of power.

- Suborning Perjury: Among others, tried to get Monica Lewinsky to lie under oath, and sent a memo to Linda Tripp to "forget" certain things about Clinton’s misconduct.

- Trading Jobs for Silence: Former "acquaintances" of Bill Clinton were mysteriously offered jobs that they were highly unqualified for. Vernon Jordan got jobs for Monica Lewinsky. Kathleen Willey was offered various positions within the White House and given various international appointments.

- Pulling FBI files: Something Nixon took flack for only inquiring about, Clinton actually did. Hundreds of FBI files, dating back to members of the Reagan administration, were mysteriously in the hands of Clinton’s Chief of Security.

- Lying: Lied to his wife, a jury, and the American people repeatedly and emphatically about everything listed above. Or, rather, he "did not recall."

- Selling the White House: Sold "coffees" with the President and overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom, where millions were raised for the Democratic Party in violation of campaign laws.

- More Lying: Lied about affairs and/or inappropriate sexual conduct regarding Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey and most likely Sally Perdue and Dolly Browning. Denied the rape allegations of a highly credible Juanita Broderick. There probably would be more, but "whistleblowers" of this sort don’t get the glowing media attention that people who out really insidious people like Richard Nixon or military personnel do.

And that still leaves using the IRS to audit enemies, Travel-gate, Watergate, The McDougals, Webster Hubbel, most of the rest of the Clinton’s friends winding up with long prison terms, Foster-gate, sketchy campaign contributions from Chinese interests who mysteriously received favorable policy returns, and the general problem of unleashing Hillary Clinton upon the world. And this is just what I remember off the top of my head. It’s been awhile.

Daschle and the SD MSM

The Democrats were all over Tom DeLay for his activities with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Yesterday SDP posted a WaPo column that ties the Daschle campaign to dealings with Abramoff’s regarding Native Americans. Even CBS News is on this:

Republicans weren’t the only ones to benefit from embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff's political activities, The Washington Post reports. Several Democrats – including some of the biggest names on Capitol Hill – also received campaign contributions from Indian tribes channeled through Abramoff's lobbying firm.

Abramoff is under federal investigation amid allegations he overcharged tribal clients by millions of dollars, and his ties to top Republicans, like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are under increasing scrutiny.

But Abramoff and his associates at the Greenberg Traurig law firm also directed donations to leading Democrats. Among them: former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; his successor, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see the Abramoff controversy impact both parties," Tony Raymond, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine.com, told the Post.

But where is the South Dakota MSM on this. I saw nothing in the Argus Leader. Surprise Surprise. If this involved John Thune, I would bet the front-page headline would be "Thune campaign involved with embattled lobbyist".

But the AL does have this letter to the editor that said this:

Thune paid bloggers to smear Sen. Daschle.

Now Thune says, "If I walked on water, there are some people who would say, 'See, he can't swim.'" I hope Mr. Thune can get his messiah complex under control.

When you decide to unseat the most powerful politician this state has ever known using dirty, deceitful tactics, you are going to be criticized.

I was not a paid blogger for John Thune. All I did was report on all the stuff that the Argus Leader refused to tell South Dakotans about Tom Daschle’s darker side. Today is just another example of the AL refusing to tell the people of South Dakota how Daschle got some of his campaign funds. And in an earlier post, I detailed how the funds are being used today to smear John Thune by using lies and dirty deceitful tactics.

We should expect the South Dakota MSM to do some digging and ask some of the bloggers, who are spreading the anti-Thune BS from the Democrats, if they are receiving some of this dirty money. But I would not be holding my breath.

More on Daschle’s hate campaign

SDP has the FEC filing that shows the Daschle campaign paid $2,000 to Hildebrand Tewes Consulting, Inc of Sioux Falls during the month of March. Steve Hildebrand is the campaign manager of Tom Daschle and in February Roll Call reported that he is now also heading up the Democrat’s opposition to the President’s Social Security reform:

Hildebrand and Tewes, both of whom specialize in field work, recently formed a new political consulting firm that will serve as the nerve center of Americans United to Protect Social Security. The firm will be known as Hildebrand Tewes.

On an anti-Thune web site whose author is not identified, a post contained an April 11, 2005 press release from South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security that stated this:

With the first hearings on the future of Social Security planned for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee later this month, concerned South Dakota citizens have formed a new statewide coalition called South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security with the sole objective of defeating President George W. Bush’s expensive and risky scheme to privatize Social Security.

The release tells us more about Hildebrand’s role:

Steve Hildebrand, a South Dakota native, who is serving as co-manager of the national campaign for Americans United, will also head up the South Dakota effort.

"It’s unfortunate that Senator Thune has agreed to be the President’s ‘point man’ in promoting a risky investment scheme that would slash our guaranteed benefit by 45 percent and explode the national debt by $5 trillion. That’s just not a ‘South Dakota value’ we share with the Senator. Instead of carrying the President’s water on this terrible plan, John Thune should tell the Senate Finance Committee what the people of South Dakota certainly believe – privatization is a bad deal for South Dakotans," said Hildebrand.

On another anti-Thune web site you will find a post by Chad Schuldt, paid Daschle campaign staffer, with pictures of an April 26, 2005 protest at Thune’s Sioux Falls office that the group organized. The media coverage did not point out Hildebrand’s ties to a group that used lies, such has the benefits being guaranteed (Supreme Court ruled otherwise in 1960) and the posters whined "Hands Off My Social Security" (the private accounts are to be voluntary). Here is an excerpt from the Aberdeen News who published the Carson Walker AP report:

As Congress took up President Bush's request to draft Social Security legislation Tuesday, people against the proposed changes protested in front of Sen. John Thune's downtown Sioux Falls office.

They carried yellow printed signs that said, "Hands Off My Social Security," and handmade signs such as, "Don't Piratize Social Security."

The group wants Thune, a Republican freshman, to sign a pledge opposing any plan that allows young people to invest retirement money in private accounts.

The most recent government forecast predicts that in 12 years, Social Security trust funds will begin paying out more in benefits than it takes in. In 2041, the trust funds will be empty, and benefits will have to be cut.

The protesters said it's not that bad.

Instead of disclosing who was behind the protest, the report went on to quote people who are in the seventies. The plan is not to impact the benefits of those older than 55. But to the Democrats and their allies in the MSM, facts should not get into the way of a good pro-Democrat story. And today, a good pro-Democrat story is one that is full of lies and hatred that are directed at John Thune.

Bill Clinton is whining

[Editor’s note: For those Google News users looking for the "Kranz and Hildebrad two years ago" report, here is the link.]

The liar says he is innocent:

President Bill Clinton told NBC's Brian Williams tonight charges brought against him by the House of Representatives were false, contradicting a plea bargain deal he made with Independent Counsel Robert Ray that he admit he gave false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury.

In a blistering attack on Ray's predecessor, Kenneth Starr, Clinton accused the independent counsel of persecuting innocent people, indicting them because they wouldn't lie and assaulting the Constitution.

"I was acquitted," he told Williams. "And ... the charges that the House sent to the Senate were false. So I did a bad thing. I made a bad personal mistake. I paid a big price for it. But I was acquitted because the charges were false."

There was no follow-up by Williams.

The articles of impeachment passed by the House in 1998 included the accusation that he lied under oath. Yet, Clinton admitted Jan. 19, 2001, as part of his deal with Ray, he had lied under oath while testifying about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"I tried to walk a fine line between acting lawfully and testifying falsely," he said in a written statement. "But I now recognize that I did not fully accomplish that goal and that certain of my responses to questions about Ms. Lewinsky were false.

But then check out this book:

What injustices did women who got tied up with Bill Clinton suffer? What kind of tactics were used against them? What really happened between Clinton and the many women whose names have hit the media in the last 15 years?

Those questions and more are answered in clear detail in Candice E. Jackson's new book, "Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine," which covers many of Clinton's "womanizing" cases and explains why, with his wife eyeing the White House, we should still care about them.

Said Kathleen Willey: "Candice E. Jackson's rendition of my story is the most accurate portrayal of my experience with Bill Clinton that has yet been published. I appreciate her painstaking attempt to express the true nightmare Bill and Hillary put me through."

Added Juanita Broaddrick, whose story is told in an excerpt on WND: "Candice E. Jackson presents a complete chronological account of the events surrounding Bill Clinton's violent assault on me. People need to remember this side of Clinton before writing him up as a hero for women."

In a groundbreaking examination of the accounts of seven women, Jackson, who describes herself as a libertarian feminist, examines how the former president and his inner circle wielded vast power to discredit and destroy the former objects of his desire. Instead of passing moral judgment on Clinton, Jackson relies on extensive research and firsthand interviews to document the intimidation and harassment unleashed on these individuals.

Jackson, a victim of rape herself, uses her own experience to analyze that of Broaddrick and others.

She also presents a cogent rebuke of modern-day liberalism and explains why it enables men in high places to abuse their power.

States promotional material for "Their Lives": "The pattern of threats, bribes, and coercion that this book uncovers reveals not only a cold-blooded willingness on the part of Clinton, his wife and their inner circle to maintain power at any cost, but it also exposes the undeniable connection between Clinton's misogynist tendencies and his liberal agenda. 'Their Lives' is a wake-up call to women everywhere to re-evaluate this ruthless man and to come together to prevent Hillary Clinton, a willing partner in her husband's attacks, from returning to the White House."

Read Chapter 8 of Jackson's expose.

Another Dem & MSM double standard

From Rush Limbaugh:

Could you imagine, folks, let's go back to the Lewinsky and the impeachment era of the Clinton administration. Can you imagine if the FBI director or the number two in command at the FBI had leaked stuff from the Clinton investigations to the Washington Times? Can you imagine what would happen to that guy today, Louis Freeh or the number two man at the FBI at that time? If they had leaked stuff to the Washington Times or some other conservative newspaper, the mainstream press would call this a constitutional crisis and they would set out to destroy the leaker. They would set out to destroy the leaker. And, in fact, one of the prosecutors that was on Starr's team is named Brett Kavanaugh, and he is one of the names that the Democrats have vowed to filibuster. He's one of the names that President Bush has nominated for a seat on the appellate court. And why do they say that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed? Because he leaked! Kavanaugh was a leaker, the Democrats say. He leaked things from the Starr investigation. And of course that would be the last straw. Now he's not going to be fit for confirmation, perhaps even a floor vote in the US Senate, because he was a leaker from Starr's investigation. That would be the last straw. The liberals would demand the FBI be closed forever if somebody like Felt in the current FBI were leaking things about Bill Clinton. That would have been the end of the FBI as far as the press was concerned. The FBI would be no better than the US military today, or Gitmo, and they would be on a systematic mission here to destroy it and put it out of business. You know, we had the news on the program yesterday that Felt had been pardoned, and I found it interesting that for most of yesterday and last night, no major media outlet or even cable news show mentioned his conviction for ordering illegal break-ins. What did he do? He investigated the Weather Underground during the volatile '60s and '70s and did so without getting search warrants from a judge. He and another man were convicted of this. They were pardoned by Ronald Reagan because of the great work that they had done for America during that period of time, but at no point was his conviction mentioned in the glowing coverage of W. Mark Felt last night.

Thune considering legal action on BRAC

From the Rapid City Journal:

If the Pentagon doesn't deliver base-closing data soon, the issue could land in court, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday.

"I'm going to have some discussions with some fellows about legal action or some sort of injunctive relief," Thune told reporters crammed into the small reception area of his Rapid City field office.

The South Dakota Republican was in Rapid City for a planning session with the Ellsworth Task Force — a group of government and business leaders who hope to rescue Ellsworth Air Force Base from the Pentagon's closing list.

The Defense Department announced its recommended base closings May 13. Thune said that by failing to release data supporting those recommendations, the Pentagon may have violated the 2001 Base Realignment and Closure law.

The Defense Department says classified data must first be purged from the list.

Thune said the purge should have been done before the list was released. The delay was "unconscionable," he said. "They've been working on this for years."

Daschle the back stabber

McCain should think twice about making a deal with Democrats. Rush provides us with how Tom Daschle reacted to Trent Lott’s friendly show of bipartisanship:

I mean, let's not forget who Trent Lott was. Trent Lott, after the disputed election of 2000, and this has nothing to do with Connie Mack, gave the Democrats an equal number of committee chairmanships because of the fisticuffs practically, going on after the Florida aftermath. People were just fit to be tied. The Democrats were out there saying, "Bush is illegitimate. He was selected, not elected." They're still saying that, by the way, and so Lott, to try to extend a hand of friendship and to show his Democrat buddies that he's a good guy and a reasonable guy, split committee assignments. Now, he didn't need to do this because with Dick Cheney on any tie vote, we could break it with the vice president, 51/50. And then after Lott did that, Tom Daschle, to show his appreciation for the magnanimity then went over and convinced Jumpin' Jim Jeffords to leave the Republican Party so it became 50/49 won and the Democrats ran the place without Cheney's tie vote. That's Trent Lott.

Sibby Online linked by Google News

I have been getting hits from a Google News search on Tom Daschle due to my post on Hildebrand and Kranz, but the identity refers to South Dakota Politics. Hmmm

Kranz and Hildebrand two years ago

[The above is the front-page of the May 25, 2003 Sunday issue of the Argus Leader. It was the extensive effort by David Kranz to discredit Paul Erickson, one of the Republicans who was to organize the Daschle Accountability Project. The report went on to consume the entire page 4A.]

As I said in an earlier post, the issue of accountability provides us with the kind of double standards that I have noticed in regard to the Democrats and their advocates in the MSM. Thus is the case with Steve Hildebrand, Tom Daschle’s former (?) campaign manager and David Kranz, the Chief political reporter for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

On May 26, 2005, David Kranz used his column to provide Steve Hildebrand with a platform to justify his efforts to discredit John Thune:

Responding to questions about his postelection actions, Hildebrand told Roll Call that Democrats will monitor Thune in the Senate.

"There are people with progressive voices in South Dakota who care tremendously about what happens in this state, and if he fails in any way to deliver for this state, we're going to call upon him to explain it to the voters here," Hildebrand said.

Kranz also helped the Democrats deny that their efforts were coordinated in their anti-Thune efforts:

Daschle told Roll Call there is no orchestrated effort against Thune.

"I think it's kinda silly, actually," he said. "I haven't asked anybody (to attack Thune), nor do I know of any coordinated effort. ... What's past is past."

But two years ago when the shoe was on the other foot, David Kranz presented a different story. Here is the sequence of reports and columns the Argus Leader printed that discredited the Daschle Accountability Project as a negative anti-Daschle attack performed by a bunch of political activists that were connected at the hip to John Thune:

• Group seeks $800,000 for anti-Daschle media blitz

That was the headline to an April 28, 2003 front-page-above-the-fold report by David Kranz that first broke the news about the Daschle Accountability Project. Note the reference to "anti-Daschle" and here was the opening paragraph:

Two Sioux Falls political activists are teaming up to raise more than $800,000 to pay for a yearlong media blitz in South Dakota aimed at helping defeat Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle in the 2004 election.

Kranz’s tone was far from presenting a report on a group that is aimed at holding Daschle accountable. And neither was Steve Hildebrand who was quoted:

"In 2002. South Dakota saw several of John Thune’s out-of-state special-interest friends come into the state and run attack ads against Senator Tim Johnson and Senator Tom Daschle, It looks like in 2003, they are again being invited back to attack Senator Daschle," Hildebrand said.

• Republicans disapprove of anti-Daschle ad campaign

That was the title to David Kranz’s May 4, 2003 column. The tone set by the state’s largest paper had even the leadership of the state Republicans running for the hills...as was gleefully reported by Kranz:

I am trying to stay as far away from that as possible," says Randy Frederick, of Hayti, state Republican Party chairman.

"I don't want to get close to those folks because they are so negative, and that is not what the South Dakota Republican Party and I are all about. You can have a good, honest, hard campaign about issues, but you don't have to be caustic."

While the Argus Leader’s reporting buckled the South Dakota Republican leadership, ABC CBS, and CNN were among those that repeated Kranz’s propaganda at the national level. This led the way for the national Democrats to tie in John Thune. On May 14, 2003 the Rapid City Journal reported on this press release:

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee drew former Republican Congressman John Thune into the battle between the nonprofit Sioux-Falls-based Rushmore Policy Council and Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

DSCC Chairman Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., issued a news release calling on Thune to "disavow" the Rushmore Policy Council and its ballyhooed "Daschle Accountability Project." Rushmore Policy Council Director Rob Regier and colleague Paul Erickson were in Washington, D.C., last month trying to raise about $1 million to pay for a humorous TV campaign chiding Daschle for his policy positions.

• Democrats link Thune to anti-Daschle ad campaign

That was the headline to the David Kranz report that covered the Corzine press release a full week before the above RCJ piece (May 7, 2003) showing Kranz's eagerness to carry the Democrats' water. Kranz's report included this Corzine quote:

"If he [John Thune] doesn’t [speak out against the plan], he should forgive us if we don’t see it as a coincidence that both he and his close political friends have set up non-profit groups that are nothing more than shell games to advance their political interests, " Corzine said.

Perhaps someone should report the same point in regard to the Democrats’ "South Dakotans United To Protect Social Security" today. Maybe someone should do what Kranz did two years ago.

In his May 11, 2003 column, Kranz announced the entry of Neal Tapio into the 2004 Senate race, and then Kranz tried to create a guilt-by-association connection between the two conservatives he had earlier discredited:

Tapio described himself as a philosophical Republican who is a fiscal and social conservative.

His newspaper ad directs readers to a Web site - sdakotagop.com -where there was once a list of people involved in the project. In addition to Tapio's name, listed as Neal T, others were Paul E., small businessman; Rob R., administrator; Kenyon G., administration; and Grant H., insurance. Last week, all names disappeared.

Their mission statement: "We are an active group of lifelong South Dakotans that are a not-for-profit organization established to promote and defend principled candidates who support the Reagan vision of limited government, free markets, lower taxes, family values, economic growth and a strong national defense."

Daschle's campaign has criticized the sdakotagop.com Web site as an extension of the effort to launch the Daschle Accountability Project forwarded Rob Regier of the Rushmore Policy Council and Paul Erickson. That plan got substantial media coverage around the United States in the last week, but Regier now says they do not plan to implement it.

But wait…Kranz continues:

Now that there is a possible Senate candidate, South Dakota television viewers will also get a chance as early as this week to see some anti-Daschle television commercials.

Club for Growth, visible in the state during the 2002 election cycle with spots criticizing Daschle, are making buys with a new message.

Stephen Moore, head of that organization, came to the state to discuss his plan and sought to recruit members at a gathering in a motel meeting room reserved for Erickson's business.

So David Kranz and Steve Hildebrand had a different take when it was Senator Daschle who was going to be held accountable. Instead Kranz was helping out the Daschle campaign by controlling the political atmosphere by turning any attempt to hold Daschle accountable for the positions he took in DC into a negative anti-Daschle attack by political extremists.

As the picture at the top of this post shows, Kranz was even allowed to discredit Paul Erickson on the front-page of a Sunday edition of the Argus Leader with an exhaustive report that included the sub-headline "Paul Erickson stands up for the Republican right wing".

After witnessing how Kranz helped Tim Johnson in 2002 by using Tony Dean to misinform the masses on the gun issue…and now in 2003, Kranz was preventing conservatives from talking about what Tom Daschle does in DC with regard to important issues…I went to work and began researching Kranz.

Just after becoming the Managing Editor on the Mitchell Daily Republic in 1976, Kranz wrote a column bragging about his college days with Tom Daschle. On May 29, 2003 I made this revelation known by posting it:

In a 9/4/1976 column in the Mitchell Daily Republic, Dave Kranz announced:

More familiar faces are returning from other parts of the country to South Dakota. Tom and Laurie Daschle, aides to Sen. James Abourezk in Washington have been reassigned to Abourezk’s Sioux Falls office.

Daschle is formerly of Aberdeen and his wife is the daughter of PUC commissioner Mrs. Norma Klinkel. We went to college with Daschle at South Dakota State University and worked together on a mock political convention.

Daschle masterminded one of the most successful participation events by students of an unrequired nature when he headed the political science department’s convention project. Well over 650 students got involved in the event which was patterned after the Democratic convention that year because of the general interest.

I remember our tireless search to find a renowned public speaker to address the convention such as McGovern, McCarthy, Humphrey or some other prominent Democrat. With no takers, we finally found a popular young state senator from Salem to address the group. His name was Richard Kneip.

After that revelation, David Kranz got his wings clipped a little by not being allowed to report on the 2004 Senate race. But his pro-Democrat bias is alive and kicking today. Kranz is not calling Hildebrand a far-left Democrat operative spearheading an anti-Thune attack campaign funded by Daschle’s out-of-state special interests. Kranz is not going into all the Daschle staffers who are involved in a cabal with Hildebrand featured on the front-page of a Sunday Argus Leader as the Democratic left winger out to get the guy from Murdo, South Dakota.

Todd Epp’s hypocrisy is sky high

Todd Epp says this about John Thune’s vote against the Democrat lead filibuster of the Bolton nomination:

This is another example of Thune's flim-flam. He gets to thump his chest on how he's getting tough with the Administration while flip flopping to vote against Bolton. Flip flopping because a month ago he said he supported Bolton. But on the vote that counted--should the Senate be a co-equal branch of government and be given all the necessary documents in the confirmation process--Thune continued to be a good soldier for the White House by giving them his vote.

How tough acting is that? If he really wanted to send them a message, why not vote against the White House on both votes?

Todd, Todd, Todd. Remember the Daschle Dead Zone? Wiken did. If Thune voted to filibuster Bolton, wouldn’t the Democrats then be calling Thune a flip-flopper on the issue of the filibuster on Bush nominations? This just goes to prove that the Democrats don’t care what Thune does, they are going to hate it one way or the other.

In the meantime Epp ignores Tim Johnson’s vote to stop the filibuster of Priscilla Own, but then votes against her the next day. Why isn’t Todd Epp complaining about Tim Johnson not voting against the White House on both votes? Because Tim Johnson is a Democrat. Also note that Tim Johnson wasn't the only Democrat that did not vote against the White House both times. Perhpas they were worried about becoming "Daschled".

I am so happy the far-left blogosphere is here giving us more ammunition on the sad mindset of the Democrat Party. This should make it even easier for Republicans to win future elections.

I just wish I had days off all the time, so that I can hold the Democrats accountable full time. And then maybe Todd Epp would stick to soccer full time. Congrats on your soccer success Todd. Hope you had fun.

After thought: Notice how Epp used an unidentified "Washington insider" as an expert to give credibility to a false accounting of Thune’s actions. This is typical of what the MSM does. Anyone want to bet against the insider being a Democrat?