But like a battered, frightened, and intimidated spouse, every al-jazeernalist rationalizes it all away and says to herself, "My spouse really loves me. Look, I have the cuts and bruises to prove it!"

ichael Crowley, in his New Republic article subtitled "Clinton's strategy for crushing the media," says,

In January 1993, Hillary Clinton granted her first newspaper interview as First Lady. But, rather than agreeing to sit down with a national reporter to discuss issues of substance, Hillary would only meet with a food reporter from The New York Times — and then only to discuss her hostess duties. Later, other reporters who wanted to question her about policy were told to submit written questions. "Her ground-zero assumption is that [a reporter is] an asshole," a senior Hillary aide told her biographer, Carl Bernstein.

Clinton's wariness was forged by her husband's nightmarish experience on the 1992 campaign trail. Battered by stories about Bill's mistresses and financial dealings, Hillary seethed at the press and resolved to control their coverage. Bill disliked the press, too — but not with the loathing of his wife, who even tried to throw the press out of the White House itself. In January 1993, she and her friend Susan Thomases proposed to move the White House press room next door, to the sleepy Old Executive Office Building. When that scheme was deemed untenable, aides closed off a hallway connecting the press room to the West Wing. Outraged reporters pounced on press secretary George Stephanopoulos, who later recalled thinking, "I'm not your problem; Hillary is. ... [Bill] Clinton seems to be on my side. He asked me again this morning why we were closing the door. Um, have you talked to your wife about this, Mr. President?"

Hillary's first instinct was usually to stonewall the press. When New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth was first reporting on Whitewater in early 1992, rather than work with Gerth, Hillary insisted on giving him the figurative finger. Likewise, Hillary balked when The Washington Post asked to see private Whitewater documents in 1993. Bill Clinton favored compliance with the Post — but was overruled by Hillary, who implied she would rather "throw them all in the Potomac." [Or "off with their heads!" in the original German.] Former Clinton White House adviser David Gergen has called the decision "the decisive turning point" that convinced Washington the Clintons had something to hide.

To be fair, when Hillary did engage the press, she often got burned. When she ruminated to the The New York Times Magazine's Michael Kelly about spirituality, he produced a mocking cover story titled "Saint Hillary." Hillary later wrote that she had been "raw with grief" over her dying father, implying that Kelly had exploited her emotional vulnerability. In 1994, with questions swirling about a big profit she turned selling cattle futures, she agreed to meet with a clamoring media. Donning a memorable pink suit, she endured an hour of harsh [softball] questioning. Afterward, according to Gerth and Don Van Natta's recent book Her Way, Hillary told her aides the exercise had been futile. "They're not going to let up. They're just going to keep coming at us, no matter what we do." The sordid Monica Lewinsky scandal only affirmed Hillary's firm belief that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" had immense power over mainstream media coverage.

When Hillary embarked on her 2000 run for Senate in New York, she brought her antipathy toward the press with her and set new standards for media control. After the campaign, AP reporter Beth Harpaz wrote a book about her experience in which she described feeling at various times "humiliated," "paranoid," and "so worn down and so exasperated by the lack of access and the lack of news in this campaign that I'd given up fighting." Once, when Hillary sent a candy basket to the press van, the downtrodden reporters were incredulous, Harpaz wrote: "[N]one of us could believe that Hillary was being so nice to us."

[Emphases and links supplied.]

More about the Victim Candidate™:

Sieg Heil!ary

Hillary has been angry for over 40 years. It's not my job to make up for her poor marital choices by electing her President. Instead of owing her my vote because she's female, I owe the rest of my gender a vote against her because she sets a terrible example for all.
— Mary McLemore
Pike Road, Alabama

Last week, Hillary Clinton's campaign blamed her poor debate performance on sexism.

It was a maneuver that seemed suspiciously aimed at detracting from Hillary's lackluster showing whilst simultaneously shoring up her female support. But, ironically, it has had the opposite effect. Rather than fostering a sense of solidarity between women and the first credible female presidential candidate, Hillary's cries of discrimination have left many women cold, and with good reason. We've come a long way, baby — and Team Hillary seems not to have noticed.
— Liz Mair
"Big Girls Don't Cry," American Spectator (11/9/2007)

Despite an orchestrated Hillarygate defense, the American public seems not to be buying the argument that all is aboveboard when it comes to Whitewater and the 1993 firings and prosecutorial harassment of the White House Travel Office staff. In a just published NBC opinion poll, 53 percent of respondents agree with New York Times columnist William Safire that the first lady is lying about her personal finances and involvement in Whitewater, with just more than a quarter believing she is telling the truth.
— Susan Crabtree, Jamie Dettmer et al.
"Hillary and Bill: what is the state of their union?" Insight on the News (2/12/1996)

Then there's Her Nibs' victimization by, of all people, a little old lady. According to the New York Slimes,

A spokesman for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton declined to comment on Mr. McCain's response [to a little old lady calling Mrs. B.J. al-Qlinton a b*tch]. But some of her advisers said they were surprised that he had not defused the moment more artfully [Like this, perhaps?], given the possibility that it might stir sympathy or outrage on Mrs. [BiIsIs] Clinton's behalf in some quarters.

Some of her allies have accused her male Democratic opponents of ganging up on her in their last televised debate.

Now even nadless Demetrosexualic Party "men" are capable of "ganging up on her"? Who'll be next? A tiny gang of 8-year-old girls?

"Whaaaaah. A bunch of wussified males and a little old lady are victimizing me! Whaaaaah."

Way to show you're "tough," Your Nibs.

If you can't stand the heat, go back in your kitchen and bake a few more cookies for your lying, cheating "husband" on whose career you've been riding piggyback all these years.

If slings and arrows from either these "males" or a little old lady are enough to wither you and leave you crying, what're going to do when terrorist-in-chief Osama bin Laden starts flinging very real ones at you?

Cry some more? Do another flip-flop?

Wimp.

Maybe we can find you a frailer, 100-year-old lady who won't have any chance of turning you into a complete and total wreck. Or, better yet, simply let you again beat up a battered and abused spouse "a**hole" reporter, like you did Wolf Bootslicker & "Gang" last night in your rigidly scripted, questions-planted presidential "debate" al-Qlinton Nibs Network "God Save Our Queen" sycophancy.

That'd be more your speed, Ms. HillI-R-Victim al-Qlinton.

Never forget that the first woman ever chosen prime minister of Great Britain could be no one less than the independent, self-made Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. Lest we become embarrassingly shallow and frivolous by comparison, the first woman president of the United States of America and first woman leader of the free world (rather than disgraceful laughingstock of it) should at the very least and truly be just as self-made and independent.

Not the nepotistic, spouse-made I, Bill, Without Whom You'd Be Nowhere, "Lady" — or Irate Monotone "Lady" — or "Asbestos Pant Suit" "Lady" — or IfOr Obfuscation "Lady" — or I'm On The Take From Red China "Lady" — or I'm Just A Victim (Not At All A Convincingly Viable Presidential Candidate) "Lady."

Labels: clue-challenged liberals (BIRM), dinosaur media, elitist despot liberals (BIRM), megalomaniacal liberals (BIRM), narcissist liberals (BIRM), Victimhood Inc.

	6:55 PM

Comments (registered users)