Sunday, March 7, 2004

Dirt-Slinging's A-Comin' (2 of 2)

Bossie was a self-annointed investigative reporter who teamed up with Brown to write a 1992 book called Slick Willie: Why America Cannot Trust Bill Clinton. Blumenthal gives a detailed account of the ways in which this pair made an entrepreneurial business out of speading unsubstantiated claims and general sleaze about Bill Clinton. They were key players in getting the ball rolling on the "Vincent Foster was murdered" conspiracy theories. Blumenthal interviewed the pair in 1993 when he was working as a journalist, so his report includes his own original research into their antics. Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, the wife of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, was very helpful in "mainstreaming" that claim.

Blumenthal also writes, In discussing Jackie Bennett, one of the prosecutors on Ken Starr’s team who was known among his colleagues as “The Thug,” Blumenthal notes:

 In 1997, a reliable and respected investigative reporter in Washington for a major daily newspaper had told me at length of his relations with Jackie Bennett – and it wasn’t only about the leaks [to the press]. The reporter had been present at a meeting of Bennett with the inevitable David Bossie – a major source for scandal beat reporters who was by now working for Representative Dan Burton on the House Government Operations Committee. He observed Bennett and Bossie coordinating their politics, the Office of Independent Counsel planning tactics with the House Republicans. The reporter surmised from their familiarity that this was a regular practice – and he also thought it was a violation of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedures.

Marshall provides a link to their Website, and urges readers to go there "to get a taste of what's coming down the pike."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I checked out the website last night -- Citizens United. United for what? United against what? More of the same, I guess.
They have an anti-Kerry ad that got some attention today on CNN, then aired later in the day during the local newscast.

Anonymous said...

In practice, I think it's "United to Trash John Kerry." It's going to be a constant battle for Kerry to neutralized this nonsense and keep the real issues out front. CalPundit has a good summary about the the back-and-forth so far:
http://www.calpundit.com/archives/003443.html
He notes that his examples are just from one week, and concludes, "Eight more months to go." - Bruce