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Week of March 2, 2008 - March 8, 2008

You've been vetted? Really Senator Clinton? *


Even as Hillary Clinton's operatives were dropping hints that Republicans would exploit Barack Obama's youthful drug use, some Clinton insiders privately worried about her own vulnerability because the Bush administration possesses detailed knowledge of her movements - and her husband's - over the past seven years.

The Clinton campaign has outlined a strategy whereby they throw the kitchen sink at Obama and hope it makes the superdelegates just nervous enough that Obama might have some undiscovered scandal somewhere that they choose not to "roll the dice" for him and, instead, overrule the popular and delegate majorities to install Clinton as the nominee.  This "he's unknown; I've been vetted" strategy seems to finally have gained some traction, at least in the press interpretation of Tuesday's results.  But Obama has been under intense scrutiny from two tough Chicago papers since he was elected as a state senator there and they have poured over every bit of the Rezko issue and have been unable to find any evidence that he did anything unethical or illegal. In the end, both newspapers enthusiastically endorsed his candidacy.

Meanwhile, of course, we do "know" a lot about Clinton.  We know about travelgate, whitewater, Monica, the Lincon bedroom, Sandy Berger's pants, and all of the other things, real and unreal, that the GOP will gleefully bring up in the general election.  But those are all from their days in the white house.   But is that all there is?  What about the GOP appointed prosecutor, and Rove super-buddy, Tim Griffen, whom Bush installed in Arkansas as part of the prosecutor firing scandal?  Could he have been installed to try to dig up more dirt about the Clintons?  Do you want to roll the dice that he didn't manage find anything new?  

And what about this story (quoted above) from last year that did not get nearly the attention it deserved?   The article reminds us that the Secret Service who have been following both the Clintons around for the last eight years reports directly to Clinton-arch-nemesis, whitewater prosecutor, and homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff.  For the past eight years, "Records [have been] maintained showing where they go and whom they meet."

Though Secret Service records are supposed to be closely held secrets, a source close to the Clintons told me that it is believed that senior Republicans have received regular briefings about movements of the Clintons that might prove embarrassing if released during the general election campaign.

Superdelegates, this is what you have to ask yourselves: Do you want to choose what's behind door number one, the candidate whose biggest scandal is that one of his Illinois fundraisers might be corrupt? Or do you want to roll the dice with door number two, and bet that neither Hillary nor Bill did anything, nor met with anyone in the last eight years that the Republicans might just be chomping at the bit to expose in the general election? And do you want to bet also that the Rove-installed prosecutor did not uncover anything incriminating in Arkansas? 

I know who I'm putting my money on.

* Since we're quoting SNL these days.

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boo_lala

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