This is a bunch of excerpts for all the emotional folks out there that think things really are different these days. James Carville was always a favorite of mine. Not because I was a Democrat, but because I admire tough SOB's who know a fight when they see one and fight to win. Since he went to LSU just assume he lives by the SEC motto: "If you ain't cheaten, you ain't tryen."
Carville may have been the first Clinton partisan to attack the independent counsel publicly, but it's clear that the anti-Starr propaganda machine had been under construction for some time. As early as 1995, says former Clinton confidant Dick Morris, George Stephanopoulos and other administration strategists were devising ways to discredit Starr. (Stephanopoulos has everyone convinced he is an unbiased reporter now. Pretty funny actually.)
There’s going to be a war” against Starr, the Clinton strategist James Carville declared in early 1998. An unnamed White House aide told The New York Times that a recent spate of political attacks had been “part of our continuing campaign to destroy Ken Starr.”
Another Clinton operative, Paul Begala, blasted Starr as “corrupt,” “out of control” and mounting a “witch hunt.” “I think we need a truly independent investigation of the investigation itself,” Begala added.
Clinton lawyers blasted Starr for leaking. They openly questioned his personal motives and cast aspersions on his team of prosecutors. They said his probe was taking too long and costing too much. Clinton’s attorney general actually did investigate the investigator, launching an inquiry into allegations of misconduct by Starr’s team.
Clinton’s wife even famously insisted that her husband had become the victim of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Destroying a person's reputation is messy work, and not everyone in the White House enjoyed it. "Whenever I went off the facts and into attacks on Starr, I felt very uncomfortable," says Lanny Davis, who must have spent much of his tenure as special counsel to the president feeling uncomfortable.
Criticism of his plans, Carville added, is only likely to energize him. "It's okay to attack the president but it's not okay to defend the president?" he said heatedly. "I'm not playing by those rules!"
"I'm going to be there to diminish the political impact of the report," James Carville says bluntly. "That's been my strategy from Day One. On the day Starr releases that report, the stronger the president is and the weaker he is, the better we are."
Under Clinton, the attacks often were personal: Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, trashed Starr as a “federally paid sex policeman spending millions of dollars to trap an unfaithful spouse.”
In 1998, Sidney Blumenthal, then a Clinton White House strategist, blasted Starr deputy Hickman Ewing as “a religious fanatic who operates on a presumption of guilt.”
"As with mosquitoes, horseflies, and most bloodsucking parasites, Kenneth Starr was spawned in stagnant water. " - Carville
Clinton wound up issuing one pardon related to the investigations into his conduct: In the final hours of his presidency, he pardoned Susan McDougal, a former business partner who was jailed for 21 days for refusing to testify against him in the federal Whitewater probe, which focused on an Arkansas real estate investment Clinton made in the 1970s. The probe was officially closed by the time of McDougal’s pardon.
Ironically, it's obvious Trump is using the Bill Clinton - James Carville strategy against Mueller, but since the Clintons and Trump used to hang out it's not surprising. The country survived the big "impeachment" of Bill and it will survive Trump. So just relax and enjoy the show. For the record I thought the Starr investigation was BS and I think this one is as well. But, alas, wasting time and tax payers money is what Washington does best.
Carville may have been the first Clinton partisan to attack the independent counsel publicly, but it's clear that the anti-Starr propaganda machine had been under construction for some time. As early as 1995, says former Clinton confidant Dick Morris, George Stephanopoulos and other administration strategists were devising ways to discredit Starr. (Stephanopoulos has everyone convinced he is an unbiased reporter now. Pretty funny actually.)
There’s going to be a war” against Starr, the Clinton strategist James Carville declared in early 1998. An unnamed White House aide told The New York Times that a recent spate of political attacks had been “part of our continuing campaign to destroy Ken Starr.”
Another Clinton operative, Paul Begala, blasted Starr as “corrupt,” “out of control” and mounting a “witch hunt.” “I think we need a truly independent investigation of the investigation itself,” Begala added.
Clinton lawyers blasted Starr for leaking. They openly questioned his personal motives and cast aspersions on his team of prosecutors. They said his probe was taking too long and costing too much. Clinton’s attorney general actually did investigate the investigator, launching an inquiry into allegations of misconduct by Starr’s team.
Clinton’s wife even famously insisted that her husband had become the victim of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Destroying a person's reputation is messy work, and not everyone in the White House enjoyed it. "Whenever I went off the facts and into attacks on Starr, I felt very uncomfortable," says Lanny Davis, who must have spent much of his tenure as special counsel to the president feeling uncomfortable.
Criticism of his plans, Carville added, is only likely to energize him. "It's okay to attack the president but it's not okay to defend the president?" he said heatedly. "I'm not playing by those rules!"
"I'm going to be there to diminish the political impact of the report," James Carville says bluntly. "That's been my strategy from Day One. On the day Starr releases that report, the stronger the president is and the weaker he is, the better we are."
Under Clinton, the attacks often were personal: Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, trashed Starr as a “federally paid sex policeman spending millions of dollars to trap an unfaithful spouse.”
In 1998, Sidney Blumenthal, then a Clinton White House strategist, blasted Starr deputy Hickman Ewing as “a religious fanatic who operates on a presumption of guilt.”
"As with mosquitoes, horseflies, and most bloodsucking parasites, Kenneth Starr was spawned in stagnant water. " - Carville
Clinton wound up issuing one pardon related to the investigations into his conduct: In the final hours of his presidency, he pardoned Susan McDougal, a former business partner who was jailed for 21 days for refusing to testify against him in the federal Whitewater probe, which focused on an Arkansas real estate investment Clinton made in the 1970s. The probe was officially closed by the time of McDougal’s pardon.
Ironically, it's obvious Trump is using the Bill Clinton - James Carville strategy against Mueller, but since the Clintons and Trump used to hang out it's not surprising. The country survived the big "impeachment" of Bill and it will survive Trump. So just relax and enjoy the show. For the record I thought the Starr investigation was BS and I think this one is as well. But, alas, wasting time and tax payers money is what Washington does best.
