Kurt Nicklas
2013-08-06 11:22:58 UTC
<"What does it really matter??">
GOP tries to damage Hillary Clinton ahead of 2016 election
By Alexander Bolton - 08/06/13 05:00 AM ET
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/315651-gop-tries-to-damage-hillary-
clinton-in-advance-of-2016
Republicans have begun trying to damage Hillary Clinton?s political
image ahead of her expected 2016 White House bid.
The GOP calculates that it needs to make an early start in ramping up
public scrutiny of Clinton ? and that it will be too late if it waits
much longer.
The party assumes Clinton will announce a presidential campaign in early
2015 but sees that preparations are well underway and fears that the
media have already begun to rally to the Democratic banner.
Its efforts are intended to make sure Clinton does not have the same big
head start in 2016 that President Obama enjoyed in 2012. And it is
focused on the media, which Republicans fear will rally to Clinton?s
cause in the same way it embraced Obama in 2008.
As an initial step, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus on Monday pushed back against what he worries is the positive
narrative beginning to take shape around Clinton.
He sent letters to the heads of NBC and CNN calling on them to cancel
their plans to air a miniseries and a documentary, respectively, that
one GOP official called ?infomercials? for Clinton.
Priebus warned that if the networks do not cancel the programming by
Aug. 14, he will seek a vote of the RNC to end its partnership with them
for the 2016 Republican primary debates.
?Their actions to promote Secretary Clinton are disturbing and
disappointing,? Priebus said in a statement. ?I hope Americans will
question the credibility of these networks and that NBC and CNN will
reconsider their partisan actions and cancel these political ads masked
as unbiased entertainment.?
Conservatives were dismayed by the media?s coverage of the 2012
presidential cycle, which focused on the squabbling of the Republican
primaries, and treated Obama, in their view, sympathetically. Republican
delegates who attended the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida, were
greeted by a billboard sponsored by the conservative Media Research
Center, urging them: ?Don?t believe the liberal media!?
?Your company has expressly stated that your choice to air the
miniseries in the near future would avoid concerns of running afoul of
equal time election laws,? Priebus wrote to Robert Greenblatt, the
chairman of NBC Entertainment. ?This suggests a deliberate attempt at
influencing American political opinion in favor of a preferred
candidate, not to mention a guilty conscience.?
Priebus told Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide: ?Your
credibility as a supposedly unbiased news network will most certainly be
jeopardized by the decision to show political favoritism and produce an
extended commercial for Secretary Clinton?s nascent campaign.?
The networks seemed caught off guard by the sharp criticism.
CNN said the RNC should reserve judgment until it knows more about the
Clinton documentary. ?Should they decide not to participate in debates
on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation
seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters,? CNN said in a statement.
NBC News distanced itself from the Clinton miniseries, which is to star
Diane Lane.
?NBC News is completely independent of NBC Entertainment and has no
involvement in this project,? NBC said in a statement.
A Republican official said Priebus?s letter highlights GOP concerns the
media will give Clinton an edge. ?Our job is to ensure that the best
playing field created for our candidates to compete,? said the official.
The Republican official said the letters to CNN and NBC were not
intended as an effort to tear down Clinton but acknowledged the party
needs to begin chipping away at her popularity.
A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday showed Clinton and Chris
Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, the two ?hottest?
politicians in the country right now.
Republicans have tried to dim Clinton?s star by linking her to scandal-
marred New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. GOP strategists have
highlighted ties between Clinton and Weiner, who is married to Huma
Abedin?s, one of Clinton?s top aides.
In a memo to reporters Friday, a group of GOP communications strategists
faulted Clinton for not disavowing Weiner.
?Hillary Clinton, has stayed mum about all of it. For someone who has
not-so-veiled aspirations to lead her party, she?s failed to show any
leadership in publicly denouncing Weiner?s habits or his candidacy,?
they wrote.
Republicans say they want to ratchet up the scrutiny on Clinton to
create fatigue among voters by the time she launches her bid in 2015.
?The GOP worries that they won?t have the opportunity to get a fair
shake with a large majority of the voters to make their case by the time
they actually have a Republican presidential nominee,? said Ford
O?Connell, a GOP strategist who worked on Sen. John McCain?s (R-Ariz.)
2008 presidential campaign.
?The whole case that Hillary?s trying to make that there?s something
distinct and historic about her candidacy,? he added. ?She wants to make
Hillary 2.0 become History 2.0, meaning the first black president
followed by the first woman president.? The GOP wants to say, ?Not so
fast,? he added.
Republicans have sought to keep the attack on the U.S. mission in
Benghazi, Libya, in the news in an effort to maintain scrutiny on
Clinton.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the attack, which happened while
Clinton was serving as secretary of State, has emboldened al Qaeda.
?They attacked our consulate, they killed an ambassador, a year has
passed, and nobody has paid a price,? he told CNN Sunday. ?After
Benghazi, these al Qaeda types are really on steroids thinking we?re
weaker and they?re stronger.?
Graham predicted earlier this year that Clinton will held partly
responsible for the breakdown in security, which resulted in the death
of ambassador Chris Stevens.
?Benghazi is right at the list of challenges that Secretary Clinton will
face. It happened on her watch and there are a great many remaining
unanswered questions,? said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist and
pollster.
Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked on Al Gore?s 2000
presidential campaign, said Republicans are going negative because their
party brand is too tarnished to run a positive message.
?It reflects the lack of a coherent strategy or an overarching brand for
the Republican Party,? he said. ?They don?t have a lot that they
themselves can talk about that is affirmative or that voters are looking
for. So they default to what is a line of attack that presumably works
with their own base voters.?
He said the lines of attack would have limited traction beyond the GOP?s
base.
GOP tries to damage Hillary Clinton ahead of 2016 election
By Alexander Bolton - 08/06/13 05:00 AM ET
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/315651-gop-tries-to-damage-hillary-
clinton-in-advance-of-2016
Republicans have begun trying to damage Hillary Clinton?s political
image ahead of her expected 2016 White House bid.
The GOP calculates that it needs to make an early start in ramping up
public scrutiny of Clinton ? and that it will be too late if it waits
much longer.
The party assumes Clinton will announce a presidential campaign in early
2015 but sees that preparations are well underway and fears that the
media have already begun to rally to the Democratic banner.
Its efforts are intended to make sure Clinton does not have the same big
head start in 2016 that President Obama enjoyed in 2012. And it is
focused on the media, which Republicans fear will rally to Clinton?s
cause in the same way it embraced Obama in 2008.
As an initial step, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus on Monday pushed back against what he worries is the positive
narrative beginning to take shape around Clinton.
He sent letters to the heads of NBC and CNN calling on them to cancel
their plans to air a miniseries and a documentary, respectively, that
one GOP official called ?infomercials? for Clinton.
Priebus warned that if the networks do not cancel the programming by
Aug. 14, he will seek a vote of the RNC to end its partnership with them
for the 2016 Republican primary debates.
?Their actions to promote Secretary Clinton are disturbing and
disappointing,? Priebus said in a statement. ?I hope Americans will
question the credibility of these networks and that NBC and CNN will
reconsider their partisan actions and cancel these political ads masked
as unbiased entertainment.?
Conservatives were dismayed by the media?s coverage of the 2012
presidential cycle, which focused on the squabbling of the Republican
primaries, and treated Obama, in their view, sympathetically. Republican
delegates who attended the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida, were
greeted by a billboard sponsored by the conservative Media Research
Center, urging them: ?Don?t believe the liberal media!?
?Your company has expressly stated that your choice to air the
miniseries in the near future would avoid concerns of running afoul of
equal time election laws,? Priebus wrote to Robert Greenblatt, the
chairman of NBC Entertainment. ?This suggests a deliberate attempt at
influencing American political opinion in favor of a preferred
candidate, not to mention a guilty conscience.?
Priebus told Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide: ?Your
credibility as a supposedly unbiased news network will most certainly be
jeopardized by the decision to show political favoritism and produce an
extended commercial for Secretary Clinton?s nascent campaign.?
The networks seemed caught off guard by the sharp criticism.
CNN said the RNC should reserve judgment until it knows more about the
Clinton documentary. ?Should they decide not to participate in debates
on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation
seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters,? CNN said in a statement.
NBC News distanced itself from the Clinton miniseries, which is to star
Diane Lane.
?NBC News is completely independent of NBC Entertainment and has no
involvement in this project,? NBC said in a statement.
A Republican official said Priebus?s letter highlights GOP concerns the
media will give Clinton an edge. ?Our job is to ensure that the best
playing field created for our candidates to compete,? said the official.
The Republican official said the letters to CNN and NBC were not
intended as an effort to tear down Clinton but acknowledged the party
needs to begin chipping away at her popularity.
A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday showed Clinton and Chris
Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, the two ?hottest?
politicians in the country right now.
Republicans have tried to dim Clinton?s star by linking her to scandal-
marred New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. GOP strategists have
highlighted ties between Clinton and Weiner, who is married to Huma
Abedin?s, one of Clinton?s top aides.
In a memo to reporters Friday, a group of GOP communications strategists
faulted Clinton for not disavowing Weiner.
?Hillary Clinton, has stayed mum about all of it. For someone who has
not-so-veiled aspirations to lead her party, she?s failed to show any
leadership in publicly denouncing Weiner?s habits or his candidacy,?
they wrote.
Republicans say they want to ratchet up the scrutiny on Clinton to
create fatigue among voters by the time she launches her bid in 2015.
?The GOP worries that they won?t have the opportunity to get a fair
shake with a large majority of the voters to make their case by the time
they actually have a Republican presidential nominee,? said Ford
O?Connell, a GOP strategist who worked on Sen. John McCain?s (R-Ariz.)
2008 presidential campaign.
?The whole case that Hillary?s trying to make that there?s something
distinct and historic about her candidacy,? he added. ?She wants to make
Hillary 2.0 become History 2.0, meaning the first black president
followed by the first woman president.? The GOP wants to say, ?Not so
fast,? he added.
Republicans have sought to keep the attack on the U.S. mission in
Benghazi, Libya, in the news in an effort to maintain scrutiny on
Clinton.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the attack, which happened while
Clinton was serving as secretary of State, has emboldened al Qaeda.
?They attacked our consulate, they killed an ambassador, a year has
passed, and nobody has paid a price,? he told CNN Sunday. ?After
Benghazi, these al Qaeda types are really on steroids thinking we?re
weaker and they?re stronger.?
Graham predicted earlier this year that Clinton will held partly
responsible for the breakdown in security, which resulted in the death
of ambassador Chris Stevens.
?Benghazi is right at the list of challenges that Secretary Clinton will
face. It happened on her watch and there are a great many remaining
unanswered questions,? said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist and
pollster.
Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked on Al Gore?s 2000
presidential campaign, said Republicans are going negative because their
party brand is too tarnished to run a positive message.
?It reflects the lack of a coherent strategy or an overarching brand for
the Republican Party,? he said. ?They don?t have a lot that they
themselves can talk about that is affirmative or that voters are looking
for. So they default to what is a line of attack that presumably works
with their own base voters.?
He said the lines of attack would have limited traction beyond the GOP?s
base.