New York Times Admits Hillary Has Attacked Women

Departing from the typically laudatory approach the paper has affected towards Clinton, The New York Times published a piece that highlights her treatment of the women said to be raped or otherwise taken advantage of by Bill. More specifically, the piece explicitly contrasts her pro-women rhetoric with her vindictive abuse of such individuals as Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones.

What’s particularly interesting about the article is that it details not just how Hillary sought to further ruin the lives of the women who already had them destroyed by her husband, but also how she defended and rationalized Bill’s behavior. Whether you think it’s the mark of a deeply-disturbed woman who will stand by her husband no matter what transgressions he commits or merely a cynical ploy to prop up his career long enough to kickstart her own, it paints Hillary in the poorest of lights:

“Years later, Mrs. Clinton would say she had thought her husband had conquered his weakness in the late 1980s. The comment came in an interview with Talk magazine in 1999, after the Monica Lewinsky scandal nearly brought down his presidency.

In that interview, as well as in conversations around that time with a friend, Diane Blair, she explained her husband’s straying: It was rooted in his childhood, when he felt pressure to please two women — a mother and a grandmother — who battled over him; he was under great stress; she herself had not attended to his emotional needs.

‘She thinks she was not smart enough, not sensitive enough, not free enough of her own concerns and struggles to realize the price he was paying,’ Ms. Blair wrote in her notes of their talks.

And, in Mrs. Clinton’s eyes, her husband’s encounters with Ms. Lewinsky were ‘not sex within any real meaning,’ she told Ms. Blair.

But in 1992, that unbending devotion to Mr. Clinton had an important effect. It had made a lasting impression on everyone around the couple, and helped keep the campaign from listing.

She did not falter, even when her aide, Richard Mintz, told her she would have to call Ms. Wynette, who had taken offense to the ’60 Minutes’ reference.

‘Was this what she wanted to do? No,’ Mr. Mintz said in an interview. ‘But she gathered herself together. She was composed and resilient.’

‘It was the toughest week you could ever imagine.’

The Digging Begins

Weeks later, a small group of campaign aides, along with Mrs. Clinton, met at the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, and they made a pivotal decision: They would hire Jack Palladino, a private investigator known for tactics such as making surreptitious recordings and deploying attractive women to extract information.

An aide to the campaign, who declined to be publicly identified because the aide had not been authorized to speak for the Clintons, said Mrs. Clinton was among those who had discussed and approved the hiring, which shifted the campaign to a more aggressive posture.

Mr. Kantor, the campaign chairman, said he did not know whether Mrs. Clinton had specifically approved Mr. Palladino’s employment as the other aide recalled. But he said that she had seen a need for outside help.

‘She believed we had to deal with the issue directly,’ Mr. Kantor said.

Mr. Palladino, who did not respond to requests for an interview, reported to James Lyons, a lawyer working for the campaign. In a memo that he addressed to Mr. Lyons on March 30, Mr. Palladino proposed a full-court press on Ms. Flowers.

‘Every acquaintance, employer, and past lover should be located and interviewed,’ Mr. Palladino wrote. ‘She is now a shining icon — telling lies that so far have proved all benefit and no cost — for any other opportunist who may be considering making Clinton a target.’

Soon, Ms. Flowers heard from ex-boyfriends and others who said they had been contacted by a private investigator.

‘They would say that he would try to manipulate them,’ Ms. Flowers recalled, ‘or get them to say things like I was sexually active.’

Karen Steele, who had worked with Ms. Flowers at the Roy Clark Celebrity Theater in Branson, Mo., was among those who received a visit. ‘I remember I got questioned about brothers Gennifer and I once dated,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t warm and fuzzy.’”

Source: NYTimes