Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com The Barnyard: Juicy Red Meat

Friday, January 18, 2008

Juicy Red Meat

Ooooh this is rich and its only going to get sweeter as more gets released, memos from Hillary's '93 task force on healthcare are starting to be released under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch. No wonder the Clinton's didn't want these getting out because they are a damning indictment of their power tactics to force the plan on America including the personal destruction of opponents and collaboration with the media on how to sell it. I think they are being released a little early but it is mountains of ammunition for the GOP to use against them.
Michelle, Hot Air and Captains Quarters all have excerpts and commentary.

A June 18, 1993 internal Memorandum entitled, “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by someone with the initials “P.S.,” makes the startling admission that critics of Hillary’s health care reform plan were correct: “I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?… none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…”

• A “Confidential” May 26, 1993 Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform. The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism. Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”

• A February 5, 1993 Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux detailing the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign. The memorandum notes the development of an “interest group data base” detailing whether or not organizations “support(ed) us in the election.” The database would also track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, “biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.”

Lots more at Judicial Watch linked above.

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