Politico's Ben Smith: Clintonites, Arnoldite, with management against the Writer's Giuld

[flpoljunkie]

Let's see, stand with the writers or stand with Viacom's Sumner Redstone and his ilk. I'll take the writers every time!

Clintonites, Arnoldite, with management

My West Coast colleague Jeffrey Ressner emails over a press release from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers -- that is, the networks -- announcing some new consultants in the writers' strike:

The AMPTP has retained Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane of Fabiani & Lehane LLC and Steve Schmidt of Mercury Public Affairs to assist in communicating the industry's proposed New Economic Partnership.

Lehane and Fabiani are partners from their days in White House damage control in the late 1990s, and are close to Hillaryland.

Schmidt ran Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 campaign.

Ressner explains:

The networks and studios are losing the PR war big time. The WGA has been doing photo ops, posting YouTube videos and getting their points out there night and day, while the AMPTP has largely been trying to deal with the press behind the scenes. With the arrival of these big political guns, things could change.

It's a slightly awkward perch for a Democrat: All the candidates are firmly on the union's side, and are refusing to cross picket lines.

"I support the Writers Guild’s pursuit of a fair contract that pays them for their work in all mediums," Clinton said in a statement when the strike began.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1207/Clintonites_Arnoldite_with_management.html

[blm]

1. Chris Lehane tried to sabotage Kerry campaign peddling the 'young girlfriend' story

He used it in 2000 to keep Gore from selecting Kerry for VP and tried to start it up again after Kerry won Iowa. The RW picked it up by NH and Drudge ended up running with it.

Chris Lehane was fired by Kerry in early 2003 - remember he claimed his laptop was STOLEN out of an open car in San Francisco - it only contained ALL of Kerry's campaign data.

Gee - why would a loyal Clinton operative act like that to another Democrat in 2000 and 2004?

[mod mom]

8. hmmh...why would a loyal Clintonite act like that to another Dem in 2000 & '04?

My best analysis:

The failure of the DLC to acknowledge Gore's win in 2000 (in fact they blame his "loss" on breaking with the DLC and becoming a populist-i'll post a link below) and their active role in keeping Kerry from challenging Ohio in 2004(thanks to Clinton ally James Carville (also posted below) was calculated as to allow a HRC run in '08. If either would have taken the office they won, then HRC and her corporate cronies would not have had a chance in 2008. Also look how they try to undermine Howard Dean. Anyway, here are some links:

FIRST..GORE BROKE WITH THE DLC TO BECOME A POPULIST:

Published on Sunday, August 20. 2000 in the Boston Globe
Thank You, Al Gore
by Robert Kuttner
A funny thing happened to Al Gore on the way to his surprisingly effective acceptance speech. He became a liberal.

The speech was as liberal as anything FDR or LBJ or Jesse Jackson or one of the Kennedys might have delivered. It was built around a commitment to fight for ordinary people, against large and powerful interests. This, of course, is precisely what made it effective.

The emotional heart of the speech, Gore's honoring of four ordinary American lives, did not just salute the struggles of workaday families, the way Ronald Reagan often did. It identified who was dishonoring their struggles - corporations. He singled out heartless HMOs who pressure a family to sacrifice a child; drug companies that force a pensioner to choose between food and medicine; corporate polluters; corporations that pay workers inadequate wages.

And he identified the solution: strong, reliable public Social Security; better Medicare; welfare reform that rewards work rather than punishing the needy; higher minimum wages; and more investment in public - not voucher - schools, so that working families don't have to send kids to crumbling classrooms.

What is the evil? Corporate power. What is the remedy? Effective government.

-snip
http://www.commondreams.org/views/082000-105.htm

SECOND, AFTER GORE'S WIN THEY BLAME HIS 'LOSS' ON BREAKING WITH THE DLC:

Strange Theory on Why Gore Lost



The so-called Democratic Leadership Council has decided that Al Gore should have acted more like a Republican in order to win the 2000 presidential electoral college vote in addition to his nationwide popular vote victory. This strange finding has drawn some attention, including coverage by the Associated Press and the Environmental News Service -- we have a few excerpts from their reports for you here.
Al Gore, the self-styled environmental candidate in the 2000 Presidential election, lost his bid for the White House because he campaigned on an outdated "populist" platform that was too liberal for most Americans, according to a new report drafted by the Democratic Leadership Council.

The 40-page report, titled "Why Gore Lost, And How Democrats Can Come Back," concludes that the Democratic Party must move towards the political right -- towards the Republicans -- if it wants to regain control of Congress in 2002 and the White House in 2004.

Al From, the DLC's founder and CEO, opened a freewheeling discussion forum by arguing that Democrat Al Gore made a huge tactical mistake by continually emphasizing that he would "fight for the people and not the powerful" as the nation's first president of the 21st Century.

-snip

http://www.progress.org/goredlc2.htm

AND FINALLY, CLINTON ALLY JAMES CARVILLE'S ROLE IN THE QUICK KERRY CONCESSION:

Did Carville Tip Bush Off to Kerry Strategy (Woodward)


By M.J. Rosenberg | bio




On page 344, Woodward describes the doings at the White House in the early morning hours of Wednesday, the day after the '04 election.

Apparently, Kerry had decided not to concede. There were 250,000 outstanding ballots in Ohio.

So Kerry decides to fight. In fact, he considers going to Ohio to camp out with his voters until there is a recount. This is the last thing the White House needs, especially after Florida 2000.

-snip

"Carville told her he had some inside news. The Kerry campaign was going to challenge the provisional ballots in Ohio -- perhaps up to 250,000 of them. 'I don't agree with it, Carville said. I'm just telling you that's what they're talking about.'

-snip

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

RESEARCH THIS FOR YOURSELVES, BEFORE YOU CAST A VOTE FOR ANY DLC CANDIDATE!

[Cha]

9. Super analysis, mod mom..

And, anyone who's been paying attention the last 7 year(especially with all the resources DU has to offer) has noticed this shite!

Thank you!~

[mod mom]

15. I came to DU never having heard of PNAC. Now not only do I know of them but...

I realize they have ties to a segment of the Democratic Party-the DLC.

You're welcome. :hi: We've got to stop the corporatists!

[Cha]

17. Ever feel like

"David" in that Biblical story?

:hi:

[blm]

21. In that trench with you, mod mom.

;)

[AtomicKitten]

16. excellent analysis

:thumbsup:

[snowbear]

19. Seriously?

Chris Lehane started out with the Clark campaign back in the '04 election, but I didn't know he tried to sabotage Kerry's campaign..

What a grudge holder..

[blm]

22. Lehane started out with Kerry camp and got FIRED shortly after the 'stolen laptop'

incident where he supposedly left his laptop with ALL Kerry's campaign data on a carseat and it was stolen.

He then went to Clark campaign and used the girlfriend rumor around those folks, who probably thought he had inside info.

[AtomicKitten]

2. Chris Lehane has already exhibited how low he is prepared to go -

as author of the 2004 Kerry smear.

[AX10]

3. Chris Lehane is the crap from a horse's ass.

PIG!

[Renew Deal]

4. These guys are the scum of the earth.

They're working against working men and women to protect unearned profits of the industry. Writers should be paid for their work.

Are these the kinds of people Hillary wants on her camaign?

[blm]

6. Isn't Penn union-busting specialist?

Makes me even more certain that Chris Lehane was put INTO both the Gore and Kerry campaigns by the Clinton camp.

[mod mom]

7. Right you are blm:

Isn't it Time for Mark Penn to Leave Burson-Marsteller?
Posted November 12, 2007 | 11:18 AM (EST)


My colleague at The Nation, Ari Berman, has done more than any journalist to shine some light on how pollster-strategist Mark Penn, head honcho at PR giant Burson-Marsteller, and perhaps the most important figure in Hillary Clinton's campaign, poses a real dilemma for the candidate. Penn heads a firm that has represented everyone from union busters to big tobacco, and more recently Blackwater. (According to a Marsteller spokesperson, it was a subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, run by GOP operative Charlie Black, which helped Erik Prince prepare for congressional hearings after his employees killed civilians in Iraq).It would seem difficult to find a more controversial client than Blackwater but Penn's firm has just been retained by Spin Master.

Who is Spin Master? It turns out that Spin Master distributes Aqua Dots, a toy that was recalled last week because it contains a glue ingredient that when ingested is broken down by the body to make GHB, the "date rape" drug, which can cause unconsciousness and even death. (The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the number of children sickened by Aqua Dots has risen from two to nine in the past week.)

Penn has repeatedly stated that he has no direct contact with controversial clients like Blackwater or unionbusters. But what about the good old-fashioned American principles of responsibility and accountability -- principles which his candidate likes to invoke on the campaign trail? As Ari Berman has pointed out, the dilemma for Clinton is that Penn's firm represents many of the interests whose influence she has vowed to curtail. But as kids get sick from poisonous toys, how can Clinton keep in her corner, as her chief strategist, a man who has even limited involvement with a firm like Burson-Marsteller? Isn't it time that Clinton ask Penn to choose: my campaign to make this a safer country or a PR firm which has too many clients undermining that agenda?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katrina-vanden-heuvel/isnt-it-time-for-mark-pe_b_72206.html

[Cha]

11. I remember chris lehane

after Gore was ousted by the coup. He was on one of those propganda stations saying "they would come back and fight again". He'd given me hope then but I've found out over 7 years that things certainly aren't usually what they freakin' seem.

[blm]

13. Exactly - I have no doubt that Lehane was working AGAINST 2000 and 2004 Dems

in an effort to keep the WH open for 2008.

[Cha]

14. It would be so

just desserts if the hillary campaign was hoisted on their own powerful petard.

[hedgehog]

18. The real question is what is Penn's role in the Clinton camp?

Does he merely analyze polls and suggest tactics or does he provide policy advice? What would be his role in a second Clinton White House?

[blm]

20. HOW TO shove fascist policies down our throats using focus-group tested spin

just like Rove and Luntz.

[Me.]

5. Too Late

They’ve already lost the PR battle, especially as they aren’t bargaining in good faith.


From Nikki Finke.

What This Strike Doesn't Need: More PR

“The AMPTP announced today it has retained Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane of Fabiani & Lehane and Steve Schmidt of Mercury Public Affairs "to assist in communicating the industry's proposed New Economic Partnership." All I can say is, Big Media is nuts if it really thinks at this late date it can win the hearts and minds of the public at large. Or start distributing YouTube videos about the writers as "greedy millionaires".

But I'm convinced something else is at work here, given the high-level political ties of both flackeries: the Hollywood CEOs want to ensure that neither Congress nor the FCC nor even the Justice Department come after them on the thorny issues of media consolidation, unfair business practices, and funny accounting. More than the writers or the directors or the actors guilds, that scares them shitless. (See my previous, Mr. WGA Goes To Washington With SAG and Writers And Producers Tried To Hire Joe Lockhart).

Fabiani and Lehane have a long history in Democratic politics, serving as senior aides and advisors to President Clinton, Vice President Gore and other Democrats across the country. (But didn't they also rep California guv Grey Davis and lose?) They have also been very active in flacking sports teams and leagues (NHL) and movies (Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko).

Schmidt is a close advisor to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who also
served as his campaign manager in 2006. He also provides high-level counsel to majorcorporations, including Hollywood studios and professional sports teams. Schmidt also served in high-ranking posts with the Bush White House, serving as the lead strategist on the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. Schmidt has served on presidential campaigns and dozens of other campaigns at the national, state and local levels”

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/just-what-this-strike-doesnt-need-pr/

[Cha]

10. I'd like to see how

far anyone gets with bad writers. Great Writers are the heart and soul of any show that isn't "reality".

I'm sure the actors appreciate them even if the money grabbers don't.

[TheWraith]

12. Fuck them, and anyone who looks like them.

There's really no middle ground here. The WGA is making entirely reasonable requests, and the producers simply don't want to deal because they don't want to give up any fraction of the internet revenues.

[Simeon Salus]

23. Nick Counter hates American Political Satire (perhaps for a living)

The 1988 Writers Guild strike went on for 22 weeks. If this strike goes on for just 14 weeks, the primary season will be over, and Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Conan O'Brien will have been effectively self-silenced the entire time. Bravo, Nick Counter. Well played.