Here we go! First they lie, then they "investigate" the lies, then when no one is looking they admit that "oops, yes, we lied."
Today's serving of slop comes from Rep. Ted Poe, who is determined to lead the march to Swiftboat Hillary Clinton in 2016:
On “The Sam Malone Show” this week, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Tex., said that Congress will launch an investigation into Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation based on the findings of the book “Clinton Cash,” in which right-wing activist Peter Schweizer suggests that the former secretary of state used her role in the State Department to benefit foundation donors.
The book has faced a bevy of criticism for its sloppy reporting and false allegations, but Poe told Malone that “Congress will investigate yet one more scandal. We need to hire a whole department just to investigate the Clintons and the Clinton scandals. There is going to be some investigation about it.”
Poe accused the Justice Department of unfairly investigating Tea Party groups such as True the Vote, time he said would have been better spent investigating the Clinton family.
True the Vote deserved everything they got and more. Spare me the boo-hooing over them.
Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the Swiftboat Hillary 2016 campaign, as Peter Daou says:
Similarly, the full-scale barrage hitting the Clinton Foundation is the result of a complicated interplay among conservative oppo shops, rightwing authors, GOP politicians and the mainstream media, with the latter acting, once again, as a legitimating force. I am not impugning the integrity or motives of reporters. What I am saying is they are playing a central role in the anti-Clinton attacks.
The unacknowledged hallmark of true swiftboating is that we fail to recognize the damage before it is too late, primarily because of our natural human tendency toward denial. We simply cannot fathom that a foundational element of our self-worth is being dismantled before our eyes. Unlike previous Clinton faux-scandals, this is about the very core of Hillary’s positive impact in the world.
Perhaps a major donor to the Clinton Foundation can rebut Rep. Poe better than I:
After the panel on Wednesday, [Mo] Ibrahim told reporters he thought the scrutiny of the foundation was “obviously” a result of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. “The problem is your country is so polarized,” he told POLITICO. While he said some scrutiny of the foundation was justified, he added, “I hope people ask the question also what the foundation is doing with its money. If Saudi money goes to help poor farmers in Tanzania, I mean, is that a wonderful thing?” Ibrahim said the lack of media focus on the foundation’s work “just begs the question was that fair scrutiny or is that a political assassination process?”
Asked if he thought it was the latter, Ibrahim declared “absolutely!”
And then there's this from Media Matters:
Now, Murdoch media outlets are trying to turn Clinton Cash into a brand; a self-sustaining scandal machine like the ones they built to distract Bill Clinton in the 1990s. It's a very old playbook.
"Strident House Republicans have been on one continual witch hunt since the 1994 takeover of the House," The Atlantic's Michael Hirsh noted in 2012. Writing at the time about the endless Fast and Furious investigation sponsored by House Republicans, Hirsh noted the investigation was "more light than heat" and that Republicans have been playing that same hand for years:
Unfortunately, it all takes a toll if only in terms of distraction. How many people actually know what Hillary Clinton does, or doesn't stand for today? Is it just bundled up in the mixture of smears she's endured for years on end?
It won't stop with Hillary. If they can dig any dirt on Bernie Sanders, they will. If they can't, they'll just make stuff up and get the media to go along with it, just like they have to Hillary.
If there is to be an investigation, it should be into how Rupert Murdoch has corrupted the media.
