The secret Clinton papers

Judicial Watch sued and got access to the Clinton papers for her health care task force. And some of the materials are quite revealing. Cal Thomas details what some of these papers revealed.

According to Judicial Watch, a June 18, 1993 internal memorandum entitled “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by someone with the initials “P.S.,” acknowledges that critics were correct when they questioned whether the plan would work. “I can think of parallels in wartime,” wrote “P.S.”, 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…”

Had a majority Democratic Congress and a sophisticated “Harry and Louise” television campaign not stopped her, we would now know the answer to that question, with potential catastrophic results for America’s health care system.

Seeking to impose an unworkable plan on an unsuspecting public was bad enough, but the pain Hillarycare supporters were prepared to inflict on opponents demonstrates insensitivity in the extreme. A “confidential” memorandum written on May 26, 1993 by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia Democrat, to Hillary Clinton was entitled “Health Care Reform Communications.” The Rockefeller memo suggests Hillary employ “classic opposition research” to attack critics who were excluded by the administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” to counter and overcome criticism. Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance (from the Clinton administration) on how to time and shape the (news) coverage.” Rockefeller seems to accept the notion asserted for years by conservatives that the mainstream media are biased in favor of Democrats and their policies. For many, this will not be a revelation.

A Feb. 5, 1993 Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux to Mrs. Clinton spells out the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign. It 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 Congress people.”

So they had a plan that they weren't quite sure would actually work but they were contemplating making personal attacks on leaders of interest groups who dared to oppose them. And Jay Rockefeller knew exactly what the relationship was between the media and the Clinton administration. The media “are anxious and willing to receive guidance (from the Clinton administration) on how to time and shape the (news) coverage.” I remember that rollout of her plan and how she appeared on all the morning news program and testified before Congress and got lovely coverage. And then conservatives launched what became an ultimately successful campaign exposing all the weaknesses in her plan and were able to bypass the MSM. Remember Harry and Louise? And ultimately, despite all the Clinton strategizing, the Democratic Congress didn't even bring it up for a vote.