Report: Clinton slams Democratic activists at private fundraiser Mike Sheehan

Published: Friday April 18, 2008



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Print This Email This Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had harsh criticism for the "activist base" of the Democratic Party during a private fundraiser for her campaign, The Huffington Post reports.



"We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party," said Clinton, heard on an audio clip at Huffington. "MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers.



"[T]hey are very driven by their view of our positions," continued Clinton, "and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."



Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, which officially endorsed Obama's candidacy this February, released the following statement to Huffington in response to the report: Senator Clinton has her facts wrong again. MoveOn never opposed the war in Afghanistan, and we set the record straight years ago when Karl Rove made the same claim. Senator Clinton's attack on our members is divisive at a time when Democrats will soon need to unify to beat Senator McCain. MoveOn is 3.2 million reliable voters and volunteers who are an important part of any winning Democratic coalition in November. They deserve better than to be dismissed using Republican talking points. Reaction among progressive bloggers has been swift.



Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake writes that she's "tried to stay out of the [Clinton-Obama] pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other progressive organizations -- this is completely unacceptable. 'MoveOn opposed military action in Afghanistan' is a Republican talking point, articulated specifically and purposefully by Karl Rove."



Quips Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (a.k.a. Kos) at Daily Kos, "Well, for a campaign that has morphed into nothing but 'Republican talking points,' it shouldn't come as any surprise."



Jonathan Singer at MyDD says that "even more astounding than Clinton's specific attacks on MoveOn, a grassroots organization founded to defend her husband against the Republican power-grab that was the 1998 impeachment, an organization that is made up of more than three million activists, most of whom are diehard in their loyalty to the Democratic Party, is the fact that Clinton is maligning the Democratic base, specifically those who have been driven to the polls at least in part in response to the Iraq War."



Oliver Willis writes, "You don't become the nominee of the Democratic/progressive movement by undercutting the Democratic/progressive movement."



The full story is available at this link.