Longtime Hillary supporter Jane Hamsher from FireDogLake may not be a Hillary supporter after today.
The Huffington Post headline reads "Hillary Slams Democratic Activists." I'm being told that Hillary Clinton was caught on tape disparaging Barack Obama because he's being supported by MoveOn, and that they opposed military action in Afghanistan.
I've tried to stay out of the pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other progressive organizations -- this is completely unacceptable.
I defended Hillary Clinton when she refused to bow to right wing pressure and condemn MoveOn over the "General Betrayus" ad (and was sad when she finally capitulated). MoveOn are valuable progressive partners, who have been with us on Donna Edwards, net neutrality, trying to bring an end to the war, FISA and other issues we've been fighting for. - Jane Hamsher
CONT'D
They've accepted the challenge of organizing the left in the virtual arena and done an amazing job that the right struggles to replicate. They now have 3 million members, of which I'm one. And their skill at online organization and movement building has developed a model that both of the Democratic candidates have been able to replicate and learn from, acting as a democratizing influence and making candidates more responsive to the public at large and less to high dollar donors.
MoveOn didn't oppose military action in Afghanistan but I did. Not because I thought it was the wrong thing to do but because I was quite certain George Bush would bungle it and we'd just wind up spending billions on a bunch of junk that would make his buddies rich and a lot of poor people in the poorest country in the world would die senselessly. And I was right.
Does Hillary Clinton not want my vote either?
Somebody posted this at DU without a link. I'm trying to find the actual story.
Huffington Post has Huge Drudge-Like headline of DEVELOPING: HILLARY SLAMS DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS.........
I just did a Google search on some of the text of Hamsher's post. It was in fact on FireDogLake but appears to have been deleted.
Firedoglake
I've tried to stay out of the pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other ... By: Jane Hamsher Friday April 18, 2008 12:00 pm ...
firedoglake.com/?ts=1208562563 - 20 minutes ago - Similar pages - Note this
As I'm sure you already know MoveOn was originally called Censure and Move On. Their original purpose?
"Immediately Censure President Clinton and Move On to pressing issues facing the country."
Story is finally up at HuffPo
At a small closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party -- and MoveOn.org in particular -- for many of her electoral defeats, saying activists had "flooded" state caucuses and "intimidated" her supporters, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by The Huffington Post.
"Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. 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. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, 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." - HuffPo
Audio of Clinton's statement is in the link.
Who's whining now Hillary?
UPDATE: Hamsher has reposted a modified version of her original post here.
And to be clear... since this diary is on the rec list. Obama supported going into Afghanistan
And one final video before this diary slides off the rec list thanks to everybody's favorite video sleuth Jed of the JedReport. The following is Bill Clinton praising MoveOn in 2004.