She hasn’t even announced yet, although that seems imminent, and they’re after her, the Huffington Post particularly---who just published their 2nd hit piece on her. Tonight, on a day when Mathew Whitaker proved his asshole credentials in an important congressional hearing, the HP chooses to lead w/aides complaints against Amy Klobuchar. I mean with their big block buster headline:
www.huffingtonpost.com/…
This is their 2nd major hit piece on Klobuchar, both in the last few days, and right before she made it clear she will probably be announcing this Sunday.
I’ll leave it up to you to read the article I linked as I don’t want to give more gas to this, but many WILL want to give more gas to it, and they will use it against her. ALL accusers in HP’s slam pieces are anonymous, except for Harry Reid, who the head line sites, who says he has no memory of this. Whatever.
Klobuchar has never wicked any of this kind of reporting till now, a couple days before her announcement. She is widely respected in Minnesota and has been easily re-elected time after time, without a whiff of this kind of reporting. In addition, if surely anecdotal, my brother in law worked with her for years and has nothing but great things to say about her.
Now, you may or may not be interested in Klobuchar as a presidential candidate, she may not be your flavor du jour as the Dems load the bleachers with candidates. That is not the point of this diary---who you currently support or don’t.
The point of this diary is FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS, because OPPO isn’t waiting for the candidate to emerge, or even the top three or four candidates to emerge. It’s going to be a very long 18 months till the presidency.
And I am furious that Klobuchar is being accused of things unsubstantiated by anyone willing to go on record, and trust me or read it for yourself, they all have to do with being a tough boss. Now, maybe she is a tough boss. Maybe her sunny self masks a hard driver under the surface, wouldn’t surprise me.
But how many male senators do you think are “tough bosses?” How many male senators do you think you could dig up disgruntled aides to give anonymous dirt on how hard it is to work for them?
So OK, running for president is tough, and everyone can expect to catch some flak from their history, including men. But the nature of the complaints against Klobuchar, again unsubstantiated and without ONE person who will put their name on them, seem particularly the kind of complaints one lobs at women, not men. Like being “shrill” or “bossy”, or “demanding,” etc etc, all things long accepted from men, if not particularly liked.
I remember reading a piece about Obama from a former aide, who actually named himself, and I wish I could access it but it was quite awhile ago. He said of Obama something to the effect of “you DO NOT want to see Obama’s angry, disappointed face looking at you. He gives a lot and he asks a lot, and he’s not real understanding when you don’t measure up to his idea of what should have happened.” No problem right? This is just the way it is with strong bosses, and easily understood when those bosses are male and brilliant.
Not so easily understood when those bosses are female and brilliant. And whatever you think of her, Amy Klobuchar is smart as a whip, and has much respect in the legal community she started out in here, all around and from both sides of the aisle.
Was talking to my brother in law about this tonight and he was gob smacked by this hit piece. He admits Amy is a driver and like Obama, she’s going to ask as much from you as she asks from herself.
But this isn’t about sexual abuse, or criminal accusations, or accusations of corruption---something that goes on all day, every day with so many republicans I’ve lost count. Including today when Whitaker did everything he could to thumb his nose at congress in the most disrespectful way and avoid answering in any substantive way.
And yet the Huff Po’s headline is about former aides of Klobuchar’s whaaa, whaaaa, whaaaaing without the courage to put their name behind their accusations.
Yeah, I know the Huff Po is the Fluff Po, but their readership is huge. They are baiting the hook and trying to see who will follow. And Amy won’t be the last.
I am curious as to why they chose her? Why not Harris? And again to be clear, I’m not talking about “covering” a candidate, or even a not quite yet candidate, I’m talking about making anonymous aide complaints their super d duper headline on the day over Whitaker’s testimony?!?!?
Seems to me we’re in for one hell of a ride, particularly with our female candidates. If you think they got it out of their system with Hillary, or those times have past, think again.
Because I think it’s going to be brutal out there for our female presidential candidates all over again, and we better get used to hitting their putrid pitches back, fast and hard.
Update: poster informed me my link didn’t work, and so I went back and edited it. In that time, they had moved the Amy piece under the major headline. Don’t know how long the Amy dominates the page head was up, but now it is right under the main headline