Vast right-wing conspiracy
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"Vast right-wing conspiracy" was a phrase used by then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1998 in defense of her husband President Bill Clinton and his administration during the Lewinsky scandal, characterizing the Lewinsky charges as the latest in a long, organized, collaborative series of charges by Clinton's political enemies.
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[edit] The Today Show interview
Allegations that Bill Clinton had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and then lied about it under oath, first made national headlines on January 17, 1998, when the story was picked up by The Drudge Report. Despite swift denials from President Clinton, the clamor for answers grew louder. On January 27, 1998, Hillary Clinton appeared on NBC's The Today Show, in an interview with Matt Lauer.
- Matt Lauer: "You have said, I understand, to some close friends, that this is the last great battle, and that one side or the other is going down here."
- Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this — they have popped up in other settings. This is — the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
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[edit] Right analysis
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Hillary Clinton's allegations included attacks against independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who she claimed leaked information damaging to her husband.
The New York Times broke the story on the Whitewater Scandal in 1992 after one of its own reporters followed up on an Arkansas paper's coverage.[citation needed] The NYT began its investigation with the Madison Guaranty file at the Arkansas Securities Department. By September, the FBI—under Janet Reno—was investigating Jim and Susan McDougal, Madison Guaranty, and Whitewater Development Corporation.[citation needed]
The next year, nine criminal referrals relating to Whitewater hit the US Attorney's office and FBI in Little Rock. Three defendants—David Hale, Charles Matthews, and Eugene Fitzhugh—were indicted for fraud relating to Whitewater. By January of 1994 Clinton himself requested that Reno appoint a regulatory independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation, and Reno named Robert Fiske as independent counsel. Kenneth Starr, whom conspiracy buffs routinely accuse of trying to "get Clinton", wasn't appointed independent counsel until after Vince Foster's suicide in August.[citation needed]
It wasn't until July, two and a half years after the news of Whitewater broke, that Congress held hearings on Whitewater; the Democrats, from 1992–1994, had refused to do so while they held the majority.[citation needed]
Troopergate purportedly involved four Arkansas state troopers being employed by William Clinton to solicit sexual activities on his behalf. The four troopers later accepted money for the inclusion of their testimony in a book on the scandal; this monetary payoff has often been held up as proof that Troopergate was spun from whole cloth by Republican activists.[citation needed] One of the troopers was convicted in lying to the FBI in 2005 in an unrelated incident.[citation needed]
The sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Jones against William Clinton has often been derided on basis of the source of her legal funding, much of which came from Republican activists. It is claimed the Jones case did not warrant an independent prosecutor.[citation needed]
[edit] Later interpretations
David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal pundit, has said he was once a party effort to dredge up a scandal against Clinton. In 1993 Brock, then of the American Spectator, was the first to report Paula Jones' claims. As Brock explained in Blinded by the Right, after learning more about the events and conservative payments surrounding Paula Jones he personally apologized to the Clintons. He documented his experience in Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, wherein he alleged that Arkansas state troopers had taken money in exchange for testimony against Clinton which Brock had published in a previous book. Adam Curtis also discusses the concept in his documentary series The Power of Nightmares. Brock has confirmed Clinton's claim that there was a "Right wing conspiracy" to smear her husband, quibbling only with the characterization of it as "vast", since Brock contends that it was orchestrated mainly by a few powerful people.
Claims have also been made against Republican supporter and billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, whom former Clinton White House Counsel Lanny Davis once claimed was using his money "to destroy a president of the United States." Scaife claims to be public about his political spending (q.v. [1]). CNN stated in a study the news outlet conducted on Scaife, "If it's a conspiracy, it's a pretty open one."[2]
Hillary Clinton later said in her 2003 autobiography that, "Looking back, I see that I might have phrased my point more artfully, but I stand by the characterization of Starr's investigation [regardless of the truth about Lewinsky]."[3] Moreover, by 2007 Clinton was saying in her presidential campaign appearances that the vast right-wing conspiracy was back, citing such cases as the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal.[4]
[edit] Use in popular culture
As proof of Bill Clinton's affair and subsequent perjury came to light, the irony of Hillary's personal attack on his accusers led to the popular use of her term in an ironic context. In 2004, conservative lawyer Mark W. Smith wrote the Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, which came with a "membership card" that made its owner an "official member of the VRWC." A number of entrepreneurs are selling VRWC merchandise. [5] Similarly, a number of newspaper, magazine, and website articles have played on the phrase.[6][7]
Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show host and political pundit, has referred to his fan base as the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" and himself as "Mr. Big" of the VRWC. To taunt liberals and centrists further, he even went as far as distributing coffee mugs imprinted with "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy".
QubeTV has the slogan "Starring The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" on its website's masthead.
Darby Conley (cartoonist for the comic 'Get Fuzzy') produced a comic where Bucky Katt used the line "It's a right wing conspiracy!" then his compadre Satchel says "I wish I was in a vast chicken wing conspiracy"
[edit] See also
- The Arkansas Project
- Clinton Chronicles
- Troopergate
- Whitewater (controversy)
- List of political catch phrases
[edit] References
- ^ scaife.org
- ^ Who Is Richard Mellon Scaife? - April 27, 1998
- ^ Living History, p. 446.
- ^ Clinton: Vast right-wing conspiracy is back, MSNBC/AP, March 13, 2007
- ^ member "vast right wing conspiracy" - Google Product Search
- ^ "Wiring the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy", The New York Times Magazine, 2004-07-25.
- ^ The Clinton-McFarland Connection: A vast left-wing conspiracy?.
[edit] External links
- Washington Post, January 28, 1998 "First Lady Launches Counterattack"
- CNN, January 27, 1998 "Hillary Clinton: 'This Is A Battle'"
- The Leadership Institute
- Transcript of Hillary Clinton interview
- thevrwc.org (satirical site)
- http://www.vastrightwingconspiracy.com
- The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton
- CBS
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