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So it begins—the revival of the right-wing’s get-Hillary crusade.
The conservative outfit Citizens United, which in 2008 released the anti-Hillary Clinton film that led to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed restrictions on supposedly independent political spending for federal campaigns, is working on a new flick assailing the former secretary of state, and it will be released just in time for the next presidential campaign.
On Tuesday, I bumped into David Bossie, the president of Citizens United, and asked what he was up to these days. He said something vague. And another Hillary Clinton film? I asked. Well, yes, he said, we are working on that.
“What’s it going to be called?” I inquired. “‘Hillary: The Benghazi Years’? Or ‘Hillary: Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi’?”
“Oh, she’s not going to get off so easy,” one of Bossie’s colleagues interjected, meaning that the film would not be limited to the right-wing Benghazi narrative. Bossie explained: “It will be all of the State Department years.”
“No Vince Foster?” I inquired, referring to the Clinton-era right-wing conspiracy theory that Hillary was somehow involved in the supposedly suspicious (though it really wasn’t) suicide of the Clinton White House’s top lawyer. In those days, Bossie was a hyper-active investigator for a right-wing congressman who was enthusiastically digging into the Foster suicide and other purported Clinton scandals. Bossie eventually was forced out of the job after he manipulated evidence in one of the anti-Clinton inquiries.
No, Bossie said, nothing on Foster; they’re sticking to Clinton’s stint as secretary of state.
Bossie and Citizens United’s original trash-Hillary documentary—titled Hillary: The Movie—recycled well-worn Clinton tales: Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and possibly others; alleged corruption in the White House travel office; campaign finance shenanigans related to Hillary’s 2000 Senate race; and the conspiracy theory that the Clintons tried to smother information indicating that Bill Clinton had failed to kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance. It was filled with right-wing talking heads: Dick Morris, Robert Novak, Larry Kudlow, and others. The film darkly hinted that Clinton operatives had even killed the cat of a woman who accused Bill of sexual assault.
Despite Bossie’s best intentions, the poorly-distributed movie had no discernible impact on the 2008 election. (Hillary did not lose the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama because of this movie.) But that was not the end of the story. Citizens United tried to run television ads touting the film during the election season—the ads were essentially anti-Hillary spots—and federal law prohibited such independent campaign spending that directly targeted a candidate. Citizens United sued the Federal Elections Committee, and the Supreme Court used this case to overturn a century-old precedent and blew up the limits on independent campaign expenditures by corporations, nonprofits, and unions. This led to an humongous increase in special interest spending designed to influence House, Senate, and presidential contests—with a majority of these dollars deployed to assist Republican candidates.
Bossie, perhaps the top Clinton-chaser of the past two decades, had set out to destroy the presidential prospects of Hillary Clinton and failed. But his film ended up triggering the Supreme Court case that remade the political campaign system, much to the benefit of corporate and monied interests.
For their new endeavor, Bossie and his merry band are putting aside the outlandish get-Hillary right-wing fodder of the past—nothing on the cat?—and focusing on her years at Foggy Bottom. Yet is there enough red meat—besides Benghazi, Benghazi, and Benghazi—to fill an entire film? Bossie says there is. But given what transpired last time Citizens United declared war on Hillary, who knows what might result when Bossie and his crew go after the former first lady once again?
Bossie says the film is due to be released at the end of 2015—right before the Iowa caucuses.
