Oops State Dept fails to censor Hillary’s reply email

Trudging through the 7,000 pages of newly released Hillary Clinton emails, I came upon a very revealing series of emails while searching the term, “Rand Paul.” And the State Department made a boo-boo. The original email from Sid Blumenthal includes a large portion of a paragraph that is whited out. However, Sec. Clinton’s reply doesn’t include these redactions.

This email from Blumenthal (and her short reply) gives us a window into the thinking of Sec. Clinton at the time of the 2010 midterm elections when a wave of more conservative Republicans swept into office–including Sen. Rand Paul. Mr. Blumenthal is a journalist who also acted as an adviser to Sec. Clinton.

Here are the redacted bits gathered from Hillary’s reply email. Below, we’ll post the entire email which is fascinating for historical reasons regarding the dynamics and perceptions of the Republican establishment. There are some odd juicy bits like, “Rove is at war with Palin!”

Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle. Boehner has already tried to buy the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure. He is not Gingrich, the natural leader of a “revolution,” riding the crest into power. He is careworn and threadbare, banal and hollow, holding nobody’s enduring loyalty. Boehner is beholden and somewhat scared of his base. He twitches when they make gestures that might undermine his position. His impulse is to hand out money.

Here is the entire email exchange starting with Sec. Clinton’s reply:

From: H <HDR22@clintonemail.com>
To: “‘sbwhoeoPL
Sent: Tue, Nov 2, 2010 23:39:46 GMT+00:00
Subject: Re: H: election day memo on post-midterms. Sid
Thx, as always, for your insights. I’m on a plane on the way to Papua New Guinea for the next 6 hours so pls email me results as you get them. Needless to say, I’m so distressed over all of this.
All the best, H
Original Message
From: sbwhoeop
To: H
Sent: Tue Nov 02 16:55:51 2010
Subject: H: election day memo on post-midterms. Sid
–
From: sbwhoeor
To: H
Sent: Tue Nov 02 16:55:51 2010
Subject: H: election day memo on post-midterms. Sid
CONFIDENTIAL
November 2, 2010
For: Hillary
From: Sid
Re: Post mid-terms strategy
What I hear from Republican sources and elsewhere and what it means for Republican strategy:

1. Rove is telling his donors that the ticket in 2012 is Romney/Barbour. Haley Barbour is Rove’s ally. Together they constitute the heart of the GOP establishment. In a potential Republican administration Barbour would be a new kind of Cheney, but more politically skillful.

Rove at war with Palin. Palin well aware.

[Keep in mind that back in 2010, Palin stepped into the KY race for the Senate to endorse Rand Paul after Dick Cheney had endorsed the establishment choice, whatever his name was…]

2. Rove is at war with Palin. He has told his donors she must be stopped. Palin is well aware. The Politico story filled with anonymous quotes about a murky establishment vs. Palin is about the Death Star of Rove/Barbour. Ironies: Rove doubled down on a base strategy for Bush, galvanizing the right wing, now spun out of his control to PalM. The GOP used the far right and Palin in the mid-terms and now have to kill them in presidential nomination politics. Attacking Palin only builds her stature with the right. She plays instinctively to the base, but can she play a long game against the big boys determined to destroy her?

3. PalM has already aligned Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh on her side. Fox News is being split. Murdoch gave his big donation to the Republican Governors Association, headed by Barbour.

4. Malcolm Hoenlein has been raising money hand over fist for the Republicans through Eric Cantor, now his vehicle. The donors are many of the same US donors to Bibi and Likud. Implications obvious.

[Interestingly, Eric Cantor just endorsed Jeb Bush four days ago. Whenever you see Cantor, think establishment.]

5. The House Republicans have already planned to primary all Senate Republican moderates in the next cycle. Olympia Snowe is a particular target.

6. In the Senate, Jim DeMint continues to be a Fifth Column of the right, allied to the House Republicans, against remaining Senate GOP moderates. He will be reinforced after this election with Rand Paul, et al. Paul, of course, hates Mitch McConnell, and vice versa.

7. McConnell’s statement the day before the mid-terms that the goal of the GOP is to make Obama a one term president is, in fact, their agenda. Everything in the House and Senate will be bent to that end.

8. Can the House Republicans and Senate Republicans restrain themselves in their own interest and McConnell’s stated aim? Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference. They are repelled by his personal behavior. He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle. Boehner has already tried to buy
the members with campaign contributions and committee assignments, which he has already promised to potentially difficult members. His hold is insecure. He is not Gingrich, the natural leader of a “revolution,” riding the crest into power. He is careworn and threadbare, banal and hollow, holding nobody’s enduring loyalty. Boehner is beholden and somewhat scared of his base. He twitches when they make gestures that might undermine his position. His impulse is to hand out money. His aim is to recreate DeLay, Inc, with Jerry Lewis, who will be the new chairman of Appropriations. But Boehner is neither feared nor loved. He’s a would-be DeLay without the whip. He’s the one at the end of the lash. Which means he will be under great pressure and find it hard to sustain a moderate, reasonable strategy of restraint. McConnell is relatively in the same position in the Senate. On the other hand, the Congressional Republicans are vulnerable to a strategy that takes advantage of their internal divisions. Policies/tactics should be calculated to locate GOP fissures, find political space by widening schisms, and ultimately break them apart. This is, emphatically, not a strategy of bipartisanship as Obama has pursued it so far. It is a different and more informed approach.

[End of email from Blumenthal to Sec. Clinton]