As Ricky Ricardo used to say.....'splain.
Judicial Watch has obtained the first batch of documents dealing with Hillary Clinton's White House years and her Health Care Reform Plan.
Some interesting things also as the sub headline on Judicial Watch says "Internal Memos Detail Creation of Government “Interest Group Database” to Collect Personal Data on Health Care Debate Activists".
These records released by Judicial Watch were obtained from the approximately 13,000 records made publicly available by the Clinton Library. The National Archives admits there may be an additional 3,022,030 textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes related to the Task Force that are being withheld indefinitely from the public. On November 2, 2007 Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Archives to force the release of all the Task Force records.
“These documents paint a disturbing picture of how Hillary Clinton and the Clinton administration approached health care reform – secrecy, smears, and the misuse of government computers to track private and political information on citizens,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “There are millions more documents that the Library has yet to release. The Clintons continue to play games and pretend they have nothing to do with this delay. The Clintons should get out of the way and authorize the release of these records now.”
One of the highlighted memos shows us a very troubling aspect of Hillary Clinton's "plan" at the time:
• A February 5, 1993 Draft Memorandum from Alexis Herman and Mike Lux detailing the Office of Public Liaison’s plan for the health care reform campaign. The memorandum notes the development of an “interest group data base” detailing whether or not organizations “support(ed) us in the election.” The database would also track personal information about interest group leaders, such as their home phone numbers, addresses, “biographies, analysis of credibility in the media, and known relationships with Congresspeople.”
Take a look at what they have found so far and this is but the tip of the iceberg.
Ed Morrisey, here and here, and Michelle Malkin are already all over these documents, so you can go read what they have found while I play catch up and continue reading.
I would also like to know who P.S. is, that sent the Memeorandum called "A Critique of Our Plan", on June 18, 1993, where this P.S. stated "I can think of parallels in wartime, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy…Is the public really ready for this?... none of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…"
I have no doubt that the Clinton's will move heaven and earth to prevent the release of the additional 3,022,030 textual records, 2,884 pages of electronic records, 1,021 photographs, 3 videotapes and 3 audiotapes related to the Task Force, until after November 2008, but from the 13,000 already publicly available, Hillary Clinton has some 'splainin to do.
You can also keep up with Judicial Watch's pursuit of all relevant documents here.
Captain's Quarters brings up a very good point here about the Rockefeller memo.
And remember, this isn't a political action commitee or an electoral office campaign. This was the elected government of the United States discussing how it would steamroller opposition to nationalizing an entire industry by smearing them and by avoiding discussion of the policy itself. It's an amazingly appalling piece of work, and West Virginians should ask themselves why Rockefeller continues to represent them. Voters nationwide should ask themselves if they want to return the Clintons to power and once again risk this kind of autocratic abuse of power.
Hillary? We are waiting............
[Update] Thanks to a reader, suek, for pointing us to Suitably Flip who has cracked the P.S. mystery.
Update: I think I've cracked the cipher of the intials "P.S."
Paul Starr (born May 12, 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.
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In 1993, Starr was the senior advisor for President Bill Clinton's proposed health care reform plan.
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