For those who follow the endless soap opera of domestic politics, the biggest story of the weekend, if so far unsubstantiated, is the Post's report [8] that the person behind Hillary Clinton's shocking e-mail story leak, is none other than Obama's personal advisor, Valeire Jarrett. "Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett leaked to the press details of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state."
[9]
Whether this story is real or nor is unknown: to be sure, there is nothing the News Corp-owned media outlet would enjoy more than sowing even more discord within the top echelon of the democrat party just as Hillary is reeling from the clintonemail.com scandal, and is on the verge of announcing her candidacy for president. Still, the Post's Edward Klein does provide some circumstantial evidence pointing that there may be more here than meets the skeptical eye.
In addition, at Jarrett’s behest, the State Department was ordered to launch a series of investigations into Hillary’s conduct at Foggy Bottom, including the use of her expense account, the disbursement of funds, her contact with foreign leaders and her possible collusion with the Clinton Foundation.
Six separate probes into Hillary’s performance have been going on at the State Department. I’m told that the e-mail scandal was timed to come out just as Hillary was on the verge of formally announcing that she was running for president — and that there’s more to come.
Naturally, if this story is accurate, then one can expect the Clintons, not only Hillary but certainly Bill - the person who according to many was instrumental in clinching Obama's reelection - to be quite furious with the administration. And indeed that is the case.
Members of Bill Clinton’s camp say the former president suspects the White House is the source of the leak and is furious.
“My contacts and friends in newspapers and TV tell me that they’ve been contacted by the White House and offered all kinds of negative stories about us,” one of Bill’s friends quotes him as saying. “The Obamas are behind the e-mail story, and they’re spreading rumors that I’ve been with women, that Hillary promoted people at the State Department who’d done favors for our foundation, that John Kerry had to clean up diplomatic messes Hillary left behind.”
Then, according to this source, Bill added: “The Obamas are out to get us any way they can.”
So why the feud, and why now, when Clinton is at her weakest and crushing her may sabbotage democrat hopes of sealing the next presidency? Perhaps that's precisely why.
The sabotage is part of an ongoing feud between the two Democrat powerhouses. Last fall, during the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections, Jarrett was heard to complain bitterly that the Clintons were turning congressmen, senators, governors and grass-root party members against Obama by portraying him as an unpopular president who was an albatross around the neck of the party.
Jarrett was said to be livid that most Democrats running for election refused to be seen campaigning with the president. She blamed the Clintons for marginalizing the president and for trying to wrestle control of the Democratic Party away from Obama.
And she vowed payback.
Technically it's hardly the Clintons' fault that Obama's rule has been a disaster, even with the BLS desperately massaging any and all economic data in an attempt to make America's employment, and economic, situation orders of magnitude more soothing than it really is (that said, expect massive downward revisions to labor data once Obama is no longer president, but by then the jobs "recovery" of 2014-2015 it will be long forgotten #timestamp).
Still, it makes for good drama.
Relations have gotten even frostier in the past few months. After the Democrats took a shellacking in the midterms, the White House scheduled a meeting with Hillary Clinton. When she showed up in the Oval Office, she was greeted by three people — the president, Jarrett and Michelle Obama.
With his wife and Jarrett looking on, Obama made it clear that he intended to stay neutral in the presidential primary process — a clear signal that he wouldn’t mind if someone challenged Hillary for the nomination.
“Obama and Valerie Jarrett will go to any lengths to prevent Hillary from becoming president,” a source close to the White House told me. “They believe that Hillary, like her husband, is left of center, not a true-blue liberal.”
If she gets into the White House, they believe she will compromise with the Republicans in Congress and undo Obama’s legacy.
So who does Obama prefer to have as his successor? Well, all signs point to Elizabeth Warren. “With Obama’s approval,” this source continued, “Valerie has been holding secret meetings with Martin O’Malley [the former Democratic governor of Maryland] and [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren. She’s promised O’Malley and Warren the full support of the White House if they will challenge Hillary for the presidential nomination.”
Which also puts in context the Scott Walker's joke from last night's Gridiron Club annual dinner. As the WSJ reported previously [10]: "... Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker, in his remarks, made a series of jokes about Mrs. Clinton — on the email scandal, her personal wealth and her Wall Street connections. He said that that he has Mrs. Clinton’s private email address: “hillaryclinton@wallstreet.com [11].” He added: “The best part about that joke is Elizabeth Warren wrote it for me."
Actually she didn't, but one wonders if not Obama, then certainly Valerie Jarrett wrote it.
