Carville Cites Betsy McCaughey's Article in The New Republic as Proof of a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
By Heather Monday Sep 28, 2009 10:00am
From John King's State of the Union, James Carville cites the tobacco industry using Betsy McCaughey to plant a story at The New Republic as an example of the "vast right wing conspiracy" that President Obama is facing. Of course Mary Matalin pretends she has no idea who Betsy McCaughey is.
KING: All right. Let's stay for a moment on the -- because I said we would mention it after the break, and Mary brought up that term that we came to know during the Clinton years -- the Clinton presidential years, the vast right-wing conspiracy. It was on his mind.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY: Your wife famously talked about the "vast right-wing conspiracy" targeting you.
GREGORY: As you look at this opposition on the right to President Obama, is it still there?
CLINTON: Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was because America has changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARVILLE: Again, this week, there was breathtaking proof that there was a vast right-wing conspiracy. It was revealed in Rolling Stone that Philip Morris paid -- paid a woman named Betsy McCaughey to plant a piece in The New Republic, all right?
This was -- this is not -- in other words, this was a tobacco company paying for a piece printed in a so-called respectable magazine.
Now, I don't know that, in The New Republic in 2006, that, oh, gee, the whole thing was, kind of, a mistake after they went through all of that. I don't know if The New Republic has called the president to apologize, but I suspect, as we go through, we're going see more and more instances of this.
And every Clinton person, when the president told us the stuff with Taylor Branch, it felt good. And you know what really made us feel good, is Bill Clinton's doing a whole lot better than The New Republic is. They're sitting there at the CGI, and everybody went "Yes." That was a great moment to be a Clinton person.
MATALIN: I don't even know what he's talking about, but I'll say...
