CNN.com posted an article by its reporters Dan Merica and Eric Bradner on Wednesday headlined "How #MeToo could knock the Clintons off the 2018 map." Their own history of dealing with allegations of sexual harassment and assault could haunt Democrats in the midterms. I tweeted it and said "Will this make CNN's airwaves?"
Nexis searching for "Clinton" and "campaign," as well as "Clinton" and "sexual harassment" over the last four days turned up many mentions of the Russia probe. CNN made a few mentions of Hillary Clinton's Facebook apology -- posted in the midst of the State of the Union hubbub -- for tolerating sexual harassment by her faith adviser Burns Strider. But they couldn't find time on television for any problems for the Clintons on the campaign trail. Merica and Bradner reported the Clintons remain popular with the party base....
But the couple's history with sexual harassment allegations -- most notably during the former president's affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and more recently over Hillary Clinton's decision not to fire a staffer accused of sexual harassment during her 2008 campaign -- may make it harder for campaigns in swing districts and states to fully embrace them, strategists involved in key races said....
"Hillary we could probably use in targeted ways, and I think you've seen her out there and she has a dedicated base of support," said one Democratic strategist involved in a competitive 2018 Senate race who did not want to be identified for fear of upsetting the Clintons.
"The Bill question gets very tricky," the strategist said, in a reference to the former president's sexual misconduct. "We have to mean what we say: Zero tolerance means zero tolerance."
CNN loves anonymous sources when they say damaging thing about Trump, but not as much when they're damaging the Clintons. You have to shake your head at the "bravery" of anonymous sources whose primary reason for anonymity is "fear of upsetting the Clintons." The source could be a CNN Democrat, like David Axelrod. But then there's an operative "with deep ties to the Clintons" forecasting the descent of their popularity:
But a Democratic operative with deep ties to the Clintons admitted that 2018 could be a year in which their power in Democratic politics wanes.
"I will be the first to admit that it makes it a little harder to embrace someone who has either been fairly or unfairly seen as someone who has not taken women's claims are seriously as they should have and that would be Hillary Clinton," said the operative.
But, the operative added, it will likely impact Bill Clinton even more.
"It is going to be far more difficult for him. He is going to be in less demand," the operative said, adding that any event where a candidate who has seized on the #MeToo movement held with the former president "would be seen to be as hypocritical."
CNN bosses find all this talk depressing. They're much happier to push their fire-and-brimstone sermons about "demagogic authoritarians" working for Russia in the White House.
