Clinton-bashing from a surprising source

If it were coming from anyone but a writer with a solid reputation like Barbara Ehrenreich, I would probably just dismiss it out of hand. As it is, I'm not at all convinced that she has given a meaningful picture of Hillary Clinton's role in the group she discusses.

But Hillary's Nasty Pastorate The Nation Online 03/19/08 is at least worth paying attention to. At the minimum, this would be a legitimate question for reporters to ask and investigate, if they can take their minds off burning issues like how her laugh sounds or where she may have been at the moment Monica Lewinsky was visiting her husband.

Ehrenreich discusses a religious group that calls itself The Family that has at least a significant presence in Congress through its adherents, mostly political and religious conservatives. But Clinton has also actively participated in their activities.

She writes, "Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a 'cult,' but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's 'Family,' which is organized into 'cells'- their term - and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. "

But until I learn more details about this group, I can't help but wonder if Ehrenreich hasn't momentarily blundered into Jonah Goldberg territory with her characterizations of this group: "the sinister heart of the international right"; "the fascist-leaning Family"; Clinton "was promoted to ... the Family's 'most elite cell,' the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast"; "a collection of powerful right-wing politicos".

Yes, she even says, "In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs."

Everybody has a bad day now and then. And because of Ehrenreich's solid reputation, as I said, I wouldn't just dismiss it. But I'm not buying Ehrenreich's packaging of it, either. There's no indication in the article, for instance, that she even asked Clinton or her campaign about Clinton's role in the group. Maybe she just attends a boring Bible study group with these folks to moderate her image or to just find out what kind of twist they put on the Christianity they advertise so insistently.

And at least on the following, I think Ehrenreich fell into one of the favorite press corps for Vile Clinton:

Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including New Age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.

Surely there are less melodramatic possibilities for this association of Clinton's than that it "drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right".

Tags: christian right, hillary clinton