THE PLANK FEBRUARY 12, 2008
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Again, not really. But I was gobsmacked by this bit from a Slate article by Guy Branum about Chelsea and the press:
Back in 1997, as a surly student journalist at U.C. Berkeley, I
made a couple of comments about the use of Chelsea as a prop for
controversy-free photo ops when her parents dropped her off for her
first semester of college at Stanford. Scraping for something to say
about the upcoming football game between Cal and Stanford, I criticized
my school's rival for pouring resources into the circus surrounding
Chelsea's arrival, suggesting that they were more concerned with
maintaining a pristine, photogenic student body than educating as large
and diverse a population as possible. I then encouraged Berkeley
students to share our less refined ways by trashing the campus,
including Ms. Clinton. Sure, my line "show your spirit on Chelsea's
bloodied carcass" was over the top and poorly chosen. And then the AP
wire snipped my column's line, "Chelsea Clinton represents the Stanford
ethos of establishment worship which must be subverted and destroyed,"
into "Chelsea Clinton … must be destroyed." (The column is no longer
available online.)The comments made their way to Mrs. Clinton,
who asked the Secret Service to search my apartment and quiet me down,
according to Chris Von Holt, one of the nice agents who visited. The
Clintons later denied any involvement, but I did manage to get the agent's claim otherwise on a tape recorder I had with me. The message to 21-year-old me and the rest of the press was clear: Stay off Chelsea. [Emphasis added.]
As several people argued in comments on my last post on this topic, Hillary's just being an appropriately overprotective mother. But how many Scorpio Moms have the Secret Service at their disposal?
--Jason Zengerle
9 comments
What's the big deal? The guy threatened the President's daughter. Of course he got a visit from the Secret Service. <b>show your spirit on Chelsea's bloodied carcass" </b> and he gave the location of Chelsea's dorm. There is a reason why that column is no longer online - It would show that poor wounded Guy Branum sounded like an unhinged loon.
- bdespain1
February 12, 2008 at 12:42pm
The two are completely different subjects Jason. Abuse/intimidation of the press by Clinton (or, more likley, the SOP of the Secret Service) hsa NOTHING TO DO WITH Schuster -- write about it if you wish, but don't make the nexus. If Schuster had claimed Obama "pimped out" his kids on that sweet Iowa Christmas commercial, there'd be no "semi-defense...not really...mumblejumble."
And again, what is the point of "The Stump" if "The Plank" is going to be so devoid of policy discussions? As I mentioned, there's a credit card reform bill pending which would substantively change (I'd say improve) the lives of tens of millions of Americans and not a peep of coverage (even questions to the candidates). Jason, why can't you find time for it?
- Lymon1
February 12, 2008 at 12:49pm
To me, the gobsmacky bit is not that the president's wife might sick the Secret Service on someone who publicly wrote about killing their daughter. The gobsmacky bit is Hillary's denial, which apparently was a lie. Does the woman ever actually tell the truth? What possible harm or embarrassment could have come from admitting, "Why, yes, I did ask the Secret Service to look into a possibly crazed person who described my daughter's murder"?
- rhubarbs
February 12, 2008 at 12:49pm
I also found the tone of Guy Branum's article wholly wrong. He doesn't seem to realize that threatening the President's daughter is an actual crime. Acting the whiny victim (Hillary picked on me) is just too much. Guy just got a visit from the Secret service to make sure he wasn't a total loon and was asked to stay away from Chelsea. I would expect a similar response to a comment made about one of the Bush daughters.
- bdespain1
February 12, 2008 at 12:49pm
Rhubarb the actual denial came from the Secret Service itself. It's pretty standard practice to investigate such threats. The fact the Branum claims to have the agent investigating stating it was Hillary who requested it isn't too believable to me. Why? Because investigating field agents are completely seperate from those with first family duty. There would be no way for that agent to know if Hilary said anything. More likely Guy misconstrued something (or took a comment the wrong way). I notice that he hasn't posted the recording as an MP3 to support his case.
Here's a guy that encouraged students to murder the President's daughter and gave the location of her Stanford dorm and he's gonna play the victim here?
- bdespain1
February 12, 2008 at 1:19pm
BD, thanks. I stand corrected. I had misread the original Slate piece, then. Sorry, Hillary!
But I never thought that there was anything wrong with the Secret Service taking this kid's column seriously. I'm glad they responded, and I'm glad they seem to have made a lasting impression on a young journalist who apparently needed to learn a little perspective, and I'm glad the Secret Service showed restraint in walking away, rather than prosecuting, once it was clear they were dealing with a stupid kid rather than a dangerous nut.
- rhubarbs
February 12, 2008 at 2:15pm
No, there aren't many mothers who have the Secret Service at our disposal. But if I did, I'd certainly use it.
Besides, is the President of the United States supposed to make a personal visit whenever someone threatens or incites violence against his daughter? That would be an interesting strategy for his opposition party....
Can we get over the protective parent thing? I'm not voting for her in the primary, but her willingness to protect her daughter is one of the most admirable things about her. Move on to real policy issues, please.
- asnevitt
February 12, 2008 at 4:26pm
lymon1, if you want to see more meaty stuff, less nitpicky trivial nonsense, you can continue to complain of course, but my recommendation is to visit other blogs. There are tons of them, but one of my favorites for depth of analysis is Obsidian Wings: obsidianwings.blogs.com
Of course, like any blog, they cover what interests them, but good luck.
- psantillana
February 12, 2008 at 4:59pm
PS -- Obsidian taint bad, but it's one guy with his biases. As a multi-decade subscriber of TNR, I'm not happy with this direction and figure it's worth fighting the good fight (I didn't move to Canada in 2004 for similar reasons!)
- Lymon1
February 12, 2008 at 6:28pm