Let’s Look In The Rearview Mirror

by digby

… and play the blame game.

Dover Bitch sent me this interesting little tid-bit from TPM this morning:

The conservative movement may be dead — but one of its key Washington lieutenants is launching a career in electoral politics. Barbara Comstock, who ran oppo research for the RNC and chaired Scooter Libby’s defense fund, is running for the Virginia House of Delegates, from the Washington DC suburbs, according to a website set up by “Friends of Barbara Comstock”. A staffer at the Fairfax County GOP headquarters confirmed to TPMmuckraker that Comstock will challenge incumbent Democrat Margi Vanderhye. Comstock’s resume as a GOP knife-fighter is beyond impressive. She served as a lead investigator for the notoriously partisan House Government Reform committee during the 90s, chaired by GOP congressman Dan Burton. In his 2002 book, Blinded By The Right, David Brock painted a vivid picture of Comstock’s obsessive zeal to bring down the Clintons:

Late night calls from Barbara Comstock were not unusual. She often telephoned with the latest tidbit she had dug up in the thousands and thousands of pages of administration records she pored through frantically as if she were looking for a winning lottery ticket she had somehow mislaid … She once dropped by my house to watch the rerun of a dreadfully dull Whitewater hearing she had sat through all day. Comstock sat on the edge of her chair shaking, and screaming over and over again, “Liars!” As Constock’s leads failed to pan out, and she was unable to catch anyone in a lie, the Republican aide confided that the Clinton scandals were driving her to distraction, to the unfortunate point that she was ignoring the needs of her own family. A very smart lawyer by training and the main breadwinner for her charismatic, happy-go-lucky husband and kids, Comstock remarked that maybe she couldn’t get Hillary’s sins off her brain because “Hillary reminds me of me. I am Hillary.” In this admission, a vivid illustration of a much wider “Hillary” phenomenon can be seen. Comstock knew nothing about Hillary Clinton. Comstock’s “Hillary” was imaginary, a construction composed entirely of the negative points in her own life.

Comstock may have mellowed a bit over the years, but her passion for trench warfare on behalf of the GOP never cooled.

There’s more at the link, including her malevolent campaign against Al Gore, her friendship with Monica Goodling and her stint in the Bush Justice Department. I’ve written about her for years. She’s a prime piece of work.

The Democrats in Washington may not want to play the blame game — but I do. I don’t believe that people like Barbara Comstock should be anywhere near government. Should she run, I would hope the blogs would make it their very special project to help defeat. rewarding that kind of behavior is partially why we are where we are today.

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