Looking Back at Geffen: "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

Now that the primary season is in full swing and we have gotten a sense of where the campaigns are willing to go, I thought it would be interesting to revisit an early chestnut - namely David Geffin's interview with Maureen Dowd.

Do you think this guy was a Hollywood crackpot elite or was there something prescient in his comments?

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“It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t,” Mr. Geffen says.

Can Obambi stand up to Clinton Inc.? “I hope so,” he says, “because that machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective.”

They fell out in 2001, when Mr. Clinton gave a pardon to Marc Rich after rebuffing Mr. Geffen’s request for one for Leonard Peltier. “Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice?” Mr. Geffen says. “Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

“I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they’ll wait until Hillary’s the nominee to use it. “I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat.”

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/opinion/21dowd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



The Lincoln Bedroom.

but I bet his stay was followed by teams of exterminators in hazmat suits doing their best for days on end to fumigate the damn place.

Poor Lincoln Bedroom. :cry:

and, truth be told, Obama probably kissed his ring and knelt at his feet, praising Geffen's obvious greatness and majesty (we know he can do that judging by the Reagan quotes) and Hillary didn't. Ergo, the endorsement followed by David doing his best to stab the Clintons in the back as revenge. Once Hillary gets the nomination, though, you'll see David angling for a way to get back to the White House. He hates being left out of anything.

I don't think with his millions he needs to be included in things he doesn't stand behind. He's got a good head on his shoulders, afterall he is largely responsible for the careers of some of rock's best recording artists, including Joni Mitchell and countless others. He knows what he's doing.

want the unwashed masses in front of his beach mansion.He fought the law for 22 years but finally the people won.

He needs to be in jail for that caper.

oh, that is rich. One doesn't become a billionaire (that's billions and not millions) by being honest. After completely destroying one of his most hated enemies, he gloated over it for weeks and eventually bored LA with it so much he finally jetted off to New York to bore us with it over here.

Geffen may be many things -- a billionaire, a brilliant businessman, a proud and open gay man -- but honest is not one of them.

As for being responsible for the careers, he sold many of them out when he sold off Geffen Records and made a bundle and then turned around and wondered aloud why so many of these artists were angry with him.

Honest is not an adjective one uses with David Geffen if one knows him or has done business with him.

Apparently I didn't know as much about him as I thought.

and worthy of learning a bit more about. If you like, I've given more info on him in subsequent Posts in this Thread. It might be interesting reading for you.

Since Geffen showed his ass regarding the Clintons and soiled himself while endorsing Obama I have wondered if he now has buyer's remorse?

Do you think David had a reaction to Obama's use of McSinger and the whole ex-gay movement thing or is he so wealthy and such an elitist that he just ignores it?

the beach thing was crazy -- and many of us told him so -- but he remembers his Brooklyn roots and doesn't consider himself more or less "better" than anyone else.

He's still not honest, his opinion is worth about as much as any of ours' here on DU, the LA community tends to put up with him rather than genuinely like him (like they do Steven Spielberg) and, being one who loves, loves, loves the limelight, I trust his backstabbing of the Clintons and his endorsement of Obama was more of a "me, me, me" moment than anything else.

Obama will learn --- just as many others have before him -- that once you're no longer "it", David tends to forget you ever existed. And I look forward to him munching on crow and crawling back to the Clintons so he can tell everyone -- again and again and again -- that he's going to the White House to hang out with the President.

:eyes:

From the way you described David he just sounds amoral - just a typical "me machine".

in DC they bend over backwards for those that have Power, in New York it's Money and in LA it's a combo of Fame and Money

It's a weird world and one can't be stupid and navigate it successfully as he's done for many years, but he is, at the end of the day, a "me machine" who believes he's a King Maker (he's not) and is susceptible to the honeyed words and effusive praise of someone like Obama who, as we know, is gifted when it comes to ladling on the charm super-thick.

Hillary, love her or hate her, doesn't really play that game. Her confidence in her abilities to lead and in her intelligence and grasp of the issues really make it difficult for her to adequately kiss up to those with sensitive egos and a need to be treated like an all-powerful Pope or something.

Ergo, Obama's praise earns him a rather useless endorsement from a man people only politely listen to but don't necessarily follow while Hillary's reluctance to kiss his ring earns her a stab in the back from someone who had been one of her husband's staunchest supporters during his Presidency.

I still think he'll come crawling back after she takes the Oath of Office. He really does hate to be left out of anything.

and so does Clinton's refusal to pardon Pelletier. And frankly, that's something that can't be excused away. He may be six kinds of a jackass, and you may know him intimately, but you don't know Obama and you have no idea about why Geffen is endorsing him. You certainly don't know whether or not Obama "knelt at his feet".

and charmed him out of his seat which Hillary refused to do.

The only way you get anywhere with Geffen is by -- figuratively -- kissing his ring and hailing him as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

and perhaps your experience with Geffen is not universal. You may have kissed his ring, doesn't mean that Obama did.

but I do remember my phone ringing off the hook the day David gave his "blessing" to Obama. People were laughing their asses off that he had fallen for Obama's obvious, blatant charm hook, line and sinker. He said all the right things and David ate it up.

I'll trust my unimpeachable sources -- who often know the news in my business before even the news knows! News travels fast in this small circle and is 99.99% right and they've yet to be wrong.

But, hey, Obama got a pretty good fundraiser out of it, didn't he? None of the true heavy hitters were there -- they gave to Clinton -- but it was a nice night to hang out and catch up with old friends.

This is a guy (Mr Dreamworks) who built fences to deny Americans their rights for 22 years! and many a lie he told in the process.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/14200.html


MALIBU, California (AP) - Twenty-two years after entertainment mogul David Geffen promised to let the public onto the beach near his mansion, a walkway was opened and activists savored their victory under the watchful eye of security cameras and a guard.

On Thursday, a small group of beachgoers trouped onto a 3-meter-wide (9-foot-wide) walkway leading to public portions of Carbon Beach, a 1 1/2-kilometer-long (1-mile-long) stretch of sand that runs in front of Geffen's estate.

"I've lived here 12 years and have never been able to cross the street and go to the beach," said Jayna Mims, who visited with her 8-month-old son. "We could see it and smell it, but we couldn't touch it."

The DreamWorks co-founder, who did not attend the ceremony, agreed in 1983 to build a pathway across his property in exchange for permission to remodel his seafront mansion.


Geffen built the paved walk but then refused to unlock its gates, arguing that the beach lacked necessary parking, lifeguards or restrooms to accommodate the public. He and the city of Malibu sued the state Coastal Commission in 2002 over its alleged failure to conduct a proper environmental analysis.

In April, however, Geffen turned over the gate keys to the group Access for All. He also agreed to reimburse California and the nonprofit group $300,000 (?239,500) in legal fees.

:puke:

Too bad that Clintonistas engage in the same historical revisionism that poor old Winston Smith had to do working for the Ministry of Truth.

Instead of simply making ad hominem (or is it poisoning the well?) attacks.

I was wondering if anything he said about the Clintons held water, not whether or not I wanted to vote him to be President.

and he said that in the present tense.