Hillary's campaign in crisis: Where is Hillary? Where are Wolfson and Ickes?

Update 2: So we've got conflicting accounts on whether the more incendiary of the statements was doctored. The director of the War Room says the (n-word) is doctored, and gives the reason for the "shit" comment.


Now, take a look at the explanation Kantor gave for the "shit" expletive.


Those two statements don't seem to match up.

Update 3: Fast and furious, Ben Smith at politico has updated his piece, saying he spoke to the editor of the YouTube video. NO ALTERATION, according to the editor.


Update 4: The first clip is "no longer available."
link

It's all a mess, though I must say when "The War Room" came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post's review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state)."

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that "As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. 'And those people are s---!' he declared breathlessly."

NPR also makes clear that WVWV has many strong ties to Hillary Clinton. They point this out not just in the All Things Considered piece but in a comprehensive table that accompanies the story on its website. I was aware of many of WVWV's connections to Hillary that are in the table, but some of them were new to me. Here are highlights from the table:


NPR notes that a few people in leadership positions at WVWV have some ties to Obama, but the vast majority are linked to Hillary Clinton. For example, in the NPR table I count donations of $33,800 to Hillary Clinton and just $3,600 to Barack Obama.

It gets worse. In a secondary story on its website, written by Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting, NPR uncovers some serious conflicts of interest at WVWV that could be a violation of nonprofit law, according to charity watchdogs.

In 2006, WVWV paid Integral Resources Inc. nearly $800,000 for phone services. That company's CEO and founder is Ron Rosenblith, who is married to WVWV president Page Gardner. NPR notes that the contract represents 16% of the nonprofit's budget.