Once upon a time there was a cottage industry set up to create conspiracy theories, (“fake news”) against Hillary Rodham Clinton that has lasted for decades. She is the poster gal of the ‘liberal,’ that the right wingers love to hate.
One of these conspiracy theories centered around President Bill Clinton’s Deputy Counsel Vince Foster’s death by suicide, but many on the right were somehow convinced that he had been murdered and that Mrs. Hillary Clinton had been having an affair with him. Both right wing claims have been debunked numerous times but if a poll were conducted today, a good percentage of republicans would be shown to still believe these lies.
There was an investigation into his death in 1993 which was completed in 1994. But guess who picked up the banner to further investigate the death of Vince Foster for at least 3 years. It was none other than the current nomination for the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
As per the July 1, 1994 Washington Post report by David Von Drehle and Howard Schneider, “Special counsel Robert B. Fiske Jr. concluded that Foster’s death in Fort Marcy Park last July was a suicide. The Fiske investigation involved four lawyers, five physicians, seven FBI agents, approximately 125 witnesses; also DNA tests, microscopes and lasers. All that effort resolved many of the lingering mysteries surrounding Foster’s death. ”
“Monday, July 19, brought another Journal editorial. Foster told his sister he was not ready to see a psychiatrist; instead, he called his doctor in Little Rock, who prescribed anti-depressant medication. Foster apparently took one tablet later that night. He spent the day in his office, mostly with the door closed, wrapping up odds and ends: thank-you notes, his father’s estate, the family bills.”
(As per Mr. Nussbaum)”He ate lunch on the couch of his office. Then, about 1 p.m., Vince Foster picked up his suit coat but not his briefcase and breezed from the office saying, “I’ll be back.” His car was seen in the Fort Marcy parking lot about three hours later, his suit jacket neatly folded on the passenger seat. At about 5:30 p.m. his body was discovered.”
“Foster had shot himself once in the mouth with an old revolver.”
“The conspiracy theories and talk show fantasies caused a lot of pain to Foster’s family and his friends hoped it was finally over. Fiske’s report “is what people anticipated” in Little Rock, according to Cliff Baker, artistic director of the Arkansas Repertory Theater, where Foster once served as board chairman. “It is not something new to discover that Washington can dash a lot of vision and hope.”
Here’s the rest of the story…
On September 5, 2018, Sean Wilentz, a Princeton history professor and author of, “No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding,” for the NY Times penned the following report, “Why Was Kavanaugh Obsessed With Vince Foster?” (“He needs to explain why he followed right-wing conspiracy theories about the White House aide’s suicide.”)
“Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, has testified to the Senate that “a good judge must be an umpire — a neutral and impartial arbiter.” He and his supporters want us to believe that he would be such an umpire on the Supreme Court. But does his record support him? The refusal of the Senate Judiciary Committee majority to share thousands of highly pertinent documents naturally raises skepticism. But there is plenty already in the public record about which Judge Kavanaugh has yet to be held accountable.”
“Anticipating the imminent publication of Kenneth Starr’s memoir of the Clinton impeachment, I looked into Judge Kavanaugh’s files in the Office of Independent Counsel records, housed in the National Archives. What I discovered sheds light on how Mr. Kavanaugh made his way in his early career, and how he flagrantly breached his role as a neutral public servant and followed the imperatives of a political operative.”
“Mr. Kavanaugh served under Mr. Starr as associate independent counsel between 1994 and 1997, and then again in 1998. Although not yet a judge, he was charged with investigating impartially what Attorney General Janet Reno deemed substantial specific accusations of presidential misconduct arising from a failed real estate investment known as Whitewater.”
“Judge Starr’s predecessor as independent counsel, Robert Fiske, had looked into unfounded claims that the White House counsel Vincent Foster, who committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park in 1993, had in fact been murdered as part of an alleged White House cover-up related to Whitewater. After a thorough investigation, Mr. Fiske concluded in 1994 that there was nothing to the conspiracy theories and that Mr. Foster, who suffered from depression, had indeed killed himself. Official accounts by the National Park Service in 1993 and by a Republican congressman, William Clinger, the ranking member of the House Government Affairs Committee in 1994, came to an identical conclusion, as did a bipartisan report of the Senate Banking Committee early in 1995.”
“But shortly after the Senate report was released, Mr. Kavanaugh convinced Mr. Starr to reopen what he called a “full-fledged” investigation of the Foster matter, telling his colleagues, as justification, that “we have received allegations that Mr. Foster’s death related to President and Mrs. Clinton’s involvement” in Whitewater and other alleged scandals.”
“Who were these unnamed, presumably reliable sources on whose word the case should be reopened? Mr. Kavanaugh’s files in the National Archives make clear that they were some of the most ludicrous hard-right conspiracy-mongers of the time.”
“One was Reed Irvine, a self-appointed debunker of the “fake news” of mainstream media. Another was Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, an English author of a book entitled “The Secret Life of Bill Clinton” that posited that the Oklahoma City bombing was an F.B.I. plot gone awry. A third was Christopher Ruddy, today the chief executive of Newsmax and confidant of President Trump, but at the time on the payroll of the right-wing tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife to promote conspiracies.”
“As inventive as they were vindictive, these partisans concocted all sorts of wild theories to explain why Mr. Foster could not have killed himself. According to one of Mr. Kavanaugh’s sources, Mr. Foster had been working for the National Security Agency and was being blackmailed by the Israelis over a secret Swiss bank account. Carpet fibers had been found on Mr. Foster’s clothing, which was proof positive that he was murdered, his body wrapped in a carpet and then dumped. Another charged that “long blond hairs” on Mr. Foster’s clothing pointed to a cover-up.”
“Mr. Kavanaugh noted in various memos that he personally believed that Mr. Foster had indeed committed suicide — “my thoughts, not the Office’s position,” he clarified at one point. But he did not file away the harebrained theories; instead, he apparently felt obligated to address the conspiracy-mongers’ already disproved fantasies. And for nearly three years at a cost of $2 million he aggressively followed up. He investigated the Swiss bank account connection, down to examining Mr. Foster’s American Express bills for flights to Switzerland. He meticulously examined the White House carpets, old and new. (By now, Mr. Foster had been dead 4 years.) He sent investigators in search of follicle specimens from Mr. Foster’s bereft, blond, teenage daughter. (“We have Foster’s hair,” one agent working for Mr. Kavanaugh reported in triumph.)”(This is an example where he says politically correct things but his actions belie his words.)
Gronda Morin 
I have not been following the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, for initially it was my belief that he would be confirmed even if they proved that he killed Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy bare-handed. But, the more I am hearing, and now upon reading this post, I begin to think that perhaps there is some slight chance that even the republicans in the Senate must surely wake up and realize that this man is not qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice for one year, let alone the possible 25-30 years he could potentially serve, given his (relatively) young age. Tell me, my friend … is there some hope? The Vince Foster fiasco is ludicrous … and it cost the taxpayers $2 million? Anything to try to burn the Clintons, eh? Thanks for this info … I’m going back to read some of the others now.
Hugs!!!
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Dear Jill,
I do perceive a method to the Democrats handling of this case to date. There’s little that can be done to stop this train and that’s why the Republican members are rushing this process.
If those 2 pro-choice republican leaders Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins can be persuaded that this guy is an artful dodger who will work to deny a women’s rights to legal abortions despite precedent via the 13 abortion cases that are scheduled for Supreme Court review in 2018-2019, then they will be may decide to reverse their current stance to back Brett Kavanaugh. It has to be politically untenable for them and the nervous democrats in republican territory to vote in favor of this nomination, once they face the harm they could / will be doing to the women in their states.
This is miracle territory. Start praying even if you don’t normally do so.
Hugs, Gronda
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From what I have read of the hearings, I cannot see how anybody with a conscience could even consider voting for Kavanaugh. Oh yes, I forgot … there aren’t too many of those people with consciences floating about the Capitol.
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Hugs!!!
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And then there’s the emails released by Senator Leahy that Kavanaugh committed perjury. Argh.
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Dear Kim,
The US Senate Judiciary Committee democratic members are hoping to persuade the two republican pro-choice senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. If they can be persuaded that he is a liar and that he will very likely deprive women access to legal abortions, they will be politically hampered from supporting him.
The polls are giving them some wiggle room.
The latest polls, show that the public is divided on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, with 38 percent of Americans saying he should be confirmed by the Senate, and 39 percent saying he should not be.
More Americans believe the Supreme Court should not make it more difficult for women to get abortions, the ABC/Post poll says, and 59 percent of Americans believe Kavanaugh should publicly state his opinion on the matter before he being confirmed. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican senator who Democrats have targeted as a potential ally to block Kavanaugh’s nomination, met with Kavanaugh last month and said he believed Roe v. Wade settled the issue.
He was misleading Sen. Collins. This has to be obvious to her constituents.
Hugs, Gronda
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I feel Lisa and Susan will fold and vote to confirm. It’s party politics as always. I did hear something from a woman Democrat from Alaska saying something about native Alaskans rights , but I can’t remember what it was.
I sure do like Cory Booker and Kamala Harris
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Dear Mary Plumbago,
Thanks for this important comment about native Alaskans because they are up in arms over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. This point has to be brought home to their Senator Lisa Murkowski.
I’ll be doing a blog on this. The Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris have been the superstars of this hearing. But Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of RI and Senator Mazie Hirono of HI have also done a commendable job.
Hugs, Gronda
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Beware the obsessive. History and the more objective examination of the records have revealed another Jim Garrison and not the ‘crusader’ of Oliver Stone’s film.
Kavanaugh along with Starr had similar traits. Folk not suitable for such an important office
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Dear Roger,
That’s what is frightening about this choice to be the next Supreme Court justice which is a lifetime appointment as he is an ideologue, where objective judicial analysis is not possible.
Hugs, Gronda
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This is true. All which can be hoped for is that the weight of the office will subsume the ideology.
Sometimes there is only Hope.
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